Israel Resources

Programming Ideas: Israel Advocacy
If you want to teach USYers to be advocates on Israel's behalf, there are endless programs that you can run. Your best bet is to contact some of the organizations above, because they specialize in this kind of programming.

Below you'll find four sample Israel Advocacy programs. The first program focuses on teaching people the facts, the second program focuses on preparing people to be Israel advocates in college, the third examines media bias, and the forth is a more creative program looking at the skills needed to be an advocate.

Program #1

Name:
Let's Get The Facts Straight

Goal/Objective:
To learn to defend and advocate on Israel's behalf, to discuss and clarify the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and to learn to apply what we know about Israel to other facets of our lives.

Materials Needed:
Guest speaker, chairs, letters from Israeli leaders, Israeli and American flags, graphic clip about terror (television), clip of an anti-Israel rally, quotes about knowledge and power, Israeli music (includes sound system), and lots of preparation.

Amount of People:
Unlimited.

Descriptions/Directions:
Contact an organization that specializes in Israel advocacy and/or the Arab-Israeli conflict (Look at the previous pages and/or see the Advocacy section on the Israel Affairs website).

Have a speaker prepare a speech and talk to USYers about whatever that speaker is supposed to discuss. These speakers may cost money to come to your Kinnusim or chapter programs, so keep that in mind. Be sure to check a multitude of organizations to find the speaker that may have the biggest impact on what you want to promote. One particular example of what one can do for a powerful regional program would be to do something that Far West USY did. They started off their program by arousing feeling in their USYers by reading a letter written by the NOAM President, followed by a graphic clip on terrorism. They then listened to a USYer talk about an experience where he felt helpless to defend Israel. Afterwards, they watched another clip of an anti-Israel rally at a college campus, and had people read quotes about knowledge and power. Following this, they did short knowledge sessions by dividing USYers into groups that rotated. The topics that different groups visited included displaying a timeline, a myth-fact radio show, and an anti-Israel propaganda slide show. Then, the Israeli Minister of Tourism spoke about the importance of visiting Israel. Finally, a clip was watched from a college student about the importance of getting educated about Israel. The end of the program climaxed with Israeli and American flags swaying while USYers danced enthusiastically to Israeli music.

Program #2

Name:
What Would You Do: Israel On Campus

Goal/Objective:
To teach the importance of being proactive in supporting Israel; to encourage USY leaders to prepare USYers to be advocates for Israel by first educating them; to make USYers aware of the anti-Israel sentiments on college campuses/

Materials needed:
Educational materials about Israel Advocacy on campus and the organizations listed in previous pages.

Amount of People:
We suggest making this a senior-only or junior/senior program/

Description/Directions:

Introduction: (5 minutes)
Within a 4-month period from March to June 2002, the Anti Defamation League recorded over 44 horrific anti-Israel incidents on college campuses in North America. And think about how many more incidents have gone unnoticed. Take a minute to think about this - how would YOU respond to a Jewish building being vandalized? Even more difficult - how would you respond to an anti-Israel demonstration with claims such as, "Israel is carrying out the genocide of the 21st century"?

Do you have the real knowledge to defend Israel to those who are spreading such lies? Let's be honest: most of us would have no clue how to respond. Each of us will one day be faced with this type of situation and will be called upon to defend Israel, and we must be prepared for it.

Part I: Being Reactive (15-20 minutes)
(Divide USYers into small groups)

What to do: Each group will be given a different situation that you might face on campus, and will have 5-10 minutes to discuss how they would respond and defend Israel. Then, each group will report back to everyone with their situation and how they would respond. They can perform a short skit with the situation and their reaction, and then follow up with a serious explanation of what they decided to do in reaction.

Group 1: At the University of Maryland - College Park, students representing the Muslim Students Association and Organization of Arab Students set up a mock checkpoint and labeled a courtyard "Occupied Territory." At the checkpoint, signs were hanging from a table indicating one direction for Israelis and another for Palestinians. One student repeatedly read through a list of U.N. resolutions that Israel had allegedly violated over a microphone throughout the day (May 1, 2002).

Group 2: At Columbia University, several graduate teaching assistants used departmental e-mail listservs to promote an on-campus anti-Israel rally. Several faculty members cancelled their classes to allow students to attend (April 17, 2002).

