California decided to prohibit legacy admissions in the college application process, a practice long criticized for favoring white or wealthy students based on their familial alumni connections, becoming the fourth US state to do so, ABC News reported.

"In California, everyone should be able to get ahead through merit, skill, and hard work," Newsom said in a statement. "The California Dream shouldn't be accessible to just a lucky few, which is why we're opening the door to higher education wide enough for everyone, fairly."

The decision comes after the Supreme Court's June 2023 ruling limiting race-based affirmative action programs for colleges and universities. California had previously banned affirmative action in 1996.

"In light of this shift, proponents of AB 1780 advocated for admissions criteria that additionally ensure that factors like wealth or personal relationships do not unduly influence admissions decisions," the governor's office stated. The new law aims to level the playing field for college applicants. "AB 1780 aims to ensure that admissions decisions are based on merit rather than personal connections, reducing biases in the admissions process at private colleges in California," explained the governor's office.

As I think legacy preferences in college admissions are outrageous, I am pleased to see them ended for California colleges. Although I wanted the schools to ban them, not for the state to come in and command their end. Anyway, key language here: https://t.co/kwUdKqUn3L pic.twitter.com/yp4BH7kEJY

— Orin Kerr (@OrinKerr) September 30, 2024

Public opinion appears to align with this move. According to an April 2022 Pew Research study, 75% of Americans surveyed believe a student's relationship to an alumni should not be a factor in admissions.

To ensure compliance, all private colleges and universities in California must now submit an annual report detailing their admissions practices.

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Nearly all Jewish college students and alumni who participated in a recent survey by Alums for Campus Fairness said antisemitism is a problem on college campuses, with three-fourths describing it as a "very serious" issue.

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Among the 312 enrolled students and 194 alumni from different Jewish affiliations who took part in the survey, released on Monday, 95% said antisemitism was a problem on their current or former campus.

In addition, 79% of respondents said they experienced or heard firsthand accounts of "offensive or threatening antisemitic" comments; 69% avoided certain places, events and situations out of fear because they were Jewish; and nearly half of current students believe antisemitism is getting worse on their campus. Further, 44% of respondents said they experienced or heard firsthand about being physically threatened because they are Jewish.

Some of the respondents in the ACF survey shared their firsthand experiences with campus antisemitism, which included Holocaust comparisons, Jewish stereotyping and the use of antisemitic tropes. Negligence on the part of the school administration was "consistently cited," ACF said.

"These findings illuminate the troubling reality on US campuses – antisemitism is increasingly a pernicious threat, with Jewish students under siege," ACF executive director Avi D. Gordon said.

He added, "Today's universities take great pains to embrace and protect students from all races, religions, and backgrounds. But Jewish students are often left to fend for themselves against discrimination. Administrators must take immediate steps to remedy this situation, and alumni should work with administrators, students, and allies alike to rid their alma maters of hate."

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), in coordination with the Jewish community, announced on Monday its commitment to address an alarming increase in anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist harassment and discrimination on its campus.

"Students who choose the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for their college education make that decision with an expectation that they will find the freedom and security to grow, to explore and to express their whole and best selves," said the university in a statement, which it released in coordination with the Jewish United Fund Chicago, Illini Hillel, Hillel International, Illini Chabad, Arnold & Porter and the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law.

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"Sadly, that is not the experience of all members of the student community. Anti-Semitic acts and expressions are all too common in our country and in our world, and examples of that intolerance have occurred at this university as well," they continued. "This is unacceptable. While the university has taken measures in the past to address this problem, the university must do more."

The statement notes that university "leaders in the Jewish community and counsel for the Jewish students have engaged in meaningful and productive conversations," and although "we may not agree on all aspects of these complex and critical issues, we are united in a single view that our shared and common goal must be to support a safe and welcoming environment for Jewish and pro-Israel students at the University of Illinois that is free of discrimination and harassment."

The statement came in response to recent anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist incidents at the university over the past few years, as outlined in a complaint filed months ago with the US Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights, submitted on behalf of Jewish students and alleging that the school has allowed a hostile environment to proliferate on its campus in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The complaint, filed in accordance with the December 2019 executive order on combating anti-Semitism, was publicized last month.

The statement is independent of the complaint and does not impact it, Hillel International spokesperson Matthew Berger told JNS.

