Fewer than 30,000 fans were at Dodger Stadium in 1965 when Sandy Koufax pitched his perfect game, although hundreds of thousands of people subsequently claimed to have been present to witness the feat firsthand.
Referencing that historic game from 50 years ago and those wishful claims, The Israel Group’s (TIG) Jack Saltzberg recently assured a group of 120 high-school juniors and seniors that their presence in a Shalhevet High School conference room for the launch of TIG’s High School Speakers Program was unique and potentially historic.
“Today, you are the first students to be part of this program,” Saltzberg, TIG’s founder and executive director told the students on Nov. 6. “In 10 years, you are all going to be hearing about The Israel Group and a program that is in high schools all over the country. Every person who said they were there, you all will know that you were the first.”
The intent of the program will be to open a discussion and to prepare pro-Israel high school students for the type of arguments and opposition they will face when they get to college and beyond. TIG was founded in December 2014 to combat the international Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, and speaker topics will include media bias, the Gaza Strip and the challenge of counterterrorism, terminology in the
Arab-Israeli conflict and political warfare.
“The disinformation and the rewriting of history is one of the most insidious crimes of our time,” said Daniel Kaufman, president of TIG, which is based in Los Angeles. “I just can’t sit back and let this happen. It seems to me the most important people to educate are high school students. If you’re trying to educate them when they get to college, it’s too little, too late. You have to start now.”
The Shalhevet presentation by Palestinian Media Watch founder and director Itamar Marcus represented the first visit in a high school program that will reach several local Jewish high schools in Los Angeles in the spring before expanding to New York and New Jersey in 2017. Ultimately, it will grow to include schools in the Christian community, too, according to TIG administrators
More than a dozen speakers and organizations have been lined up to visit participating schools — including YULA Girls High School, YULA Boys High School, Milken Community Schools and Harkham GAON Academy (formerly Yeshiva High Tech) — where they will speak and hold post-presentation Q-and-A sessions with students. Schedules permitting, these speakers will include comedian Bill Maher of “Real Time With Bill Maher”; Bar-Ilan University political studies professor Gerald Steinberg; and Charles Jacobs, president of Americans for Peace and Tolerance.
Since bringing well-known speakers directly to high school campuses requires funds and resources that many schools don’t possess, the High School Speakers Program fills a distinct need, said Rabbi Ari Segal, Shalhevet’s head of school. Its objective also meshes with Shelhevet’s goals in ways that some might find controversial, he said, explaining that he expects students to question and take issue with difficult topics, not simply to blindly take the speakers’ perspectives as truth.
“When Jack and Danny first presented the idea, we said, ‘Hey listen, we don’t want people coming in here and telling the students what they already know and believe,’ ” Segal said. “At the end of the day, if that’s all that happened, they’re not going to be equipped to get onto a college campus and hear voices that disagree with them and push back in a kind of confident and thoughtful way. They’re just going to be overwhelmed.
“I know that’s relatively controversial,” Segal continued. “Some think, ‘Why are we exposing students to views that push back,’ whether it’s against the legitimacy of Israel or the support of Israel. This is a situation where the kids feel comfortable in their classrooms and they feel comfortable asking questions. They can ask their teachers for ideas. That’s the kind of educational experience we’re looking for.”
During his approximately 45-minute presentation last week, Marcus reviewed a selection of photos, graphics and videos across a spectrum of Palestinian media showing hatred toward or dehumanization of Jews. Some came in the form of songs taught to Palestinian kindergarten students. Others involved inflammatory speeches made by clergy during services at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. Marcus said multiple Palestinian schools are named after people who have committed terrorist acts and that social media posts label cities in Israel as being “occupied.” Many of these examples are distributed through channels that are sanctioned by the Palestinian Authority (PA), he added.
Marcus, who has represented Israel in negotiations with the PA on incitement, said these sentiments against Jews or Israel are rooted in racial hatred rather than linked to any diplomatic efforts to resolve border disputes between Israel and Palestine.
“If the problem with Israel and the Jews is that we are the sons of monkeys and pigs and we’re the most evil of God’s creations, then what difference would an adjustment of borders make?” Marcus said. “This is not about territory. It’s about who we are.”
Marcus’ presentation also included examples of hope for the future, including a 2014 soccer match near the Gaza Strip in which Palestinian and Israeli children played together, and how viewers of “The Voice Israel” overwhelmingly selected the Arab-Israeli Lina Makhoul as the winner.
The Shalhevet students were given post-event surveys to rate the event and the speaker’s effectiveness. Senior Jake Benyowitz called the experience “incredible.”
“I hope that people take away that this is not bashing Islamic people or showing anyone that Islam is a bad religion, because it’s not,” said Benyowitz, president of Shalhevet’s student group Firehawks for Israel. “We are interested in peace, and I hope that’s what comes out of this type of education.”
More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.