Gaining a perspective on Israel

As the number of anti-Israel protests on college campuses continue to rise, it is now more important than ever that students are properly prepared to advocate for Israel when they attend college.
Recently, a select group of teenagers from the tri-state area traveled to Israel as part of the “Write on for Israel” program, sponsored by The Jewish Week of New York, aims to equip high schools students from different backgrounds with advocacy skills.
The trip, which was chaperoned by Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway (HAFTR) High School’s Zionism teacher, Tuvia Book, included three HAFTR seniors, Katie Glickman, Aliza Lifshitz, and Eric Wietschner. The students, who were selected following a rigorous admissions process, traveled around the country and met journalists, professionals from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and other students.
The group’s first stop was the Golan Heights near Israel’s northern most border. The students learned about last summer’s IDF military operation “Operation Protective Edge” in Gaza from soldiers from the IDF’s highly respected Infantry brigade. The soldiers discussed the IDF’s high regard for the well-being of civilians in combat situations. These values were repeated to the students when they visited an Israeli Air Base a few days later.
During their time in Jerusalem the students also met with lone soldiers. Lone soldiers are members of the IDF who do not have immediate family or physical connections to Israel. The students gained a better understanding of what type of people the IDF is really comprised of, not just what is portrayed by certain media.

The group visited an amazing institution in Israel that is saving the lives of thousands in need, the “Save a Child’s Heart” (SACH) wing at the Wolfson Medical Center in Holon. SACH provides medial assistance to children from undeveloped countries around the world. The students were able to volunteer in the wing’s recuperation center where they interacted with the patients who had just undergone extensive medical procedures. To say the students were affected by the experience would be an understatement.
“Through our interactions and deeply engaging sessions we were able to obtain both narratives of the ongoing conflict over Israel. We met with individuals who stood on all wavelengths of the spectrum. We were able to see Israel through our own eyes as well as the eyes of its citizens, enemies, and critics,” HAFTR senior Katie Glickman said. “Although the trip was mainly geared toward advocacy training and admiring Israel itself, it also held an extremely moving spiritual experience for me as well as for my peers.”