In tribute to the recent trend of Buzzfeed articles, here is a “Top Reasons Why” Israel Advocacy edition.
- Because your mom guilt tripped you out of joining the IDF
Obviously you love Israel. You’re a Zionist in one way or another (no matter how you choose to define it). Ideally, you’d be in an olive green uniform right now eating pita bread with chocolate spread, but the reality is you’re in your university library reading about animal cells or asking Newton why he had to come up with all these laws for you to memorize. So, naturally, you’ve got to fulfill that void and desire for standing up for this beautiful place. And it truly baffles you when people argue with you about it. Good thing you actually aren’t trained in Krav Maga or you might hurt the next person who asks you if you speak Jewish.
- Conferences
The most important weekends on your calendar. Eyebrow waxing appointments, completing your homework and visiting your out of state friends revolves around these conferences. You get flown to another city (or better yet, your friends get flown to your city) and rack up mileage points. Learning to master social media outlets, sharpen your debate skills, and exploring the history of the Middle East beats sitting in class any day of the week; not to mention all the new friends and free food that fill up all your spare time.
In addition to conferences, there are countless trips to Israel. If the upperclassmen in your Israel club love you, they will tell you to get your sweet Jewish behind on Birthright ASAP so you can take advantage of every other subsidized trip to Israel and spend every winter and summer break on a different program until you get sick of it or, more likely, make Aliyah.
Disclaimer: the cure for post-conference depression is yet to be discovered.
- Invent your own pro-Israel leadership positions
Odds are if you’ve been deep in the Israel advocacy game for a few years now, you probably helped create the Israel club on your campus. This takes a lot of dedication, time and resources. You’ve been recruiting outside donors, incentivizing all your friends to come to your events, battling with Photoshop to design the perfect sticker or t-shirt design, and applying to every other fellowship or Israel intern position in the region. You will build connections, learn to write the most eloquent email, whip up grant requests in your sleep, and hopefully educate a handful of students on your campus. But your instant reward? Claiming a title for everything you’ve done. Your resume will be filled with, “president,” “founder,” “head of marketing,” “campus rep,” “fellow,” and let’s not forget the five new contacts you have for references and letters of recommendation.
- Making the imaginary yenta sitting on your shoulder proud
Yes, I’m talking about all those nice Jewish boys and cute Jewish girls. We shyly say hi to them in the elevator at hotels, stare at them across the room in senate meetings or training conferences, and wait for the perfect moment to “like” their newly published article in TOI. The only thing sexier than a smart, charismatic, confident guy in a suit is a Jewish, smart, charismatic, confident guy in a suit. Odds are, you’re pretty rad too so you totally got his number at the gala last month and you’ve been dreaming about going to Yafo beach with him ever since.
- There is no better feeling than kicking BDS’s butt
Seeing an apartheid wall and ant-Israel legislation on campus is a big surprise and culture shock to many Jewish students. College is the first time they are self-driven to learn about Israel, human rights and politics in the Middle East, and why terrorist organizations do the things they do. Seeing the opposition makes defending and spreading the truth about Israel a new priority and learning experience that teaches us about our values, brings the Jewish community on campus together and, more often than not, crushes the ridiculous lies and ignorance that the anti-Israel movement is trying to spread and legitimize. We are ever-so-thankful for the organizations that support us, educate us, and pull out all the stops when Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) legislation is proposed to our university senates. BDS is one of those things we wish we didn’t have to face, but when push comes to shove, we are up and alert all day and night researching, writing, and advocating because neither our schoolwork nor Israel will go unattended to.
- Meeting famous people
Remember those pictures of Natalie Portman going viral with her quotes about how much she loves Israel? Well, last year on my flight to AIPAC, I peak my nose out of The Promised Land to see her sitting next to me with her AIPAC lanyard. She told me I was pretty and asked for a quick synopsis on the whole Iran deal. I get it, you’re Natalie Portman and you don’t have time to filter through the array of posts about the Middle East on Facebook like you and I do every single day. (By the way, Mark Zuckerberg should be very grateful for all these Israel advocates posting Middle East this and I heart Bibi that – if it wasn’t for them, I’d have nothing but my second aunt’s baby pictures rolling through that timeline.)
- Okay… maybe not that famous
Did I say Natalie Portman? It may be the case that I was on a bus on my way to AIPAC and I stopped playing Sudoku on my phone to partake in some small talk with a Congresswoman from Ohio. She showed me a picture of her daughter and was mildly impressed when I answered her question about the pro-Israel organizations that send students to AIPAC and what we do.
But for the record I did speak with Bibi that weekend, with only 15,000 people standing between us.