"We deplore anti-Semitic incidents on campus, including those that demonize or delegitimize Jewish and pro-Israel students or compare them to Nazis. This subjects them to double standards that are not applied to others," said the statement released on Monday. "All Jewish students, including those who identify with Israel or Jewish campus organizations, should be able to participate in campus activities aimed at fighting racism and achieving social justice."

The University of Illinois will "create an Advisory Council on Jewish and Campus Life that will consist of undergraduate and graduate students, staff, faculty and alumni, as well as representatives from the Jewish community," according to the statement.

The advisory group will "assist the chancellor and university leadership to identify opportunities to enhance the campus environment for all students, faculty and staff, and to advance its commitment to an inclusive community where all feel welcome," according to the statement.

The university expects to have the advisory group in place before the spring 2021 semester, which begins on Jan. 25. The campus is open in-person and for remote learning amid the global coronavirus pandemic.

Additionally, the statement said the university "will institute focused and regularly recurring educational programming regarding anti-Semitism."

Moreover, UIUC "will review, evaluate and, when necessary, revise procedures and practices so they are appropriately aligned with shared values opposing discrimination and harassment on campus, including anti-Semitic actions."

UIUC emphasized that while it is committed to protecting freedom of speech and academic freedom, it is also committed to "never tolerate harassment or discrimination, including against its Jewish students, and to enforce its nondiscrimination policy to the fullest extent" and "is committed to complying with applicable federal, state and local anti-discrimination laws as a state and federally funded institution."

The Jewish organizations involved in the statement thanked UIUC Chancellor Robert Jones for his efforts, but noted that this is "only a first step."

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org

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The executive order Trump signed on Wednesday tells the Education Department, when vetting alleged Civil Rights Act violations that can lead to a loss of schools' federal funding, to consider a definition of anti-Semitism that could include some criticism of Israel. Several major Jewish American organizations hailed the order, but more liberal-leaning groups warned it could be used to muffle campus organizing against the Israeli government and in support of Palestinian rights.

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Behind that divide are politically volatile questions: When does speech about Israel cross the line into anti-Semitism, and who is qualified to draw that line?

For supporters of Trump's order – which is aligned with bipartisan legislation that had stalled – the distinction is a clear matter of reining in those who would question Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state.

"There is no question that people have the right to criticize Israel. Jews, and non-Jews, do it very well," said World Jewish Congress President Ronald Lauder, who has financially backed the GOP but recently launched a $25 million project aimed at fighting anti-Semitism on both sides of the aisle.

"But the fact is that when criticism goes into attacks on the state, the Jewish state, that goes over the line."

The order does not mention Israel but cites the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's suggested examples of anti-Semitism, which include "claiming that the existence of a state of Israel is a racist endeavor."

Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser, wrote in a New York Times op-ed that the order's broadened definition would convey the administration's position that "anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism."

Critics of Trump's order take a more nuanced view, warning that the new definition promises to blur the boundary between legitimate opposition to what they see as unfair Israeli government policies and anti-Semitism.

Emily Mayer, political director of the liberal Jewish American group IfNotNow, described the order as a victory for efforts "to discredit any critique of Israel, Israeli policies or how Jewish supremacy has been codified within the Israeli state – to try to describe that as anti-Semitism."

Those concerned about blunt-force application of the order often point to the president who approved it. Trump has been chided for echoing anti-Semitic stereotypes, and liberal Jewish Americans say his administration is ill-equipped to enforce a new standard for on-campus anti-Semitism.

The order "can't be viewed solely in the vacuum of the words on the page," said Halie Soifer, executive director of the Jewish Democratic Council of America.

Soifer called for a greater focus by the administration on the rise of violent white nationalism, noting that "while anti-Semitism is a problem on college campuses, it's not solely a problem on college campuses."

On campuses, where pro-Palestinian criticism of Israel can run high, the order's impact may be felt sooner than later.

Aaron Heideman, 22, a junior at Yeshiva University, praised the president's decision to issue the order and said it will help his friends at secular universities who have run into problems. "I'm happy that they'll have more inner peace," Heideman said.

Anti-Semitic incidents on campuses rose by 89% between 2016 and 2017, according to an Anti-Defamation League audit released last year.

In addition, Rep. Denver Riggleman (R-Va.) wrote to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos on Wednesday seeking a review of federal funding for Georgetown University's Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, alleging anti-Semitic activity by faculty.

