Israel and Jewish Rights Advocacy Need Help

I am a daughter of Iran and a child of Israel. As a product of my parents, Iranian-born immigrants who escaped religious persecution in the 1970s, and as the guardian of my religious and cultural beliefs, I understand that I am blessed to live in a country that gives me the great freedoms of religion, speech and existence. For the past year, as Co-President of the Trojans for Israel organization on the USC campus, I fought every day, alongside organization members, so that those who cherish their Judaism and commitment to Israel could express their beliefs without fear, distress, or dread.

Zionism and Judaism run deep in my blood. I cherish and protect my religion even as our opponents attack it. I commit myself to passion-driven works of Zionism because I know, we know, that the most important thing keeping Judaism and its people together is Israel. But I have seen how living in a secular society has taken many in the Jewish and Zionist populations farther away from their religious identity, and therefore, farther away from their attachment to the land of Israel and the movement of Zionism.

So I come from a place of honesty and write this with compassion: the Jewish and Zionist communities in our country no longer know how to advocate for Israel—or for themselves. The debate over Israel’s safety and security has become dangerously polarized and anyone who dares stand up on Israel’s behalf in public faces the risk of harsh criticism. But advocating for a religious homeland in a secular country is even more difficult when so many in our community’s ties to the Jewish faith, and therefore, the movement of Zionism, have gradually weakened.

So I come from a place of honesty and write this with compassion: the Jewish and Zionist communities in our country no longer know how to advocate for Israel—or for themselves.

That means that many of us will need to find our inspiration and motivation from some source other than Jewish religious practices in order to be effective advocates for Israel. In a time of increasing anti-Zionism and antisemitism in the United States—especially on college campuses—those of us who stand with Israel in the face of hate are pleading for help.

The challenge is only getting harder as the recent violence in Israel has led to an increase in antisemitism in this country to all-time highs. We’ve been trained to make our case on social media, where propaganda and misinformation from our opponents run rampant. But online advocacy is most useful for organizing and motivating our own supporters: the truth is that limiting ourselves to online involvement does little to persuade those who have yet to choose a side.

The most effective way of advocating for Israel and the Jewish people requires us to move away from our computer screens and move out into the real world. It’s scary. It’s risky. But it is also necessary for us if we intend to raise awareness that Jews and other supporters of Israel are being attacked—for their birthright religion and/or their belief in the birthright land of the Jewish people. Our student leaders have been left on the front lines of the public Zionist movement: they are carrying the weight for all of us, and they need more of us to step in to help share that burden.

The determination of the Jewish and Zionist communities and our potential to build support for our cause is greater than most of us think. But we will become much more likely to achieve those goals if we learn how to more effectively stand up for ourselves—in public and in person. Social media holds sizable power, and it is an effective tool, but in addition to communicating with each other, we must extend our advocacy beyond our screens and into our communities. I’ve learned from my work on campus that in-person activism can create stronger connections, more reasoned discourse, and often greater levels of trust among those in the discussion. That gets us closer to peace.

But we will become much more likely to achieve those goals if we learn how to more effectively stand up for ourselves—in public and in person.

Inspiration, passion, and education are the keys to the most important advocacy in the world: the advocacy for Israel as the Jewish state that is the embodiment of safety and security for its people. But it requires courage and confidence too, qualities that we will need for our Jewish and Zionist populations to thrive.

Chloe Rad is a Milken School alum and will be graduating from USC with a degree from the Marshall School of Business in 2022. She is a student leader on the USC campus serving as a former Co-President of Trojans for Israel and is currently the Chair of College Outreach for the Women’s International Zionist Organization (WIZO) of Los Angeles.