Ludzie pragną czasami się rozstawać, żeby móc tęsknić, czekać i cieszyć się z powrotem.
ynet.co.il for Yedioth Achronot, and www.haaretz.co.il for the broadsheet Ha'aretz), or watch Israeli films that might be available www.wujs.org.il 67
Hasbara Handbook: Promoting Israel on Campus
from resource centres or even the Israeli embassy's cultural attaché. The time and effort required to learn Hebrew properly might be too much for many students, but for those who are interested it can be a very rewarding experience. Supplement classes and Hebrew circles with words of the day/week/month on your communications and publications.
Israeli Students
A large number of Israelis, when they finish the army and come to study, just want to 'escape'.
They want to escape the claustrophobia that is modern-day Israel, relax, and get a degree whilst they do it. Others, who haven't got in to study law or medicine in Israel, are happy to go abroad to learn their chosen subject. Israeli students are a great natural resource for student groups everywhere. Use Israeli students to run educational events, social events, and even just to come along and reminisce about their homeland at various events. Israeli students often don't get involved in Jewish activities whilst studying abroad - a concerted effort to organise events with them and for them could work to get them active, and provide a healthy injection of 'Israel' to your activities.
Israeli News and Current Affairs
Unfortunately Israel is often in the international news, and students are interested to know what is going on there. Obviously there are disagreements about how to interpret what goes on in Israel, and different students relate to Israel's politics in different ways. What remains constant is that Jewish students need to be kept abreast of what is going on, and need a certain level of understanding of Israeli political history and of Israeli society.
Not every Jewish student will want to be involved in Israel advocacy, but this doesn’t mean that they won’t want to learn about Israel. Publicise details of where to find up-to-date Israeli news.
Write your own run-down of the week's news from Israel. Organise speakers to explain news in more depth, so that students understand things a bit better. Do things to remember victims of war and terror in Israel (and amongst Palestinians), such as mentioning them in prayers, announcements, and writing about them in newsletters.
Education About Israel
Thankfully not everything in Israel and about Israel is connected to war, possible war, and impending disaster. There are a whole host of topics that are interesting, and that students might be interested in. All the usual methods of education - speakers, discussions, articles, classes, trips, games, educational parties etc. - can be used to educate about Israel. Try to focus on 68 www.wujs.org.il
Skills for Israel Advocacy
topics that have applicability to the lives of students in the Diaspora, such as religious-secular relations, aliyah, relating to the poor and disadvantaged, and so on.
Charity Work
There are literally hundreds of good causes in Israel that could benefit from help. Organisations such as the New Israel Fund are able to put student groups in touch with charities worthy of support and can be found via their website www.nif.org. Raising money for charity can be quite easy, and a great way of bringing people together. Involve as many people as possible in selecting the charity, and make sure that this charity isn't going to alienate members. Then, get organised, and get raising money.
Use charity work as an opportunity for education. Use discussions about whom to support to give educational input, invite speakers to provide briefings about the issues that you are raising money for, and distribute interesting articles from the Israeli press.
Yom HaZikaron and Yom Ha'atzmaut
Two days in the Jewish calendar make a lot more sense inside of Israel than outside of Israel.