Riggleman's letter points to faculty supportive of an international anti-Israel boycott movement that has grown in popularity on campuses. The Trump White House has repeatedly decried the movement as discriminatory, and the House of Representatives has passed bipartisan legislation opposing it.

Organizers of the boycott campaign say their opposition lies with Israeli policies, not with Jews. But the parallels they draw between Israel and the oppressive apartheid-era South African government have fueled charges of anti-Semitism.

Among the prominent Jewish American groups who view the boycott movement as anti-Semitic is the Anti-Defamation League, which praised Trump's order. The league's website states that anti-Zionism "may be motivated by or result in anti-Semitism, or it may create a climate in which anti-Semitism becomes more acceptable."

The league's CEO, Jonathan Greenblatt, said that debating the existence of the Jewish state could be a suitable topic for an academic seminar.

"But in the world in which we live, America 2019, anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism," Greenblatt continued. "When you would deny Jewish people the right of self-determination ... when you'd hold them to a different standard than you would other people."

Greenblatt noted that the order is designed as guidance rather than a binding standard, indicating that implementation would provide the strongest evidence of its effective application. Its text includes an edict about not infringing on First Amendment rights.

On at least one campus, some students see the order as positive, addressing issues that are exclusive of one another.

Rabbi Jonah Pesner, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, described the key to the order as a "balancing act between protecting free speech and protecting those who are on the wrong end of anti-Semitic attacks in guise of critique of Israel." Pesner's group has not taken a position on the order.

The Trump administration already has cited the newly codified International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's definition of anti-Semitism to probe potential campus discrimination against Jews. The Education Department last year reopened an inquiry closed during the Obama administration into alleged anti-Semitism at Rutgers University in New Jersey.

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"This is the first time that an Israeli university is collaborating with an elite American institution to offer a dual undergraduate program of this kind," said Professor Raanan Rein, vice president of Tel Aviv University.

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The program offers undergraduate students "an international educational experience … to enhance their global outlook and develop their language skills and communication abilities to the highest academic level," according to its website. "Wherever your passions lie, in the humanities, natural sciences, or social sciences, the dual-degree program offers you the opportunity to engage in the study of your chosen fields with world-renowned faculty on both sides of the Atlantic and to immerse yourself in two distinct academic, social and cultural environments."

Students in the four-year program will spend their first and second years studying a wide range of liberal arts options at Tel Aviv University. During years three and four, they will be at Columbia University completing requirements for a major and the core curriculum.

Dual-degree program advisers and tutors, assigned at the start of the program, will help undergrads navigate academic and student life at both universities.

After completing the four-year program graduates earn two bachelor's degrees, one from each school. The program's inaugural class will begin in the fall of 2020.

"By giving students the opportunity to study full-time at a top-tier university in the Middle East before bringing them to study in the Ivy League, they will not only benefit from being immersed in a wide range of cultures and experiences but will also make an immense contribution to the Columbia undergraduate classroom," said Professor Lisa Rosen-Metsch, dean of Columbia University School of General Studies.

TAU's BA in liberal arts provides a broad education in the humanities while allowing students to specialize in their areas of interest by choosing from six existing academic tracks, including digital culture and communication, Jewish and Israel studies, Middle Eastern studies, psychology, philosophy and literature; and two new tracks, entrepreneurship and innovation, and life sciences.

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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This is how Benzur describes Dearborn: "You drive through the streets, and all the signs are in Arabic. It wasn't easy to breach the walls of fear, suspicion, and hatred and get them to cooperate with the study."

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Her research focuses on pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli college students in the US. When studying the pro-Palestinian camp, Benzur took things to the very edge, and not only because of the place she had chosen to poll her 90 subjects.

She wanted to clarify whether or not radicalism was "passed on through genes" and whether "extremist positions on the [Israeli-Palestinian] conflict and hostility toward the media were passed on from parents to children from a young age." For the sake of her academic mission, she hid her Israeli identity and spoke with the pro-Palestinian students in Arabic, stressing her Iraqi heritage.

After two or three failed attempts, in which she also reached out to female student supporters of Iran and Hezbollah, she found enough students who were willing to fill out her questionnaires.

Benzur also found the 85 subjects who identified as "pro-Israeli" at the University of Michigan, and recruited them for her study via the local chapter of Hillel.

