Bring a Program to Campus
Program Roster, Fall 2011
Contents:
• Introduction
• Ready-to-Go Programs
• Workshops & Trainings
• Films
Introduction
Whether your goal is to build a presence on campus, to open healthy debate and dialogue, or to promote a two-state solution, programming can be an effective tool. See below for a variety of discussion guides, speakers, performers, films, and more that can help you achieve your goals.
Requesting a program: Please fill out the Activity Development Form and a staff member will be in touch. Special discounts and regional tours may be available through J Street U.
Funding: The first place to look for funding is on campus. If you have looked hard for funding from campus resources but can’t find enough for the program you want to organize, you can apply to J Street U for a mini-grant. Just fill out the Activity Development Form and indicate that you are applying for a mini-grant. Be sure to keep in mind the following criteria for a strong and successful funding request.
• VALUES – The program is appropriate to J Street U’s mission and core principles.
• IMPLEMENTATION – The program is feasible for you and your team to implement on your campus.
• STRATEGY – The program will help you achieve organizing goals as identified by you and your Campus Organizer.
• NEED – J Street U funding is your last resort after campus and community resources.
Availability: Please note that J Street U cannot guarantee a particular film, speaker, or performer at a particular time, but we will work to arrange an appropriate program for your campus.
Looking for speakers and performers? J Street U can work with you to find an inspiring and relevant speaker for your campus. Please contact your Campus Organizer or write to programs@jstreetu.org.
Questions? Email programs@jstreetu.org.
Ready-to-Go Programs
Beyond Inspiration
On many college campuses, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has become a hot-button topic, with a wide range of opinions and perspectives vying for attention. In this program, watch the 38-minute film Beyond Inspiration, which takes a critical look at the events at Rutgers University during the Second Intifada. Then discuss: How can we prevent such polarization from occurring on our campus? How can we express our views and work towards change in a more constructive way?
Click here to download the Beyond Inspiration Facilitator Guide
Click here to download the Beyond Inspiration Sample Flyer & Email
NOTE: Film is available online or by DVD. To request the DVD, please ask a staff member at least one month in advance of the event.
Jerusalem Moments
Jerusalem.
A city of three religions and two peoples.
A city that makes international news almost daily.
A city that will help determine the future of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
How much do you know about what is really happening in Jerusalem?
Jerusalem is a city that draws attention from the entire world. Given the city’s geographic, historic, and religious significance, Jerusalem will necessarily be at the heart of any future peace negotiations. Deepen your campus’s understanding of the complexities of today’s Jerusalem with this educational program, featuring short films, maps, and discussion. This program has recently been released by Ir Amim, an Israeli nonprofit organization that works for a just, stable and equitable Jerusalem, and toward creating the conditions for a political resolution in the city.
Click here to download the Jerusalem Moments program.
Opportunity Gap: University Education for Students from Gaza
Last November, 22-year-old Berlanty Azzam was 2 months shy of graduating from Bethlehem University, when she was deported back to Gaza. Berlanty posed no security threat. She is not alone – since 2000, Israel has enforced a total ban preventing Palestinian students from Gaza from studying at West Bank universities. Israeli human rights groups such as Gisha are working on this issue, and the Obama administration has acted as a real friend to Israel, speaking up about the need for students from Gaza to be able to attend universities in the West Bank. In this program, participants hear from students in Gaza (either through videos or Skype), discuss how an appropriate mechanism for increased educational opportunities for students from Gaza could be a “win” for Israel too, and take action.
Click here to download the Opportunity Gap: University Education for Students from Gaza program.
Solidarity Complex
How do we constructively express our positions when speaking out about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict? In this program, the short documentary film Solidarity Complex serves as a starting place for discussing this question. The program concludes with brainstorming concrete steps that student organizations can take together to foster respectful, constructive advocacy and activism on Middle East issues.
Click here to download the Solidarity Complex program.
What Does It Mean To Be Pro-Israel?
What do you think of when you hear the term “Pro-Israel”? Across North America, there is debate about what it means to be pro-Israel. The purpose of this program is to explore and discuss what it means to be pro-Israel today — on a personal level, a national level, and a campus level.
