ZOA Campus for me started with the summer Student Leadership Mission to Israel. I feel like I came back with a truly enforced understanding of the difficult situations in Israel, and that I had the tools to hold a conversation with anyone about it. The West Coast campus coordinator for ZOA, Leore Ben-David, has been absolutely amazing in turning what we want to do into a reality. Every time that we host a table on campus, we always have support from her – she would show up with SodaStream root beer floats and enough attitude and energy to wake up the entire school (even when she was sick)! Whenever any local Israel related events are happening, I always get a text or a call from her to invite me and other members of our club to attend. That being said, we also never feel like we are being told what to do. All of our events are our own ideas, and no agendas are pushed on us which allows us to really feel connected to and proud of our events on campus.
Natan Benchimol
School
ZOA Campus Positions and Programs
ZOA Student Leadership Mission to Israel
Campus Fellowship
Activism
Santa Monica College (SMC) is a small community college that offers amazing transfer opportunities to larger colleges like UCLA, UCB, UCSD, and many out of state schools as well. I am the president of Students Supporting Israel at SMC, and our club recognizes that we have an amazing opportunity at our school to share with others why Israel has left such a positive impression on us. We all think highly of Israel for our own reasons, so as a group we are able to connect to a broad range of students with different ideologies and interests. Our goal is to leave a positive impression of Israel on as many students as we can so that when they transfer out of SMC and experience BDS or anti-Israel movements, they won’t automatically assume that the one-sided narrative against Israel is true. We hope that when they witness anti-Israel activity they will be able to recall the true passion and love for Israel that they witnessed from Students Supporting Israel at SMC.
Involvement
ZOA Campus for me started with the summer Student Leadership Mission to Israel. I feel like I came back with a truly enforced understanding of the difficult situations in Israel, and that I had the tools to hold a conversation with anyone about it. The West Coast campus coordinator for ZOA, Leore Ben-David, has been absolutely amazing in turning what we want to do into a reality. Every time that we host a table on campus, we always have support from her – she would show up with SodaStream root beer floats and enough attitude and energy to wake up the entire school (even when she was sick)! Whenever any local Israel related events are happening, I always get a text or a call from her to invite me and other members of our club to attend. That being said, we also never feel like we are being told what to do. All of our events are our own ideas, and no agendas are pushed on us which allows us to really feel connected to and proud of our events on campus.