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36 Under 36: PRO-ISRAEL ADVOCACY 
Rachel Klapper, 22 by Jewish Week special report Making Israel’s case on campus As a freshman at Baruch College, Rachel Klapper brought hundreds of students together to participate in a Holocaust commemoration, which served to combat Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s Holocaust denial conference in Tehran. She quickly became the president of Hillel’s Koach committee, organizing weekly events for more than 2,600 members. In an effort to unite American and Israeli Jewry, Klapper organized a scrapbook project for the three captured Israeli soldiers, Eldad Regev, Ehud Goldwasser and Gilad Schalit. With the cooperation of several campuses across the Northeast, she collected 3,000 signatures in support of the soldiers’ families, as well as personal letters from Jews, Christians and Muslims alike. Now a junior, Klapper says that her involvement Klapper is currently studying abroad for the semester at Hebrew University Mount Scopus, in Jerusalem. Her activism hasn’t gone on sabbatical, though. She is currently compiling messages supporting the people of Sderot into a book (to join the effort, e-mail israelwecare@gmail.com). This Purim, she oversaw the assembly of 3,500 mishloach manot packages filled with supplies for the citizens and soldiers of the city under constant rocket fire. The students packed additional mishloach manot, which they sold. In just three days they raised nearly 20,000 shekels for those below the poverty line in Sderot. “More important than the money itself,” Klapper says, “was the empowering of the committee, that they watched their efforts come to fruition and the ripple effects of that empowerment.” Greek ties: Klapper is a member of Sigma Alpha Delta and Phi Eta Sigma Honors Societies at Baruch. High-profile internship: Klapper interns for Yechiel Leiter, senior policy analyst at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. —Sharon Udasin Edoe Cohen, 29 Israeli restaurateur feeding a love of Israel While an undergraduate at Columbia, Edoe Cohen organized Destination Israel,” a study-abroad fair featuring Israeli musician Hadag Nahash. The event’s success prompted him to try his hand at one of the most difficult businesses: owning a restaurant. And so in 2006, he and partners transformed the second floor of Columbia’s Hillel into a kosher Middle Eastern shuk-themed restaurant. They called it Café Nana (www.cafenana.com). “The nana leaf is a symbol of hospitality,” Cohen says. “We wanted to bring a taste of Israel.” Café Nana is the sort of place where all the “little touches” add up. Visitors dine in genuine Moroccan pillow-filled tents (bought in the Arab shuk in the Old City of Jerusalem). A photo exhibit of Jews in Uganda, taken by Columbia graduate Shaanan Meyerstein, graces one of the walls. And the Mediterranean menu is carefully crafted with names like “the Chayal sandwich,” so called because Israeli soldiers eat a lot of tuna. “We wanted to create a space where Jews from all walks of life feel comfortable sitting and eating together,” Cohen says. “A lot of non-Jews have started coming in, too.” Café Nana regularly hosts Israeli artists and musicians; to celebrate Israel’s 60th, members from the popular Israeli band Shotay Hanevuah performed there. Cohen is most proud of Café Nana’s role in bridging the divide between Israelis and American Jews on Columbia’s campus. “An Israeli would not walk into the Hillel before,” Cohen says. “Now they have reason to come and be exposed to everything else going on there.” Now a Legacy Heritage Fellow working in the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Cohen says his experience designing mission plans as a squad commander in the Israeli army taught him crucial management and leadership skills. Up next: Cohen plans to launch Omanoot, a online organization that will provide educational lesson plans using Israeli art as a platform for teaching about Israel. “Students are thirsty for a cultural Jewish identity outside the synagogue,” he says. “Culture and art are the ideal ways to connect. They’re universal.” He’s an artist, too: While in high school in Israel, Cohen’s short film, “Lamb to the Slaughter,” won second prize at the Jerusalem Film Festival. Claim to fame: He may be the only IDF company commander to take ballet and an African dance class at Barnard. “You only live once,” he jokes. —Tamar Snyder