Click here to download the What Does It Mean To Be Pro-Israel? program.
Early Voices of Israel and What They Mean Today
A rich and varied debate existed among early advocates for a Jewish, democratic homeland. How can we carry forward that tradition of respectful disagreement among supporters of Israel? This program draws on the voices of early Zionist thinkers as a launching point for discussion about broadening today’s Israel debate.
Click here to download the Early Voices of Israel program.
Invest in Two States
As divestment campaigns launch on campuses across the country, this program will allow you to explore an alternative approach—change through investment. These materials will help you run a program which explores the need for, and challenge of, economic investment on a deeper level.
Click here to download the program materials.
OneVoice Town Hall Meeting
A lasting end to the conflict will only come when the leaders reach an agreement that their peoples are ready to understand, accept, and support. Based in the region, OneVoice is putting the most difficult “taboo” issues—from refugees to Jerusalem—front and center through polling and town hall meetings. Inspired by the success of the Town Hall Meetings in Israel and Palestine, OneVoice has launched a series designed for U.S. students. In these intensive two-hour sessions, students have an opportunity to rate their level of consensus on a range of final status issues, propose solutions, and compare their peers’ responses to Israelis and Palestinians who were polled in the region. They then use these results as a starting point for a forward-looking and nuanced conversation about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict across U.S. campuses.
The toolkit can be found at http://www.onevoicemovement.org/programs/IEP/mobilization.php
Cost: Free
Availability: Any time. We will put you in touch with a OneVoice staff member to walk you through the process of planning the town hall meeting.
We Can’t Wait: America’s Critical Role In The Arab-Israeli Conflict
The following documents were produced as part of the “We Can’t Wait ’08″ campaign surrounding the 2008 Presidential election. They are intended to demonstrate why and how the United States, utilizing its entire foreign policy toolbox, can influence the Arab-Israeli conflict and bring about a two-state solution. These PDF copies are available for free download.
Executive and Legislative Powers vis-à-vis Arab Israeli Conflict
Presidential Report Card: Since the End of the Cold War
United States Institute of Peace’s “Negotiating Arab-Israeli Peace” Condensed Version
Peace Activist Quotes from Just Vision
Answering Difficult Questions
Israeli Declaration of Independence with Talmudic Interpretation
A deeper exploration of the Declaration of Independence in the form of a Talmudic Interpretation. Prepared by Rabbis for Human Rights.
Click here to download the RHR documents.
Workshops & Trainings
Organizing Trainings
J Street U hosts organizing trainings that cover the fundamentals of on-campus organizing and provide student leaders the knowledge and tactics they need to create sustainable, intelligent, and effective groups.
Training Topics:
• Public Narrative
• Leadership as Relationship Building
• Power and Politics
• Having the Conversation
• Programming for Power
Cost: travel from NYC or San Francisco, accommodations and food.
Jewish Dialogue Group
Dialogue sessions designed to create a safe space for constructive conversation within Jewish communities about the Israel and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Participants in these structured, facilitated conversations have an opportunity to:
- Listen to and learn about one another across differences
- Reflect on and clarify their own feelings and views
- Examine difficult ethical and intellectual questions
- Seek common ground and strengthen relationships
- Develop communication skills
You may hold a dialogue just for students affiliated with your group or a session that brings together Jewish students with a wider range of views. The Jewish Dialogue Group’s trained, experienced facilitators will design and lead a program that addresses the participants’ specific needs and interests. You may also use JDG’s facilitator guidebook and other materials to lead a dialogue on your own. For more information, visit www.jewishdialogue.org.
Cost: $250 for one facilitator, $150 for additional facilitators. Each facilitator can accommodate 5 to 7 participants. Additional fees may apply for travel and housing. JDG’s guidebook is available to download free of charge.
Risking Peace: Storytelling to Foster Dialogue
Peace can be risky because it requires us to compromise, go beyond our comfort zones, and venture into the unknown. Experience the storytelling model Noa Baum developed to help build bridges for peace and dialogue in your community. Learn how listening to and telling the story of “the other” can help break through stereotypes and rhetoric as you find compassion and the possibility of change. Noa Baum also offers performances of her play, A Land Twice Promised (see “Performers” section).
