By: Daniel Cohen

Students face different challenges on different campuses.  For some students, the start of the semester means the start of an entirely new pro-Israel club – while for others, it signals an opportunity to try something different.

At DePaul University, fellows Hannah Jacobs and Leah Karchmer have taken on the challenge of starting an “Israel Advocates” club.  Independent of Hillel, Israel Advocates will focus on building coalitions with other student groups on a campus that is known for having anti-Israel tendencies, from former professor Norman Finkelstein to several current professors to the BDS-driven Sabra Hummus boycott late last year.  Nevertheless, Israel Advocates has started off quickly, already having their first general meeting, two op-eds out, and a plan for an ambitious Peace Week featuring two tabling days, an “Israel Inside” screening, a leadership dinner, a “Give Peace a Shot” party, another op ed, an advocacy training session, and a Palestinian Media Watch presentation to top it all off.

Meanwhile, at Western Michigan, fellow Caryn Zeitlin has gotten her pro-Israel group, Blue and White Forever, off the ground.  With an advocacy training session and an op ed already in the books, Blue and White Forever will be tabling for the first time as an organization today, braving the cold, windy snow of Kalamazoo.  Blue and White Forever is also hoping to put together events like a Save a Child’s Heart fundraiser as part of their Peace Week, and eventually publish a petition featuring signatures from pro-Israel student leaders on campus.

For fellows Nate Chertok at the University of Illinois at Chicago and Geoff Aharon at York University, the time was ripe to produce a viral video – inspired by the “Sh*t People Say About _______” fad.  Culminating with suggestions and input from dozens of fellows, and shared as a group effort on facebook and twitter, the video has officially gone viral, with over 5k views in just one day of being posted on Youtube.  You can check out the video here.

Building clubs, making viral videos… Israel advocacy is nothing if not creative.  As the semester moves on, who knows what else fellows will think of and who will earn a spot on the front page of the Campus Pulse!  Get thinking!