June 1, 2009
The ICC is pleased to present this essay by Geoffrey Levin of Michigan State University, who was selected as one of the two winners of the
ICC Best Practices Contest by the ICC's Steering Committee. The award was presented in the ICC Spring Consultation May 21, 2009.
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Within the Michigan State University student body, feelings toward Israel are mixed; there are many pro-Israel students and many anti-Israel students, while the vast majority of the student population is totally ambivalent and uninvolved. A big problem we have, however, is that many of the pro-Israel students feel they lack the knowledge and experience to take a proactive role in Israel campus advocacy, and many of them do not even feel comfortable enough to talk about the issues and spread their pro-Israel feelings to friends. Many students, including many Birthright alumni, are passionate about Israel but feel that they lack the knowledge to talk in-depth about Israel and the problems it faces today; other students who are educated about Israel do not know how to go about advocating on campus. With that in mind, I worked on a three-pronged approach to increase advocacy on campus and to empower these two types of students to take action on campus Israel advocacy.
Before starting our two initiatives this semester, we had to first focus on countering the intense and inflammatory anti-Israel activities that sprung up in January after the war against Hamas. The pro-Palestinian group, SAFE, held numerous small events, including "die-ins," weekly street protests, "Gaza Info" speakers, a "Road to Apartheid Night," and rides to see Norman Finkelstein in Ann Arbor. We held four of our own Gaza info sessions around campus, some with Israeli professors (one cosponsored with other student groups), and designed and distributed "Gaza Fact Flyers." We also sent students to monitor their events, hand out flyers, and question the inaccuracies of their speakers.
Even before the war in December, I knew that we needed to take a more proactive role on campus. We had to show students that Israel is a real place with real people, and we could do that by planning Israeli cultural events. Along with our Emerson Fellow, I founded Team Israel Programming Committee (TIPC), MSU's first Israeli culture club. We recruited a twelve-member board, and our first event was a successful Israeli Culture Night featuring Krav Maga lessons, belly dancing lessons, Nargillah, Shesh-Besh, and fresh Israeli kabobs.
To get more students involved, I designed a two-part initiative called ICAT, Israel Campus Advocacy Training. ICAT Aleph was a five-week initiative focused on 20 students who had not taken Israel-related classes before, and had not been in Israel for an extended period of time. Birthright alumni, who often show a lot of passion for Israel and want to be more educated about Israel, were targeted specifically. Aleph taught these students about how to understand and talk about the conflict and included a course about writing letters to newspapers. The goal was to make the students feel comfortable advocating for Israel in formal and informal settings. A stipend granted at the end ensured commitment. Session titles included "Perceptions of Israel," "The History," "Politics Today," "The Case for Israel," and "The Closing Argument."
The goal of ICAT Bet was to get students active in Israel leadership and planning. We broke the 15 students into five groups, and each group had to plan at least one Israel event in 2009. The four required training sessions were "Targeting your Audience/Event Brainstorming," "Applying for Grants and Resources," "Advocacy Lesson with Max Stettner of Hasbara," and "Getting the Job Done." Two groups have already successfully run their events, Israel Shabbat and Tel Aviv 100 Party, while the other three groups, Israel Fest, Israeli Movies and Music, and Israeli Athletics initiative are planning events next semester. This semester, we succeeded in countering anti-Israel activity, trained a new generation of pro-Israel leaders, and taught MSU the beauty of Israeli culture.