Ben Hyman, 26 Bringing music to benefit Israeli soldiers Ben Hyman has long believed in the power of music to move and heal people. During his year in an Israeli yeshiva, he and a group of friends volunteered at an old age home, playing music and dancing with residents. In 2002, he worked as a music therapist at Camp Dream Street, helping children cope with terminal illness in Tenafly, N.J. When he watched the Lebanon War unfold in summer 2006, with his brother fighting for Israel, he wanted to bring the benefits of music to soldiers. Together with friend and fellow musician Jon Weiss, he created the Israel Service Organization (iso.org). Labeled the “official summer party of 2007 for the air force,” the ISO brought its own band, The Humble Kings Project, to soldiers from Ramat HaGolan to the Negev. This summer’s tour will cover areas near Gaza, the West Bank and the border with Syria and Lebanon. “It’s important that they have this time to feel normal, if only for a few hours,” Hyman told The Jewish Week. The ISO’s main purpose is to show soldiers that they have support beyond the country’s borders, that the sacrifices they make and the work they do is appreciated by Jews worldwide and that not everyone believes media portrayals of barbaric men and women. “What army supposedly using disproportionate force sings a song about love and peace?” he said. “I can guarantee Hamas and Hezbollah don’t.” Volunteering background: Hyman has marched and protested for Soviet Jewry, greeted Ethiopians arriving at Ben Gurion airport during Operation Solomon and, as a child with his mother,visited homeless shelters every two weeks to bring toys and clothing to homeless children. Strangest job: Counting bolts for a wholesale business. He quit after one day. — Randi Sherman Dani Klein, 25 Promoting Israel advocacy on campus Dani Klein is the face of Israel advocacy on college campuses on the East Coast and beyond. In his role as Campus Director of North America for StandWithUs, an Israel-focused education and advocacy organization, Klein oversees campus-related projects, creating resource materials for more than 100 campuses. His activism is rooted in a Zionism class he took during his senior year with Rambam principle Rabbi Yotav Eliach. “It really hit home,” Klein says. Eliach gave him a side project: To read 15 pages of Solomon Grayzel’s “A History of the Jews” each day and write a weekly report on what he learned. “Until that point, I never realized the extent of the problems Israel faces from its detractors,” he says. “I got inspired and wanted to do something for Israel when I got to campus.” And he did. Klein became a known entity at Brooklyn College. He was an active Hillel member and served as president of NYSIPAC, the pro-Israel group at Brooklyn College, for more than two years. One semester, he interned for Natan Sharansky, then the Minister of Diaspora Affairs, at his office in Israel, where Klein ran advocacy educational events including a tour of Israel’s security barrier. In the past five years, Klein has attended more than 50 Israel or Jewish-related conferences in four countries. He’s most proud of his role in expanding StandWithUs’s presence within the Israel-advocacy world, especially on the east coast. “Before I was around, no one knew about StandWithUs outside of California,” Klein says. “We’re now looked at by many organizations as the go-to resource for campus advocacy.” Although he’s currently pursuing his MBA at Baruch College’s Zicklin School of Business, Klein intends to stay active in Israel-related causes as a lay leader. He’s passionate about marketing and the Internet, and he brings his technology savvy to his work by creating Facebook groups for Israel supporters in various regions. “That way, if there’s a rally or program in one area, I can send a message exclusively to the group that it’s relevant to.” Lost? Call Klein — the self-described geography enthusiast is a whiz with maps. (He won the geography bee in seventh grade and participated in the N.Y. statewide geography bee). Traveling anytime soon? If you keep kosher, check out Klein’s new travel blog, www.yeahthatskosher.com, which will feature reviews and resources for the kosher international traveler. He sings, too. Klein was president of the Jewish a cappella group at Brooklyn College. He does a great Borat impression and puts za’atar on everything. —Tamar Snyder |
 
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