May 31, 2011 by Steve Kuperberg
June, the graduation month, brings with it both nostalgia and anticipation of a journey ahead. Each of the many diplomas that graduating students will receive this month represents a significant body of work. For the graduating students, as well as the network of those who supported them, it is a milestone and an important achievement that is worth commemorating.
Although the student inhabitants on campuses change each year, for those who will return—and for those who will be arriving to campus for the first time this fall—graduation is also an opportunity to consider what they will want for their legacy. If part of what a student wants to achieve during his campus tenure is to contribute positively to the campus environment regarding Israel, thanks to those who have come before, he will have a high bar to surpass.
Consider the following:
As reported this year in Israel Campus Beat, at the same time that “Israel Apartheid Week” failed to reach beyond its existing base of perhaps a dozen US campuses, Israel Peace Week events reached over 50 campuses; Israel fairs, Israel fests, Israel movie series, Nights to Honor Israel, and other celebrations of Israel take place on hundreds more.
This spring, the California State University system, representing 400,000 students on 23 campuses, announced its intention to join more than 50 colleges and universities around the country that have either opened, reinstated, or reduced barriers to study abroad in Israel since 2005. This year, campus administrators at the University of Vermont, the University of Southern California, DePaul University, and elsewhere have steadfastly and repeatedly expressed their opposition to boycotts or divestment from Israel, and, to the contrary, their support for Israel. As a sign of the times, whereas last year two campuses passed non-binding resolutions calling for divestment from Israel, this year, not one has done so despite attempts by Israel detractors on many campuses across the country. To the contrary, in just the past few months, student governments at the University of Indiana and the University of Oklahoma passed resolutions expressing their support for a strong US-Israel alliance; student leaders, including those at UCLA, the University of Florida, and elsewhere, joined similar public statements in support of Israel.
These examples are just a small part of the legacy that has been left in the past year. Many campuses across the country, from the University of Michigan to Washington University in St. Louis, have seen the emergence of Israel business investment clubs and business courses on Israeli entrepreneurship. And as reported in a study conducted last year by Brandeis University’s Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies—as a follow-up to a study that the Israel on Campus Coalition first conducted in 2005—in a five-year span, the total number of courses available on the study of Israel nationwide increased by almost 70 percent.
Theose facts are important not just because they reflect the failure of Israel’s campus detractors, but because they do not happen by chance, and they cannot be taken for granted. Campus Israel supporters work diligently and tirelessly, year-round, to promote a positive campus climate regarding Israel; today's positive trends are the fruit of a tremendous investment of time, effort, and resources by a community of dedicated campus Israel activists. They are a testament to the legacy of the campus Israel network.
Each year, campus Israel supporters build on what has come before them. Each cohort of campus Israel supporters must nurture, sustain, and establish new relationships with campus decision-makers; they must broaden the base of understanding of and support for Israel among their campus communities. As eyes look ahead to September and the significant hurdles Israel and the global community may face, one can already see some of the challenges, and opportunities, that the next cohort of campus Israel supporters will face. How our community prepares to lead and address those challenges and opportunities will shape a future legacy.
Congratulations, graduates. For the rest of us, the work has only just begun.