Group 3: The University of Colorado - Boulder Hillel Center's Israeli flag was defaced with the anti-Israel graffiti: "Stop the Illegal Occupation of the West Bank," and "Stop the Killing of Palestinians." (April 14, 2002)

Group 4: At the University of Denver, an anti-Israel rally was held. One speaker, Val Phillips, claimed that "right now, Israeli soldiers are rounding up every Palestinian male in Jenin, and dividing them into two groups. One group to be arrested, and the other to be killed." Speakers compared Zionism to Nazism and a member of the Colorado Campaign for Mideast Peace called one of the Jewish students present a "kike." (April 9, 2002)

Group 5: Campus police at UC - Berkeley arrested 79 pro-Palestinian protesters who had stormed into a classroom building in an attempt to disrupt a Holocaust Remembrance Day commemoration (April 9, 2002).

Part II: Being Proactive (15-20 minutes)
As a conclusion to the program, lead a discussion on how we can be PROACTIVE in supporting Israel.

• How can we prevent these incidents from occurring?
• How can we educate ourselves and spread the truth to others?
• How can we make Israel so important to us that we don't just like Israel, but really love Israel?
• Why is it important that we become activists and advocates for Israel?
• What are some things that WE, as USYers, can do to be proactive and advocate for Israel?

Program #3

Name:
Dealing with Media Bias

Goal/Objective:
To teach USYers how to identify media bias and advocate for Israel.

Materials Needed:
Newspaper articles from Jerusalem Post and New York Times, index cards

Amount of People:
Unlimited

Description/Directions:
Participants are split into discussion groups. Each group receives 2 articles, one from the NY Times, and one from the Jerusalem Post. Articles should be about the same event, and not be editorial pieces. Each group should find and discuss myths and misconceptions in its NY Times articles, and find the corrections for it in the JPost article. The whole group should be brought back together, and split again into groups of 5-10 people. Each team should be given an index card with a common myth or misconception regarding the situation in Israel. (Preferably different than the one the participants had in their discussion groups). They should then use the articles (copies should be provided to each group) to find the correction for the error. Each group should plan out a short skit (2-5 min) in which they should illustrate the misconception, and how to combat it through Israel advocacy. One part of each group should be on the "anti-Israel" side, while the other part should be advocating for Israel. After each group has had time to come up with a skit, all groups should come together, and each should perform its skit. After every skit the participants should discuss what the team did to advocate for Israel, and ways to improve on it. After each team has finished, the entire group should be asked to discuss general tips and pointers for Israel advocacy.

Advice:
It is also necessary to examine the bias in JPost, given that it is a right-wing Israeli newspaper. If you want an Israeli paper that is less right-wing, you can use Ha'Aretz instead. Regardless of which newspapers you use, it is always important to examine bias from all sides.

Program #4

Name:
Israel Advocacy Beauty Pageant

Goal/Objective:
To teach USYers how to be Israel advocates by presenting them with different scenarios and realities of what it takes to be the best advocate you can.

Materials Needed:
Script, chairs, table, contestants, judges, prize, and sign.

Amount of People:
Unlimited

Description/Directions:
This is geared to be a program that is fun and informational. Select 5-9 people from your region to serve as contestants and 3 people to serve as the judges. Pick people that are funny, but can also take this program seriously. Divide the competition up into 2 sections: 1 being a personality trait competition and 1 being a scenario and solution competition. In the personality trait competition, have each contestant prepare a specific personality trait, and have him or her relate it to why it would help someone when advocating for Israel. Make sure that not all of the traits presented are good ones, because you want the judges to be able to critique. For the second competition, the judges will present each contestant with a certain scenario where they are asked to stand up for Israel. Then the contestants will respond as best they can. Be sure to have the contestants fill certain characters, such as a dancer or a Rabbi, something to play humor off of. At the end of the rounds, you can use a variety of methods to determine the winner. It doesn't really matter how because the point of the program is to teach USYers advocacy skills. You may want to heavily script this, but don't do it so much that the contestants can't be themselves.

Advice:
Don't do this on Shabbat because it will be very hard to hear without microphones. In addition, make a nice sign for the pageant and have some sort of prize be given to the winning contestant.