Tammy Shapiro On Reaching Campus Youth

TAMARA (TAMMY) SHAPIRO, a recent graduate of the University of Wisconsin (Madison), is the executive director of the Union of Progressive Zionists (UPZ). This is an abridged version of her article in the spring 2007 issue of ISRAEL HORIZONS:

The organized Jewish community, including the 31 organizations of the Israel on Campus Coalition, knows that anti-Israel activity and sentiment have increased on campuses, but our current strategy for facing this challenge is fatally flawed. We are following a strategy that I call Don't Hate, Celebrate, accentuating an appreciation of Israeli culture on campus.

[Yet] this strategy offers nothing in between being unconditionally pro-Israel and anti-Zionist. Either you can hate Israel or celebrate her. The vast majority of college students don't really want to choose either, but when presented with only these two options, many drift toward the one that promises progress and change. Unfortunately, with challenges such as divestment and boycott, only those who hate are currently offering such possibilities.

The changing tide of the debate is currently framed by people concerned with the welfare and livelihood of Palestinians. A college student who attends one event educating about human rights abuses in the West Bank and another promoting falafel and folk dancing as Israeli culture will not decide on that basis that Israel is a legitimate state. Progressive Jewish college students, defined by their serious political outlook, are not interested in cheerleading and cultural celebrations when they identify pressing issues that must be addressed.

Indeed, propelled by prominent professors and now a former president, the authority of this new anti-Israelism is difficult to argue with. If the Jewish community continues to operate under the assumption that we are fighting a public image battle, we will most certainly fail. Jewish college students at the forefront of this battle will continue to suffer demoralization.

The very real images of the occupation will not go away. No amount of programming on technological achievement or the advancement of gay rights in Israel can override them, and celebrating Israeli culture certainly won't. It makes me sad that the Jewish community tries to hide from the realities of the occupation, and even more fearful that we ask our youth to do likewise.

What do we need to do to engage most Jewish college students with Israel? Instead of celebrating, we should be activating. College students are interested in finding problems they can take ownership of and have a role in solving. Zionism is compelling because it is an attempt to build a light unto nations. If the Jewish community identified and promoted activists still working toward this goal in Israel today, they would connect more fully to the idealism of college students.

Jewish students would relate to the country if they were connected to their young Israeli counterparts who, like themselves, are working tirelessly to fix the problems in their own society. Students would take more interest in the country if they were informed of the conversations occurring within Israel, including the large segment of the population who criticize Israeli policies sharply and are determined to change them. Students would feel more confident in their own views of the country, if they understood that many opinions the American Jewish community often condemns, are legitimate within Israeli society.

This Don't hate, activate” strategy may also attract individuals that the Jewish community perceives as problematic. It asks students to support those actually working for change in Israel, instead of trying to isolate them with other strategies such as boycotts.

Some might argue that no one is going to persuade individuals promoting anti-Israelism on campus to do otherwise, but I disagree. There are two groups of people who hold anti-Israel views: There are those who have post-nationalist ideals and thereby take conceptual or principled issue with Israel. And there are others who, as global citizens concerned with human rights around the world, regard Israel's treatment of the Palestinians as an urgent issue needing change. If we acknowledge that we, as Zionists, agree with many of this second group's concerns, including the way in which Palestinians do indeed suffer, they may be willing to listen to our views about Israel’s legitimacy. If we present programs about Israelis actively working for progressive change, they might be able to see Israel as a society they also can relate to.

We need to offer to precisely these people alternative strategies for changing the current situation in Israel. The social-justice minded Jewish and non-Jewish students who support divestment, boycotts and other anti-Israel strategies do so because they are the only options offered as a way to make change.

How many socially-conscious college students think Israel is an apartheid state because no other viable idea has been placed in their heads? When faced with a choice between Israel as perfect and Israel as apartheid, many understandably choose the latter. Furthermore, how many students were turned off by campus Hillel telling them that they weren't allowed to think the way that they do?

If we admit Israel's flaws and genuinely show a commitment to fixing them, we may be able to connect with both these groups. The Union of Progressive Zionists is committed to doing exactly that, but the UPZ can't do it alone. We, the Jewish community, need to offer space on campus for questioning and allow students to understand the full texture of Israeli society. After all, doesn't our tradition teach us to question?