Extremism passed on from one generation to the next

Benzur's work, which is now being published, was conducted in 2015, a year that saw numerous terrorist attacks in Israel and the public as a whole was losing faith in the media. Benzur wanted to look into how hostility toward the media was generated and how it was expressed by the pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli students when they were shown various texts that reframed the conflict. Her work examined the relationship between the students' ideology and social activity at home and with their friends and how hostile they were to the media.

Among other things, Benzur discovered that students from both sides who were uninvolved in political activity saw the media as fairer and more objective than their more politically active cohort. Those who grew up in "political" homes and devoted time at college to the conflict saw the media as biased and hostile to their own positions.

Parents of pro-Israeli students, she found, had more political and social influence on their children's lives in the context of the conflict than parents of pro-Palestinian students. Parents of pro-Israeli students were also more strongly identified with political and ideological stances that had to do with their positions and were also more politically involved when it came to the conflict. Palestinian parents had much less influence on their children because of the identity crisis their children experienced as the children of Muslim immigrants, Benzur found.

Benzur discovered that the transfer of radical positions from parents to children ran deep and that political biases such as identification with specific parties and political ideologies develop from a young age and remain influential even as the children grow up.

About one-third of the pro-Palestinian students who disagreed with their parents' opinions about various aspects of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict reported that they were more "extreme" than their parents (28%). More than half (62%) said they were more supportive of the Palestinians than their parents are. One notable issue for parents of pro-Palestinian students was the Arab world's approach to the conflict. The young generation, unlike their parents, identified with Iran and Hezbollah, whom they perceived as more active on behalf of the Palestinian side.

About half (49%) of the pro-Israeli students reported that they were more supportive of Israel and even more radical on the subject of Israel (44%) than their parents when it came to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The pro-Israeli students said they disagreed with their parents when it came to the two-state solution; Israel's settlements; and the rights of the Palestinian people. The positions of young pro-Israeli students aligned more closely with the Palestinians, despite the fact that they identified as pro-Israeli.

Coverage depends on the network

The research also looked at the students' attitude toward the media in two specific news events from 2015: the abduction and kidnapping of three Israeli teens by Hamas and the murder of a Palestinian teen by Israelis. Surprisingly, the pro-Palestinian students did not characterize the Qatari Al Jazeera America network (which used to broadcast in English and has since closed) as pro-Palestinian before it was pointed out that it was an Arab news network. Only after the network's identity was revealed did they define the reports as "pro-Palestinian." Nor did the pro-Israeli students identify any bias in the reporting by Al Jazeera America until the name of the network was revealed. Only when they were informed that the coverage they had watched was from an Arab channel did they define the reportage as biased against them.

When the students were asked to point out bias in coverage on Fox News, the picture was different. Both groups identified a clear pro-Israeli bias in the network's coverage of the stories, both when they knew that they were watching Fox News and when they were shown the reports without the source being identified.

The two groups of students originally cited The New York Times as a balanced and neutral news source. But when they were shown the Times' coverage about the abduction and murder of the Israeli teens and the murder of the Palestinian teen, they changed their opinions. The pro-Palestinian students claimed that the reporting on the teens' abduction and killing was hostile to their own positions, and saw the reports on the death of the Palestinian teen as objective. The pro-Israeli students claimed that the coverage of the Palestinian teen's murder was hostile toward them, but saw the coverage of the Israeli teens' murder as objective.

Benzur thinks that follow-up research, to be conducted in Israel and the Palestinian territories, is called for. She warns that "hostility toward the media and the perception that it is biased and hostile" could lead to a sense of political and social isolation and even a desire among activists to separate themselves from the "mainstream" through actions that border on violence.

Benzur also recommends that schools start educating students on media consumption. "For both sides to learn about the media's role in a democratic society, and to help them consume media better and be better critics of it, we need to dial down their hostility toward it, and help them understand its function as a supplier of information to the public," she says.

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To that end, students from more than 80 campuses gathered in Boston in mid-August for a high-level training conference to gain support and learn the tools necessary to respond to the upsurge in campus anti-Semitism and anti-Israel activism.

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Hosted by the campus department of the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA), a media watchdog organization, students from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Israel took part in a four-day conference at Boston University's Hillel to learn more about Israel and how to stand up to anti-Israel campus groups – and also to know they are not alone.

"When people get involved in Israel advocacy, they don't know much and don't know where to start," McKenna Bates, a senior at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., told JNS.

"The first couple of days of the conference were very intensive and information-based. There was a lot of focus on helping us know what we are talking about – facts about the conflict and Israel, as well as organizations and tools for research and writing."

