Israeli Minister’s Visit To Canada Sparks Controversy And Educational Mission
June 1, 2023
Concerns over protocol breach, focus on Jewish education result
Menu
Popular Articles
Read More »
Canadian Parliament Event To Host Anti-Israel Who’s Who
June 1, 2023
The event listing refers to the “chilling” effect of the IHRA working definition
Stop The Lie: Israel Never Ethnically Cleansed Palestinians
June 1, 2023
Palestinian claims of forced expulsion and victimhood countered by historical evidence
Yezidi Leader Disputes Fable Of “Operation Ezra”
June 1, 2023
Credit being taken where it is not due, claims former Winnipeg activist
No To Gelman As US Ambassador To Israel
June 1, 2023
Sitting in her role in Jerusalem would allow Susie Gelman to wage diplomatic war against Israel
Anti-Zionist Revisionism Sometimes Starts In The Classroom
June 1, 2023
Montreal’s McGill University rife with misconceptions about Jewish history
A ‘Foreign Affairs’ Article Wants To Destroy Israel
June 1, 2023
Four professors who wrote this defamatory rant are indoctrinating generation of students
Celebrating The Journey Of Israeli Immigrants: Yaron Dekal Inspires Israeli-Canadian Winnipegers
June 1, 2023
Yaron Dekal’s documentary sheds light on Israeli immigrants living in North America
Celebration Of Life Concerts Upcoming In Calgary, Montreal And Toronto
June 1, 2023
Beit Halochem Canada fundraising events celebrate Israel’s 75th birthday
Israel’s President In Baku To Further Strategic Partnership
June 1, 2023
Herzog calls his visit to Azerbaijan “a dream come true”
Program instructed the group “how to tackle antisemitism and anti-Zionism on campus while giving us the facts we need to know about Israel.”
- 07 September 2022
- 8:05 pm
Click an icon above to share, email, or save this article
- 07 September 2022
- 8:05 pm
JNS editor-in-chief Jonathan s. Tobin with students at CAMERA’s International Student Leadership Conference in Boston, July-August 2022. (Photo: Kassy Dillon)
Click an icon above to share, email, or save this article
(JNS) On a hot summer day in July, amid vacations and summer internships, a group of 40 college students traveled to the Boston University Hillel to learn how to battle against misinformation and anti-Semitism on their campuses.
Representing 26 campuses, the students attended the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA)’s four-day International Student Leadership Conference. The conference drew students with diverse ideologies who all bonded over their passion for defending Israel.
Alex Grosman, a student studying international relations at Ohio State University, is no stranger to encountering anti-Israel propaganda on his campus. He says the anti-Israel students at his school are growing more active and were successful last year at passing a BDS resolution in the student government.
Grosman sees his participation in the conference as essential to helping fight back.
“I really like how CAMERA teaches us how to tackle antisemitism and anti-Zionism on our campuses while giving us the facts we need to know about Israel,” he told JNS. “But CAMERA also gives us real-world experience, like how to write an article. We did a simulation where we had to debate with SJP [Students for Justice in Palestine] members, and debate is something we will absolutely do in real life.”
Grosman said the conference gave him practical tools for confronting anti-Israel bias and antisemitism on campus. He pointed to the lecturers encouraging the trainees to speak up against injustice.
“We were taught how to be vocal,” he said. “If a professor ignores our complaints of bias, we have to bring it up to administrators and get people involved to finally put an end to the anti-Israel claims and make sure that other students don’t have to deal with it.”
Grosman said the conference gave him hope, in addition to constructive tools for this coming academic semester.
“It was enlightening because it gave us so much information that we can use in the fight for Zionism, and it’s so incredible to see that we are not alone in our struggles; students here have faced similar experiences,” he said. “It gives us hope that there are people who still support the Zionist cause.”
Speakers of the conference included JNS editor-in-chief Jonathan Tobin and Benjamin Ryberg, the COO and director of research at the Lawfare Project.
Get thej.ca a Pro Israel Voice by Email. Never miss a top story that effects you, your family & your community
‘It makes me feel like we are in capable hands’
Rachel Zaslavsky, 21, who studies history and government at the College of William & Mary, said the trainings are applicable for skills that students will need even after graduation.
“From social-media content and branding how to get people energized and engaged around what you are trying to organize to how to write an op-ed, this is great for me for the rest of my life,” she said.
For Zaslavsky, being around like-minded students made the experience special.
“It is so empowering and nice to be around surrounded by people who also care about this topic. I forget that there are other people who think like me, and it’s so nice to be in this environment. It makes me feel like we are in capable hands,” said Zaslavsky.
