Jewish day school students who continue their education at secular colleges are well prepared for the academics but not so much for the anti-Israel hostility they encounter on campus. Anne Gontownik, a long-time leader in Israel advocacy, and co-chair of Englewood’s Ahavath Torah Israel Engagement Committee, organized a parlor meeting on January 5 to gain community support for a program to bridge that gap in the students’ high school education. A team from StandWithUs, an international nonprofit that works with students to counter anti-Israel rhetoric and present positive images of Israel, spoke about a one-day boot camp the high school division has developed to train seniors in Jewish day schools. The workshops give them tools and strategies to use in conversations about Israel with fellow students who may be less than supportive of Israel, indifferent or oblivious. Gontownik, who is a regional board member of StandWithUs, said she wanted people in the community to understand what the training can accomplish, so they will proactively bring the idea to their children’s high school administrators.
Shahar Azani, northeast executive director of StandWithUs, formerly an attorney and Israeli diplomat, gave the audience a taste of the boot camp by describing one held at The Frisch School in Paramus, New Jersey. Azani said he started by giving the students a big surprise. All they knew in advance was that a speaker was coming to talk about Israel. When he began to address them, he used all the inflammatory language he could—from the other side. He pretended to be with the boycott-Israel movement and told students they should show the apartheid Israeli regime the right path. Then he asked for questions. And got mostly shocked silence. That was the point, he explained. “They don’t know how to react to that kind of language, because they haven’t been exposed to it, and we have to teach them how to face it and address it.” The students then broke into groups with different themes. After training by StandWithUs leaders, each gave a four minute “Ted Talk” about how they would express themselves in a conversation on the topic.
Anyone who hasn’t been on a campus in a few decades may not understand the challenge. Miri Kornfeld, national executive director of the StandWithUs high school division, and a 2011 UCLA graduate, said she was completely blindsided by anti-Israel groups when she was a freshman. Educated in a committed Jewish home in Denver, Colorado, where she attended day school, celebrated Shabbat and holidays, and traveled to Israel with her family, she was taught to love Israel but never how to explain it.
On Yom Hashoah during her freshman year, she walked to class and saw a large structure with a map of Israel on it. Returning from class, thinking with excitement it was about the Shoah, she took a closer look, and saw that it was being called an apartheid wall, and the map claimed Israel was stolen land. Horrific images were placed on the wall, like Anne Frank with a swastika on her arm. Students were chanting rewritten fairy tales like “Fee Fee Fo Fum; I want to drink the blood of Palestinian children.”
“I did the only thing I could think of to do. I cried,” Kornfeld related. “I knew everything was a lie but I didn’t know what to do.”
She knew what to do next. She became involved in the campus pro-Israel group, rose through the ranks and ultimately joined StandWithUs. Now she works with high school students to give them the training she didn’t have to talk about Israel. But more than that, she talks to high school students who may not have a connection with Israel and inspires them to become more committed and prepared for what they will encounter on the college campus.
In a follow-up interview, Kornfeld elaborated on how she teaches students to use the ARM technique with opponents: Acknowledge-Reframe-Message. Acknowledge the issue, reframe it by using the opposition’s words but re-taking ownership of key universal terms, and deliver the message. Kornfeld tells students to use active listening, a concept that requires the listener to restate the thought he is hearing to show the speaker he is paying attention, but then ask a question to engage without conflict. She tells students not to repeat negative claims about Israel to avoid reinforcing them. Kornfeld says to acknowledge with a comment like, “It’s interesting you say that; let’s discuss it a little bit more.” Or “‘I wonder where you heard that claim?”
Reframe an issue by using the same phrases the other student is using like “social justice,” and explain how social justice is alive and well in Israel. Tell him or her Israel is investing billions in Arab education. Talk about Jewish refugees from Arab countries. And deliver a final, upbeat message: Condemn hate. Peace and justice for both.
Azani said another purpose in training students to defend themselves and Israel is to prepare them to take an active role in bringing pro-Israel views to their schools. He talked about being denied a chance to speak at a high school in Beverly Hills, when he was located there, until he got to know a group of students who asked the principal to invite him. Only then, when the request came from within, did the principal agree.
StandWithUs wants to build the next generation of pro-Israel leaders to fight back against the forces trying to “plant seeds of poison in the next generation towards Israel.” Azani said the anti-Israel forces attack on several fronts to strangle Israel economically and delegitimize her. They try to align themselves with any group that sees itself as wronged and piggyback onto their causes. They infiltrated rallies protesting police brutality against black youth by equating Israeli brutality against Arab youth. Recent protests against tuition hikes at CUNY schools were hijacked by students trying to blame “Zionist money.” Artists traveling to Israel have reported getting thousands of messages on social media telling them not to go and only a few hundred, at best, supporting them. “We have to take back the notion of social justice,” Azani emphasized. “That language doesn’t belong solely to them.”
Gontownik sees implementation of the one-day boot camp at Jewish high schools as part of a broader community-wide commitment to strengthen Israel advocacy in the curriculum. She said the schools vary widely in what they offer. Several educators attended the meeting. Rabbi Howard Jachter, who teaches a course on Israel advocacy at Torah Academy of Bergen County (TABC), wrote in a follow-up email interview, “My technique is to show the students anti-Israel messaging and how to respond. The testing is rigorous and students emerge with the knowledge they need to respond. They learn the full pro-Israel narrative of the legitimacy of the state of Israel.” Rabbi Jachter was very positive about the potential for StandWithUs boot camps. “It is gratifying to hear an articulate and charismatic presenter such as Mr. Azani who can coach youngsters how to take the knowledge they learn in the classroom and effectively combat promoters of anti-Israel rhetoric.”
Gontownik is also working with students already on college campuses who are organizing pro-Israel activities. David Moed of Englewood, a former lone soldier in Israel now in his sophomore year at New York University, has started a group on campus called Realize Israel. In an email interview from Israel, where he is visiting during his semester break, he wrote, “There was a great need for a vocal pro-Israel group on campus to allow Israel’s supporters to make ourselves heard, and show the world how proud we are.” Moed said they are bringing in high-level speakers and panels to educate students, and run cultural events such as a Yom Haatzmaut party in Washington Square. Realize Israel also responds to the group Students for Justice in Palestine by having a presence at all their events.
Moed thinks the program Gontownik and StandWithUs are beginning will be invaluable to students. “In high school, I heard that I wouldn’t be in the comfortable, pro-Israel environment that a Jewish day school provides, but I was never given the tools to act on it. I view this program as giving high school students a glimpse of what they may face on campus and the tools to get involved in Realize Israel and groups like it all over the country. When students understand that they can make a significant difference, they often rise to the challenge. I think this program helps illustrate to high school students that they are in a position to defend Israel and become active supporters on campus.”
For more information about community efforts to combat anti-Israel action on campus, contact: [email protected] or visit [email protected].
By Bracha Schwartz