Bates, who characterized her university as "very anti-Israel," noting that she has been verbally attacked, has been threatened and even sent online death threats by anti-Israel figures, said that CAMERA has proven to be a strong resource for her.

"CAMERA has been trying to show us that they are the support system. They have the resources to prove or disprove things. They know how to connect you and defend you," she said.

Similarly, Josh Eibelman, a senior at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., who is studying psychology and biology, told JNS that developing a pro-Israel network was important to him.

"The biggest takeaway for me is I get to connect to pro-Israel students across the country. Keep in touch, collaborate and share ideas," he said.

Practical programs for students included "how to talk about Israel in social situations;" "recruit, recruit, recruit;" and "Twitter is my only friend: utilizing social media to maximize outreach."

'They are being manipulated'

The conference also featured several pro-Israel speakers, such as Alyza Lewin, president and general counsel of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law; Kasim Hafeez, a former radical anti-Israel extremist; Shai Deluca Tamasi, a North American TV personality; Itzik Yarkoni, a top public relations and marketing consultant; Joe Truzman, a Twitter sensation for his reporting on Gaza; and CAMERA research staff.

But one of the main goals was educating students on the anti-Israel groups that students may encounter on campus, specifically Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), but also other emerging ones. A new challenge is that ties between SJP and other vocal anti-Israel groups, such as Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and IfNotNow.

Aviva Rosenschein, international campus director for CAMERA, said "we are giving them very detailed information on the organizations that students may encounter on campus. From JVP to SJP and IfNotNow, what these organizations represent and their supposed missions are, and how they can react, respond or engage with them in general," she said.

"You have to remember that a lot of students who join these organizations are not inherently anti-Semitic; they are coming from a place that sounds like a peaceful organization, but they are being manipulated," she clarified.

Haber said that these Jewish anti-Israel groups work in tandem with SJP and can elevate not only anti-Israel actions but also anti-Semitism through the legitimacy provided by Jewish groups providing cover for SJP's attacks.

"I think we are going to see more issues on campus within our Jewish community. IfNotNow, J Street and JVP are going to be our main issues this year, and this only helps to elevate SJP. But I think our students are better prepared after this conference in learning about these groups and the history and mission."

Anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism

At the end of 2018, Inside Higher Ed reported that prior to and after the fatal shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh in October of that year, "prejudicial displays have plagued college campuses, following a trend of anti-Semitism on the rise at colleges and universities – and around the country – since 2016."

Couple with the uptick in anti-Semitism has been a growing awareness of the connection between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism. Several Trump administration officials, including US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and anti-Semitism envoy Elan Carr have come out forcefully against both issues.

The connection between the two was also a major theme at the CAMERA conference.

Ben Newhouse, a junior at New York University, told JNS that one of the biggest takeaways from the conference was the realization that most of the anti-Israel actions he has seen on campus are actually anti-Semitic as well.

"One takeaway from the conference is that they are very clear in saying anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism. Zionism is the belief that the Jewish people have a right to self-determination, just like any other group of people does," he said.

Last year, the SJP affiliate at NYU was instrumental in pushing the student government to pass a resolution during the Hanukkah holiday to divest from Israel. In the spring, NYU's Social and Cultural Analysis Department further voted to boycott the school's own satellite campus in Tel Aviv.

Rosenschein said that this year, CAMERA is more prepared than ever. They now have fellows at some of the most challenging campuses, such as NYU, Columbia University, the University of California at Davis, Berkeley and San Diego, as well as Duke University.

"Our Israel activists are more emboldened and outspoken than ever. People understand they are on the right side of history and the truth. They will not be intimidated," she said.

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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The initiative, organized by Hillel at Baruch College in New York City and launched this past semester, is also organizing trips for American vets to visit Israel, as well as Shabbatons for Jews and non-Jews to interact with one another – all with the goal of battling anti-Semitism by cultivating pro-Israel activists, says Ilya Bratman, executive director of the Baruch Hillel and a US Army veteran.

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"We hope to engage hundreds of non-Jewish veterans and student leaders in this project, so they go out in their community and become advocates for truth," Bratman, 41, explained. "They tell the real story of Israel. This program is part of this bigger effort to showcase what Israel is about and what the Jewish community is about."

He added, "Now dozens of non-Jewish US veterans can go home and say, 'I know Jews, they're my friends. They're my brothers. They're my brothers in arms.' The hope is not just to build a community on campus, but to create advocacy much greater, much bigger. They can really dispel rumors and become advocates for the Jewish community and the State of Israel."