When asked why students are becoming so anti-Israel on his campus, Grosman replied that leftist American perspectives are being used to approach the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“A lot of it boils down to race, it’s trendy to be a lefty and democrat,” he said. “They value racial equality and believe most Jews are Ashkenazi and Palestinians are people of color. But they’re ignoring that in Israel more than 50 percent of Jewish Israels are people of color.”
While all of the students identify as Zionists, they come from varying political ideologies. However, they do recognize that they are observing the Zionist cause as being only associated with conservatives on their campuses. Zaslavsky, who identifies herself as someone “political on the right,” said she believes this is because progressives have made taking the Palestinian side a focal point of the progressive movement.
“In more progressive spaces, moral value is assigned to certain beliefs, and many students don’t want to be seen as a bad person for supporting Israel,” she explained. “Championing the Palestinian cause makes them associated with the ‘moral good’ and helps them be more accepted with their like-minded peers and colleagues. They think of us as privileged and call us ‘white-settler colonialists,’ but the truth is that we are indigenous to Israel.”
Students at CAMERA’s International Student Leadership Conference in Boston, July-August 2022. (Courtesy: CAMERA)
‘It’s easy to demonize Israel’
One student attendee who identifies as a liberal told JNS that it is difficult to be both a Zionist and left-wing on campus.
“Left-wing Americans are desperate. Arguably, leftism is about desperation, and a lot of that is justified,” Jonah Fried, a senior at McGill University in Montreal, told JNS. “In this context, many young Jews are desperate to do something to make a difference where they think they can, and so they fall prey to anti-Zionist rhetoric.”
“It’s easy to demonize Israel, even though it’s counterproductive, but it’s a lot harder to make an actual difference for Palestinians, which in my view, requires a much more nuanced approach,” he said.
Fried, 21, added that he feels like he cannot openly voice his pro-Israel views on campus.
Managing editor for CAMERA, Douglas Sandoval told JNS that the participants, who came to the training program from the United States, the United Kingdom, Israel and Canada, were selected for their “extraordinary display of leadership and defense of academic freedom and intellectual diversity,” and that during the programming “they did not disappoint.”
“All of them raised thought-provoking questions, displayed a genuine interest in discussion topics and shared ways to apply CAMERA’s principles within their contexts,” he added.
Kassy Dillon is the U.S. Bureau News Editor of JNS — Jewish News Syndicate. She has a BA in international relations and Middle Eastern Studies from Mount Holyoke College and a MPP specializing in international relations and American politics from Pepperdine University’s School of Public Policy. Her work has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, The Hill, the Daily Wire, and the Washington Examiner.
Click an icon above to share, email, or save this article
Click an icon above to share, email, or save this article
Read More
Thank you for choosing TheJ.Ca as your source for Canadian Jewish News.
We do news differently!
Our positioning as a Zionist News Media platform sets us apart from the rest. While other Canadian Jewish media are advocating increasingly biased progressive political and social agendas, TheJ.Ca is providing more and more readers with a welcome alternative and an ideological home.
We revealed the incursion of anti-Israel progressive elements such as IfNotNow into our communities. We have exposed the distorted hateful agenda of the “progressive” left political radicals who brought Linda Sarsour to our cities, and we were first to report on many disturbing incidents of Nazi-based hate towards Jews across Canada.
But we can’t do it alone. We need your HELP!
Our ability to thrive and grow in 2020 and beyond depends on the generosity of committed readers and supporters like you.
Monthly support is a great way to help us sustain our operations. We greatly appreciate any contributions you can make to support Jewish Journalism.
We thank you for your ongoing support.
Happy reading!
Thank you for choosing TheJ.Ca as your source for Canadian Jewish News.
We do news differently!
Our positioning as a Zionist News Media platform sets us apart from the rest. While other Canadian Jewish media are advocating increasingly biased progressive political and social agendas, TheJ.Ca is providing more and more readers with a welcome alternative and an ideological home.
We revealed the incursion of anti-Israel progressive elements such as IfNotNow into our communities. We have exposed the distorted hateful agenda of the “progressive” left political radicals who brought Linda Sarsour to our cities, and we were first to report on many disturbing incidents of Nazi-based hate towards Jews across Canada.
But we can’t do it alone. We need your HELP!
Our ability to thrive and grow in 2020 and beyond depends on the generosity of committed readers and supporters like you.
Monthly support is a great way to help us sustain our operations. We greatly appreciate any contributions you can make to support Jewish Journalism.
We thank you for your ongoing support.
Happy reading!
Sponsored Content
cOMING SOON…….
Breaking News
Recent
Features
News
Current Events
Opinions
Politics
Religion
Culture
Memoriam and Obituaries
PodcastS
Subscribe Now
Receive the latest in community & international Jewish news direct to your inbox