Club Z National Teen Conference Coming to Los Angeles January 12-15

How do you get adults to have “civilized conversations” about Israel? Start teaching them the basics while they’re in high school. That’s what the Israel education organization Club Z aims to do. For the first time since it was founded in 2015, Club Z will be holding its National Teen Conference on the west coast—right here in Los Angeles from January 12-15.

The Club Z mission is to raise “modern-day Zionists who are articulate and knowledgeable leaders.”

The goal of Club Z can be summarized in one photo that they put on their pamphlets: a photo of a pro-Israel college student on campus smiling while holding a sign that reads “Come have a conversation with us.”

They address everything from hate on social media, to identifying media bias, to confronting antisemitism on college campuses, to organizing and speaking at Israel rallies and how to counter protest safely and effectively.

The annual conference will bring hundreds of students and alumni, and a slate of keynote speakers including Israel Activist Adela Cojab, IDF veteran and comedian Joel Chasnoff, PragerU CEO Marissa Streit, and Jewish Broadcasting Services Vice President Shahar Azani. Unlike most conferences, the keynote speakers typically stay for the duration of the Club Z weekend for maximum impact.

The organization’s founder, Masha Merkulova conceived of the idea for Club Z out of a personal necessity in teaching her children. In 2010 and 2011, she noticed that even though her seventh-grader son attended a reputable Jewish day school in the San Francisco Bay area, the Jewish education from the day school, Hebrew school, summer camps, and youth movements didn’t address the conflict nor “prepare our kids to understand various anti-Israel accusations.”

“The education has been sterilized,” Merkulova told the Journal. “Everything is done through the lens of Jewish values— which is great, we need to have values. But there is more to Jewish identity than Jewish values. We have been graduating thousands and thousands of kids who don’t understand that Judaism is not a religion. They don’t understand that being a Jew means being connected to a specific land in a specific place, and so all of these things culminated in our kids [being] unable to defend themselves when it comes to hatred not only on the college campus, but even in in their high schools and especially in public high schools.”

Merkulova looked for a program that she envisioned could rectify her concerns. She couldn’t find any.

“When I did not find anything, in my limitless arrogance and chutzpah, I thought ‘well how hard could this be? I’ll just I’ll teach and I’ll run a short limited program of series of workshops for [my son]  and his friends.’”

Club Z started as just for boys and soon thereafter brought girls in. Merkulova would cook dinners for them on Saturday nights, they’d get together, and she would present information about Israel. From there, the kids started inviting more friends and Merkulova started inviting speakers.

In January 2015, Club Z held its first conference with just under 20 high school students. It was at a yoga retreat site in Calistoga in wine country, which has since been destroyed by wildfires.

The kids wanted more. They liked the community Club Z created and kept asking when the next session and the next conference would be.

Since then, Club Z now has over 150 teams across the United States. The organization grew and so did the number of alumni who wanted to keep coming back after they went off to college.

Batsheva Frankel, the Club Z Director of Education said that over the years, she has witnessed a surge in interest in Jewish education from previously less-engaged Jewish youth and young college students who attended Club Z. She says that the stressing of respectful and fact-based conversations, especially in the digital age is paramount.

“What we’ve always done, and of course now it’s even more important, is to talk about how to have a civilized conversation,” Frankel told the Journal. “We don’t encourage our teens, but even the parents, to get involved in crazy social media stuff because it’s a no-win.”

Frankel said that in the wake of the attacks of October 7, a lot of the teams are having to have these conversations with their friends that they’ve known for a long time. And that’s one of the hallmarks of the 2024 National Teen Conference in Los Angeles.

“One of the things we’re guiding them with, which we’ve never had to do before, is how to have conversations with your friends who are now suddenly posting lies about Israel or liking different posts that are just outrageous and it’s painful for these teens.”

The 2023 National Teen Conference in Miami included dozens breakout sessions, on topics such as “Raised to Hate: Ask Me Anything” (where Yahya Mahmid, an Arab-Israeli zionist lamented his upbringing as a Jew hater), “Will the Real Jews Please Stand Up? Antisemitism and Black-Jewish Relations” (featuring Joshua Washington, Director for the Institute for Black Solidarity with Israel), “How to Spot Anti-Israel Bias in the News,” and “Rules of Engagement with Colonel Richard Kemp.”

Colonel Kemp, a retired British Army officer and veteran of the Gulf War, Bosnian War, War in Afghanistan and Iraq War, will be at the conference yet again this year.

Between the annual conferences, the local Club Z groups around the country keep the enthusiasm and engagement amongst members together. Even as they go off to college, many alumni come back to support the local teen chapters. Isabella Gurevich, currently a sophomore at Brooklyn College, shared what impact Club Z has had on her, especially in the contentious college campus environment.

“Every time I am thrown with hate on campus, I can reach out to a friend I went through Club Z with,” Gurevich told the Journal. “And every time I go to a conference, I always learn something new. They always have a different speaker, new sessions, a different everything.”

But the goal always remains the same. Gurevich credits Club Z with preparing her for anti-Israel and anti-Jewish sentiments on campus, and for inspiring her to pursue a degree in marketing and political science. Her involvement with Club Z has also led her to participate in multiple conferences aimed at curbing antisemitism every year.

“I tell high schoolers absolutely not to be just active, but to be the most active,” Gurevich said.

Attendees don’t even need to be Jewish to attend. Although registration is closed, Club Z is still selling keynote tickets.

Club Z’s marketing director, Gail Rauner, who has spent over two decades in the world of public relations, says that “Club Z is the fulfillment of her career dreams.”

“Our Club Z curriculum lasts the entire year and then kids stay in it for three or four years,” Rauner told the Journal. “So when you spend the time and explain the nuances of Israel’s history, it gives the kids a lot of confidence to understand the ancestral and even modern politics of the State of Israel.”