I

World

Political
Football

U.S. campuses gear up for a noisy
fall on the Middle East issue.

Sue Fishkoff

Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Louisville, Ky.

A

s the Mideast conflict
simmers beneath a
shaky cease-fire agree-
ment, Jewish student groups are
gearing up for what they fear will
be a hostile reception on campus
this fall.
And Jewish fraternities and
sororities are a big part of the
pro-Israel effort.
"The climate will be very
difficult for pro-Israel activists
on campus," said David Harris,
executive director of the Israel on
Campus Coalition, an umbrella
group uniting more than 30
Jewish student organizations.
Harris pointed out that over
the summer, student govern-
ments, including that of the
University of California at Los
Angeles, passed anti-Israel reso-
lutions, and campus newspapers
from California to Michigan to
Florida printed anti-Israel edito-
rials and cartoons.
"If this is what's happen-
ing in the quiet of summer,
we're expecting a much harsher
atmosphere when the semester
begins," he said.
In response, major Jewish
groups have organized training
conferences, put together edu-
cational resources and set aside
funding to enable their student
leaders and on-campus profes-
sionals to engage in pro-Israel
education and activism as soon
as they return to school.
Jewish fraternities and sorori-
ties are joining these efforts.
Alpha Epsilon Pi and Alpha
Epsilon Phi, the largest Jewish
fraternity and sorority, respec-
tively, brought 90 students to

62

August 24 • 2006

Louisville, Ky., on Aug. 13-15, to
learn how to advocate effectively
for Israel on campus.
"Our adversaries have been
developing anti-Israel campaigns
on campus for years," said Gary
Anderson, AEPi's international
president. "We can't let them
win."
Jewish "Greeks" actually got
involved in campus Israel advo-
cacy five years ago, when AEPi
became a founding partner of
the Israel on Campus Coalition
and ran the first of three "Israel
Unplugged" conferences for its
members. But this year marks
a major revving-up and a new
focus on structured activism.
It's the first time that the
conference, now called "Israel
Amplified," was open to sorori-
ties as well as other Greeks,
Jewish and non-Jewish. That was
stipulated by the conference's
funder, the Charles and Lynn
Schusterman Family Foundation.
While the first three conferenc-
es focused on Israel education,
the latest was action-oriented.
All chapters of AEPi and AEPhi
are pledging to hold three Israel-
themed events, reaching outside
their own houses to bring the
entire Greek system into their
efforts.
"For the first time, we're see-
ing the potential of Jewish Greek
society," said Jonathan Kessler,
leadership development director
of the American Israel Public
Affairs Committee, the pro-Israel
lobbying group that has been
working with AEPi for almost
two decades.
The new advocacy campaigns
are also targeting Jewish students
not involved in the Greek system.
"We have to be ready for the
sleeper kids, the several hundred
thousand Jewish kids on cam-

)14

In October 2002, a pro-Israel rally at the University of Michigan graduate library in Ann Arbor drew

300 students and Metro Detroiters to the university Diaq.

pus who are not involved:' said
AEPi Executive Director Andy
Borans."They will come out of
the woodwork because of what's
happened" in Israel this summer,
he predicted.
Jewish fraternities and sorori-
ties are already set up to do this
kind of work, their leaders point
out. They're tied into a large net-
work of fraternities and sorori-
ties, many of whom are socially
oriented, focused on philan-
thropy and involved in campus
politics.
"Greeks are able to mobilize
for a cause better than any other
group on campus," AEPi staffer
Colin Sutker told two dozen
students during a workshop in
Louisville. "Take that power:' he
urged the students, `!and harness
it for Israel advocacy"
The conference is "the kick-
off of a yearlong initiative,'
said Jen Kraus, a Schusterman
Foundation fellow.
National Greek leaders will
follow up with their chapters

throughout the year, offering
resources and a little nudging.
As an added incentive, partici-
pants didn't receive their travel
reimbursements for the confer-
ence until they met with staffers
at the end of the two-day train-
ing and wrote detailed action
plans for events they plan to hold
at their campuses.
Suzanne Solomon of the
University of Arizona in Phoenix
hopes to erect a "huge poster"
listing Israel's freedoms.
Alex Callen at Cornell
University in Ithaca, N.Y., said his
chapter will read out the names
of Israeli terror victims from a
public plaza and will ask other
fraternities, sororities and non-
Greek student organizations to
sponsor names, with the money
going to AEPi's sIsrael charities.
Arya Marvazi at the University
of California at San Diego is
planning events on human
rights, technological innovation
and the environment, and will
invite the presidents of campus

organizations active in those
fields to meet privately with the
speakers beforehand, so non-
Jewish students can see that
Israelis share their concerns.
Students were urged to think
beyond the usual political events
to focus on Israeli culture, sci-
ence, medicine, even sports and
food — anything to draw in stu-
dents with no particular interest
in Israel.
Some students already have
begun putting their plans
into action. Last month, Tufts
University AEPi member Ari
Allen launched a Web site "to
fight the world's collective amne-
sia" about Israel.
Allen said he's a little nervous
about the attitude he'll face on
campus this fall, even at Tufts,
which "is a quarter Jewish': he
estimated.
"It's going to be much more
than a physical war; it's going
to be a war of ideas:' he said.
"I didn't really understand that
until this crisis broke out."'

Campus
Groups

lenging, not like the past four
years," says Jonathan Kessler,
leadership development direc-
tor at American Israel Public
Affairs Committee, the main
pro-Israel lobby in the United
States.
He notes that "Israel has
been very strong on campus
since 2002," after almost two
years of anti-Israel animos-
ity following the outbreak
of the Palestinian intifada in
September 2000.
The Israel on Campus
Coalition, an umbrella body of

more than 30 Jewish student
groups, has produced a 120-
page binder of educational
and advocacy initiatives that
members are distributing to
their campus representatives.
The coalition is planning a
Sept. 5 summit in Washington,
and has earmarked $300,000
in direct grants for students
planning rallies and other
pro-Israel events "to start the
fall with a bang," said David
Harris, the coalition's execu-
tive director.

Gearing Up

Jewish organizations that
work on American college
campuses are preparing stu-
dent leaders for what they
expect will be a barrage of
anti-Israel sentiment this fall.
"It's going to be very chal-

❑

- Sue Fishkoff, JTA