Hillel organizes the events and panel discussions – engaging hundreds of students on the quad at Baruch College – in order to build relationships with students from all around the world, including the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, China and Korea, who have now become advocates for Israel after spending time with Jewish students and the Jewish community.

"Brave" recently held its third subsidized trip to Israel for US veterans and non-Jewish student leaders. Of more than 300 applications a year, they accept less than 10%.

'The most powerful moment in my life'

Among them is retired Army Staff Sgt. Trent Coyle, 36, a Baruch alum who says he used to be an atheist, but whose participation in Hillel and travel to Israel inspired him to convert to Judaism. Coyle met Bratman through Baruch College's Student Veterans Association when Coyle was serving as vice president. He went to Israel for the first time in the winter of 2017 on a student leadership trip led by Bratman.

Coyle later studied abroad in Beersheba and participated in another trip to Israel with the Zionist Organization of America. He is now in the middle of the conversion process, saying he decided to convert to Judaism "almost immediately" after visiting the Western Wall for the first time. He called the experience "without question the most powerful moment in my life."

"Ilya has been of great help on my own journey, whether it's helping me with my Hebrew homework, handling questions of faith or introducing me to rabbis in my desire to convert to Judaism," he told JNS. "Both of us have worked hard to help the Jewish community within Baruch create lasting relationships within the veteran community; I think that's what has proven to be most impressive."

Coyle had very little, if any, exposure to Jewish life or individuals before becoming active in Hillel and the "Brave" program. He said the Jewish community at Baruch always welcomed him "with open arms," and he has also seen other US veterans become close to Jewish students and IDF veterans with Hillel's help.

"The more students going with Hillel to Israel or the more events we were doing together, there became a real understanding that there were shared values, and there was just a lot of commonality between the Jewish students and veterans," he said. "What I heard again and again [from the veterans] was that there was just a real sense of togetherness. Initially, it wasn't just go to Hillel and talk about Israel. It was just hanging out, and eventually, the conversation started coming organically."

As US veterans, he continued, "we understand what it means to serve – loyalty, duty, all these things – the same as the IDF veterans, and so we feel that there's an honest and real connection between these two communities."

Coyle said before his trip, he knew little about Israel beyond "some of the vague things that you read in the news, typically negative."

That changed after his visit, where he recognized similar values cherished by Americans, such as the sense of community, the importance of family and tremendous respect held for veterans from all countries.

"It completely was not what I thought it would be," he said. "It was a wonderful experience. It really opened my eyes."

'Like a firsthand kind of baptism'

Steven D'Souza, 38, another alumnus of Baruch College and a veteran of the US Marines, said he, too, had never interacted with Jews before getting involved in the project.

D'Souza, who is Christian, took part in the 2018 trip and subsequently became vice president of Baruch's pro-Israel club, YOFI. He said being part of "Brave" resulted in him finding "a sense of kinship" with the Jewish community. He even wound up taking some Hebrew classes and studied a little Talmud.

And he recently returned from leading a trip to Israel for non-Jewish college students, including some veterans, organized by a program that Hillel partners with.

"There are a lot of misconceived notions or just an ignorance about the Jewish religion, community, and faith," he said. "By meeting people and getting to know their story instead of reading about it somewhere, it's like a firsthand kind of baptism in getting to know Jewish people, and getting emerged in the Jewish culture and language."

"One of my favorite moments about the Jewish community is Shabbat," he said, noting that during dinner, "you get a chance to talk. I think spending a meal with one another and getting to know one another is the best way that people can learn about Israel and know about what's going on there, and learn about Jewish faith and the similarities, and not just focus on the differences."

"There can never be enough conversations" about Israel, he added.

Coyle insisted that "people need those facts about Israel. Engage with as many people as possible and understand that there's more to Israel than just the army and other things. There are actual people behind all of this, and once people can relate to that, it becomes a great way of understanding."

Bratman also reiterated the importance of building personal relationships between non-Jewish college students and those within the Jewish community, especially while they are still on campus.

"This is the final frontier, where we can talk to students before they become adults before they go out to the greater community. This is an opportunity … to tell people about the reality of the situation. We have literally dozens of veterans and non-student leaders who have become our family, and they will always stand with us, with the Jewish community and with the State of Israel."

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