Upload
makom-israel
View
214
Download
0
Embed Size (px)
DESCRIPTION
Â
Citation preview
Israel, Gaza & the Jews Makom North American Campus Tour August-December 2014 – Final Report
Overall, nearly 80% of participants felt that the seminar met their expectations to a moderate degree or higher.
makomisrael.org | @makomisrael | facebook.com/makomisrael
1
“Thank you so much for offer-ing it -- I am re-turning to cam-pus feeling more empowered!”
- seminar participant
The seminar's goals were for participants to:
Process and unpack the events of summer 2014
Learn new frameworks with which to consider the basic themes at the root of the conflict
Receive practical training to hone their abilities to work with students around these issues
Leave with a heightened sense of confidence in talking about Israel, Gaza, and the Jews
Makom ran 28 seminars
for staff from over 36 campuses
to a total of over 315 participants
In the aftermath of Operation Protective Edge, Makom collaborated with Hillel International to set out on an
extensive North American campus tour, running half-day and (in a few cases) day-long workshops on "Israel, Gaza
and the Jews" for Hillel staff, other Jewish campus professionals and student leaders. These workshops, which were
coordinated and marketed to the field by Hillel International, gave participants a safe space to share their own
feelings and opinions about this summer’s events in Israel; a 4-point tool for talking about any Israel-related
headline in the context of Jewish identity; practice in talking about "just war" theory and "asymmetric warfare"; and
easily graspable strategies to invite and navigate complicated conversations about Israel.
The content of the seminar was resonant: it looked at a topical event from current affairs, and helped participants
dig deeper into the issue to reveal the broader issues underpinning them. In many cases, the seminar helped
participants prepare for tough conversations on campus.
In addition to the campus audiences we reached, there were four regional trainings (in Washington, D.C., Los
Angeles, Miami, and Orlando) for shlichim,
staff from the senior Israel team at Hillel as
well as Federations.
More recently, Makom adapted and took
this seminar on the road to different
countries, including the UK, South Africa,
and Hungary. This report does not include
data from seminars outside North America,
whose results were tabulated separately.
Albany American Jewish U Baruch Binghamton Boston University Brooklyn Brown Indiana U at Bloomington Johns Hopkins Kent State
McGill Orange County Ohio State Ottawa Pittsburgh Rutgers San Francisco Silicon Valley Swarthmore Temple
Tufts UC Berkley UCLA UCSD Université de Montréal University of Florida University of Maryland University of Miami University of Pennsylvania University of Toronto
Campuses reached include:
pretty ambitious for a short 1/2 day seminar!
makomisrael.org | @makomisrael | facebook.com/makomisrael
2
In their own words… The MAKOM seminar was….
“What are the most significant things that you learned or experienced during the seminar?”
You don't have to agree with policies and you are allowed to ask the hard questions
Instead of small details, work towards helping the person arrive at their own conclusions by bringing
up better and deeper questions.
I thought the [Makom Matrix] was an incredibly important framework for the conversation.
[Understanding] which people we are targeting and how we get them from point A to point B was an
incredibly useful conversation.
I appreciated dissecting hatikva and figuring out what each of those terms meant and what they
meant for me individually and for different student groups on campus.
Thinking of uncomfortable Israel topics in terms of להיות עם חופשי בארצנו
In a 22-item questionnaire that sought to compare participants' responses before and after the seminar, we
found that there was positive movement as a result of the seminar on nearly every item. The following chart lists
the 5 statements which showed the highest increases between pre and post questionnaires. The numbers
represent the average scores on a 1—5 scale where 1 was “not at all” and 5 was “to a very great extent”.
Given the fact that the seminars ranged in length from day-long to half-days, these results are especially
significant as it can be difficult to achieve any real movement among participants in such a short period of
time. It should also be noted that most of the items with significant positive movement reflect the seminar’s
stated educational goals.
Question PRE POST
I feel confident in having conversations with students about the events in Israel of this past summer 3.59 3.86
I have an understanding of the issues at the root of the Israel-Gaza conflict 3.7 3.94
I feel prepared to have conversations with students about the events in Israel of this past summer 3.61 3.89
I feel that Jews around the world can affect what happens in Israel 3.73 3.95
I feel that I understand what happened in Israel over the summer 3.8 3.99
“…You really provided us a very important toolbox for dealing with very big questions…I have already received so many positive re-sponses from participants and we all agreed that this is a workshop in which everyone should take part.”
- Amir Bavler, Israel Fellow, Hopkins Hillel
76% of those who answered said they wanted
to be added to Makom's mailing list.
“…We all acquired great tools and have taken away a great deal of value. Our Jewish students and broader Ottawa Jewish community appreciate your efforts!”
- Scott Goldstein, Executive Director, Hillel Ottawa
What We Learned:
We hope these seminars
will be the beginning of a
longer term relationship
between Makom and the
campuses. In particular, we
have received substantial
interest in the 4-point tool for talking about Israel (4HQ), and are working to make sure this will lead to a more
substantive training process around this topic.
We found that the participants in many seminars urged for fewer specifics of Gaza and were more keen to
address the general challenge of Israel education on campus. While the immediacy of the conflict was what
attracted campuses' interest, participants made it clear to us that a more general in-depth training in Israel
engagement is a pressing need.
Since most of the workshops were on 4 hours long, there was an
overwhelming sense that participants needed more time to work through
such complex issues. Recruitment and funding for longer retreat-format
training workshops must be sought.
Press: Thanks to The Jewish Agency's marketing department, this initiative
was picked up in the Times of Israel. However, ideally more local press and
media attention could have been coordinated.
Engagement with the Jewish Agency Israel Fellows to Hillel: Though not
every campus we visited was host to a Jewish Agency Israel Fellow to Hillel,
in many of the campuses that had Israel Fellows, the Fellow played a key
role in coordinating the seminar and making it happen. This was especially
impressive given how early in the year the seminars were, and we are very
grateful for their effort.
In addition, with the help of Hillel International, local community Shlichim,
shinshinim, and/or youth movement shlichim were invited and matched to
participate in the seminars (in total, over 30 non-campus shlichim
participated). We look forward to many more – ad hoc and more
strategically planned – opportunities
for training and enriching shlichim.
With heartfelt thanks to Hillel for partnering
in this fruitful, collaborative endeavor.
“…Makom’s thoughtful, deep and nuanced approach to the conflict made a deep impression on our program staff and our Israel student leadership…They left the workshop energized and just two days later jumped on the opportunity to use Makom's exercises and materials in their own group discussions. At a time when emotions are high on campus, Jonny struc-tured a session that brought "more light and less heat" into the room.”
- Rabbi Jeffrey A. Summit, Ph.D. Neubauer Executive Director, Tufts Hillel
Two noteworthy responses to the question
“What would you change about the seminar?” included:
(1) a desire for more general/basic/background information on
the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict and
(2) more in-depth training in implementing the Four Hatikvah
Questions beyond the immediate Gaza conflict.
In addition, many respondents felt the seminar was too short
and cited the need for more training, practical applications,
role playing, etc.
What additional topics, issues, materials, or opportunities would help you in your work?
“More professional development so that we can continue learning how to engage our students and have them want to talk and learn more about Israel”
“Providing Hillel professionals and other Jewish communal leaders with [more] op-portunities to talk about Israel among them-selves”
“More MAKOM material”
It was very nice to speak about [the Gaza Conflict] with young Jewish professionals. It was clear that
many of them needed to open up about it. - seminar participant
makomisrael.org | @makomisrael | facebook.com/makomisrael
3