UC Berkeley Responds to Hate

From Rabbi Adam Naftalin-Kelman, Executive Director, Berkeley Hillel

...yesterday Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) organized an ‘International Day of Action.’  The protest occurred on the steps of Sproul Plaza.  Being out there for two hours was incredibly difficult to see and hear.  To hear students yell their support for an Intifada was gut wrenching and emotional for me, Berkeley Hillel staff and Jewish students. 

 For many students, this was their first encounter with others who do not share their strong love for Israel.  What did make me proud was to see so many Jewish students who love Israel out there on Sproul, containing their emotion, holding up Israeli flags and signs, and showing their love and support of Israelis and the Jewish people.  

Special thanks go out to Bears For Israel and Tikvah: Students for Israel for their leadership in organizing a thoughtful and important counter message.  In addition to the students’ leadership, the caring nature of Berkeley Hillel’s Jewish Agency Shlichah, Dror Stein’s leadership and love for Israel helped the student leaders along with so many Jewish students deal with the difficult event.  Jewish students that walked by were appreciative of the work they did.  Their leadership was a beautiful example for all of us.  They conducted themselves with restraint and maturity that would make Am Yisrael proud.  When confronted with difficult individuals or conversations, they respectfully engaged with them without escalating the situation.  While I felt such pain and sadness when I read SJP’s signs and when I heard their chants, at the same time, I gained such strength and was full of pride to be a Jew and lover of Israel, thanks to the leadership and commitment of the students. 

Zionism in Action: Feeding the Hungry

The proposal was brilliant, and so simple.

Via Algemeiner

Grassroots pro-Israel activists in the UK have launched a novel campaign with a dual purpose: combating the boycott movement targeting Israel while helping the homeless at the same time.

Sussex Friends of Israel, a group based in Brighton on England’s south coast, is calling on consumers around the country to buy Israeli products and donate them to homeless charities to mark what it is calling “IsrAction Day” on December 21st, the fifth day of Chanukah and four days before the Christmas holiday, traditionally a time of charitable giving.

 

The idea for IsrAction Day crystallized over the summer, when Sussex Friends of Israel countered BDS demonstrators outside the Israeli-owned Ecostream store in Brighton. As part of their strategy of engaging passersby, the group handed out free snacks, donating the leftover food to a local homeless shelter.

 

Now, working with similar groups in Manchester, Nottingham and Birmingham, Sussex Friends of Israel intends to implement a local strategy on a national level. Boosting this aim, the long-established Jewish Chronicle newspaper today announced that it was “proud to lend its support” to the initiative in a cover story.

 

Sussex Friends of Israel is encouraging pro-Israel groups in the US and elsewhere to follow their example.

 

“This is a simple initiative that can be implemented anywhere in the world,” Sussex Friends of Israel spokesperson Fiona Sharpe told The Algemeiner. “It can be supported by large organizations or by individuals.  The message is the same – buy Israeli produce, give it to homeless shelters and food banks.  While our support for Israel is always foremost in our minds, we must also remember those in need in our own communities.”

From Sussex friends of Israel's phenomenally successful day of action

 We can also do it here.

Via Emunah:

Mitzvah Goreret Mitzvah. One mitzvah leads to another.

Here's an action to you take right now to make the holidays a little bit brighter for people in need.
Inspired by our brilliant friends at Sussex friends of Israel :

Go to your local store. Buy some food from Israel and donate it to your local foodbank. Its so easy- you'll help Israel, you'll help the needy during this holiday season, and its a great big slap in the face to the BDS'ers.

You get extra points for photographing your haul.

You get extra points for buying your Israeli products at one of the local many Arab grocery stores that have steadfastly refused to give in to the bullying of the BDS movement.

1...2...3...GO!!!!