By: Avi Fuld

Many Israel groups on campus excel in planning all sorts of events: speakers, rallies, tabling, and cultural fests. It is often overlooked that pro-Israel groups need to continually educate their members internally in order to strengthen themselves.

This past week, Alan Levine, Managing Director of Hasbara Fellowships, traveled to many different college campuses throughout New England. He held educational seminars on Communicating For Israel at Boston University and Brandeis University. Rabbi Chananel Weiner, President of Aish Boston, attended the BU seminar and was impressed by its success. He reflected, “As is apparent in the last few months, the situation in Israel is dynamic and constantly changing.  That is why it is imperative that we keep our students updated and regularly give them a refresher on utilizing their skills and knowledge to stand up for Israel and educate their peers.”

I participated at the seminar at Brandeis and can personally vouch for the event’s positive impact. The members of the Brandeis Zionist Alliance sat in the room, intrigued and engaged. “We need to get our narrative out there. People need to understand that only Israel has made serious efforts for peace in the Middle East, but unfortunately Israelis do not have a partner in peace at this time.” Levine said. Levine continued to relay effective ways to go about talking about Israel.

After the seminar, I received positive and enthusiastic feedback from almost all of the students. Having internal education like this not only creates a more educated member base for your Israel group, but it allows for a chance to reward those loyal members who put in hours of energy and work towards Israel activism.

The same concept of internal education applies not only to your pro-Israel group, but to any successful organization. This past week in one of my business courses, I studied a case on Japanese-based technology company, Kyocera. Kyocera demonstrated a remarkably successful corporate atmosphere, which can be heavily attributed to its internal education. Not only would the CEO, Dr. Kazuo Inamori, have periodic meetings with divisional leaders, but when hiring new employees, he would invest over a week in training them as well as thoroughly analyzing the company’s philosophy. He felt it necessary to have his employees (numbering well over 1000) truly believe in the company’s philosophy and be able to internalize it. It paid off because Kyocera went on to have a loyal and ambitious employee force that worked tirelessly.

Every pro-Israel group should take a similar stance towards internal education as Dr. Inamori did for his employees. Be creative and find different educational mediums. Bring in a speaker, but make it an exclusive reward for your members by limiting attendance to your Israel group’s members- they will get to ask more questions while appreciating the intimate environment. Or if that is not an option, appoint one person from your executive board each week and have them give a 5 minute briefing on an issue or facet of Israeli society. Small steps like these will have dramatically positive effects for your respective groups.

There is so much potential for growth on every one of your campuses, so find a way to educate your pro-Israel group, and soon enough you will have the most loyal and ambitious club on campus.