Going Universal On The Green

Rutgers University’s Walk Out Against the War event. Students walked around New Brunswick, N.J., stopping traffic in protest of the war in Iraq. Courtesy of Rutgers Hillel

Rutgers University’s Walk Out Against the War event. Students walked around New Brunswick, N.J., stopping traffic in protest of the war in Iraq. Courtesy of Rutgers Hillel

by Carolyn Slutsky
Staff Writer

Last December at Rutgers University, instead of the traditional Chanukah party celebrating the miracle of the oil lasting for eight days when it should have lasted for one, Hillel held a “festival of green lights.”

This Chanukah with an environmental twist provided students with information about global warming and other environmental issues and handed out high-efficiency light bulbs, tying environmental issues to Jewish tradition and the festival of lights.
While Israel remains a staple of campus activism, the environment, concern for national and global issues like the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf Coast, the humanitarian crises in China, Burma and Darfur, and the place of Muslims in today’s world resonate with college-age Jews today.

“There’s always been a social action

component of Jewish life, but it’s now become one of our key methods of engaging students,” said Rutgers Hillel Director Andrew Getraer of the new activism’s role in exposing students to the broader offerings of a Jewish life. “The student who comes to Hillel to become involved in an environmental project or community service is meeting other Jewish students and is exposed to Jewish campus life. And it helps them to grow in their Jewish identity beyond their initial interest.”

The trend toward new avenues of activism mirrors Hillel’s declared mission to make its reach more universal, engaging students as liaisons and hiring Jewish educators who will reach out in less formal ways to more Jewish students on campus.

Avi Smolen, a student at Rutgers and Hillel president, says in his experience, his generation of students is more passionate about social justice than their parents were.
“I’m not sure why,” he said, citing the environment and the current presidential campaign as issues drawing students to activism. “To me it seems like the right thing to do. I’m in a place of privilege, I have enough to eat, I have a college education and a middle-class family and the ability to help others. I think that must be a common sentiment, and that’s why you see a lot of activism on campus.”

While Israel has always been an issue around which much Jewish student activism occurs, and that is no different today, campuses report a subtler, more educational approach to Israel engagement than the knee-jerk reactions and often angry rallies of years past.

Rabbi Yehuda Sarna, manager of religious life at New York University’s Bronfman Center for Jewish Student Life, attributes the changes in Israel activism to a number of factors. He said that Birthright Israel, the program that brings young people on free, 10-day trips to Israel, has helped to curtail anti-Israel activism on campus, as the number of students who have experienced Israel for themselves and have positive stories to tell has risen. NYU and other campuses have invested a lot of energy and time in fostering Jewish-Muslim dialogue. And he also said that for young people today, Israel isn’t the mythical land that it was for previous generations.

“The Israel that I know and that someone who’s younger than me knows is an Israel mired in intifadas and political Courtesy of Rutgers Hillelzcorruption and hasn’t had a moment of undeniable success,” said Rabbi Sarna, pointing to the wars in 1948 and 1967 as clear victories for Israel, and the recent Lebanon war as a morally cloudier conflict. “To a certain extent there’s no grand myth of Israel, it’s difficult to get up at a rally ... and point fingers to the other side, so students who are educated feel their own activism has to be more nuanced and balanced.”

Aaron Weil, executive director of Hillel in Pittsburgh which includes the University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University and Duquesne University, agreed with Rabbi Sarna about students’ lack of connection with Israel and how it impacts their support of the Jewish state.

“It’s a generational thing, this distance from Sinai,” said Weil, adding that students today don’t have the personalized relationship with the Holocaust, the Six-Day War or other historical markers that their parents did. “When you’re more removed from that experience your passion is more cautious, your sense of caution is tempered by your understanding that there are other opinions out there.”

Weil said that students in Pittsburgh — who he said are drawn to issues like the genocide in Darfur and clean-up efforts in New Orleans, where “the intellectual admissions price is pretty low” and there is a clear good guy and bad guy — are also more likely today to question issues and scratch beneath their surface, whether the issue is Israel or anything else.

“We have articulate advocates for Israel, but their approach is more toward education and building bridges than any self-satisfaction that might come from ... a shouting match,” he said.

David Harris, executive director of the Israel on Campus Coalition, said he has witnessed an uptick in Israel activism around the nation in recent years, and that that activism has changed in character to become “proactive, strategic and goal-oriented.”

“Not that long ago, much student programming around Israel was reactive in nature, triggered by [anti-Israel] protests, but students today take a strategic approach for how they want their campus to be around Israel,” he said.

He also noted that despite myriad alternatives for activism diluting Israel’s cause, students can approach Israel through the lenses of gay rights, natural disasters or the environment, all issues faced in their local communities and around the world.

“In the same way students have many windows open on computers, many friends on Facebook, they can manifest their love for Israel in many ways,” said Harris.
Clare Goldwater, vice president for Jewish experience at Hillel, said that while volunteerism is on the rise in today’s generation, activism isn’t growing similarly and that there’s a distinction to be made between the two.

“We want to take some of the passion that comes from volunteering and encourage students to take it to the next level of activism,” said Goldwater, adding that a trip to New Orleans to build houses could also included meeting with local journalists and politicians, learning about the root issues at play and tackling some of those issues upon arriving home. “Instead of taking a symptomatic approach, activism is to look at the underlying causes for something and look for change.”

Goldwater mentioned a group of students at Barnard/Columbia Hillel who received an award last week from the Israel on Campus Coalition for organizing a protest and educational activities when Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was invited to speak at the school last September.

The students’ work was in the best tradition of activism, said Goldwater of their desire to defend Israel in the face of Iran’s threats. “When there’s a need for it, we see a very focused, coordinated response,” she said. “When there’s not a need, students are focusing on educational, cultural and broader Israel activities. When there’s nothing to react against, activism turns into education.”

Rabbi Sarna maintained that with Israel activism, the best way to turn students on and keep them involved is not advocacy based on myth and heroics but a cultural understanding and a reckoning with American and Israeli students’ commonalities.
“The more impactful things are Birthright and parties with Israeli DJ’s and music, which display the best of what Israeli culture has to offer without getting into political history,” said Rabbi Sarna. “It sounds like a dumbing down of history, the idea to give people falafel balls and they’ll like Israel, but that may be the best way to go in a way. The academic battle has to be fought for better teaching on a faculty level, but on a student life level, the more effective thing is promoting the best of Israel.”

“The idea is that we feel like we can make a difference and that’s what allows us to get involved politically and environmentally and with social justice,” said Rutgers’ Avi Smolen. “We don’t have a feeling of apathy, we feel like our vote does count, we can reduce our carbon footprint and make a difference in the lives of Darfurees.”
“This generation is going to be redefining what is Jewish and what is the Jewish community,” said Weil of Pittsburgh. “The extent to which we can help them is the extent to which we’ll [shape] the Jewish community in the future.”

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