Cost: $1300 trainer fee, plus travel, accommodations, and meals. $2000 for performance plus workshop. The prices listed are specially discounted for student groups working through J Street U.
Availability: Inquire
Films
Eyes Wide Open
Paula Weiman-Kelman, 2008, 60 min. 60 years after the founding of the Jewish State, cherished historical memories collide with complex modern realities. How do you build your own relationship to Israel? Veteran filmmaker Weiman-Kelman spent more than a year following a wide spectrum of American Jews on their journeys to Israel. A discussion guide produced by MAKOM, the Israel Engagement Network of the Jewish Agency, is available.
Cost: $50 per screening. Requires DVD — please request at least one month in advance.
A Refusenik’s Mother
Uri Ben Dov, 2008, 50 min. Marit’s son, Shimri is called up to serve in the army. Contrary to his mother’s fundamental beliefs and in opposition to Israeli law, Shimri refuses to join the Israeli army. Reflecting some of the deepest dilemmas in Israeli society, this film documents Shimri’s refusal to join the Israeli army and his determination not to be part of the war in the occupied territories. In this intensely personal film, Marit struggles to understand why he can’t simply do what all Israelis have to do. Slowly her views change as she and her son become more involved in the political and public struggle to re-evaluate the role of all Israelis in the peace and security of the region.
Cost: $150 per screening. Requires DVD — please request at least one month in advance.
Searching for Peace in the Middle East
Landrum Bolling, 2006, 30 min. This film, sponsored by the Foundation for Middle East Peace, is a vivid, compassionate portrayal of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Through the voices of Israeli and Palestinian citizens of diverse backgrounds, it reveals their hopes and fears and explores the issues that divide them. It also describes in a compelling way a broad common ground of yearning for peace, pointing the way toward a resolution of this tragic conflict that would meet the deepest needs of both societies. Landrum Bolling, a veteran peace-maker and the former President of Earlham College, has had a distinguished career as an informal advisor to world leaders and as an advocate for peace.
Cost: Free. Available online or get a free DVD by emailing info@fmep.org.
Waltz with Bashir
Ari Folman, 2008, 90 min. Director Ari Folman employs vivid black-and-white animation in this Golden Globe-winning film, exploring the memory gaps in his life during his service for the Israeli army in the Lebanese war of the early 1980s. Recounting stories based on recorded interviews with colleagues and friends, Folman relives the horrors of war and dissects the curious coping mechanisms humans use to survive under brutal circumstances. MAKOM, the Israel Engagement Network of the Jewish Agency, offers a detailed discussion guide.
Cost: Inquire.
Debate on American Foreign Policy and Israel: Alan Dershowitz vs. Jeremy Ben-Ami
What is the most productive U.S. policy towards the Middle East? Should military solutions or diplomatic ones be favored? What is the role of pro-Israel advocacy at a time of changing relationships between the U.S. and Israel? Has J Street helped or hurt the prospects for peace? Does the traditional lobby speak for all, or even most, American Jews? Recorded live at the 92nd Street Y in Manhattan, watch Alan Dershowitz, who has been called “Israel’s top defender in the court of public opinion,” and Jeremy Ben-Ami, the founder and director of J Street, as they wrestle with these and other issues. Use J Street U’s discussion guide (upcoming) to facilitate a thought provoking discussion guide for those in attendance.
Cost: $75
Availability: Any time. Minimum two weeks notice needed to send DVD.
Other Israel Films
As part of the Other Israel Film Festival Campus Program, films exploring the lives of Israel’s Arab citizens are available for campus screening at a reduced price. Select films available each semester; all films come with a discussion guide to facilitate a discussion around the screening. Visit http://www.otherisrael.org/films for more information)
City of Borders
In the heart of Jerusalem stands an unusual symbol of unity that defies generations of segregation, violence and prejudice: a gay bar called Shushan. This award-winning documentary goes inside this underground sanctuary where people of opposing nationalities, religions and sexual orientations create an island of peace in a land divided by war. Through a colorful cast of characters from all walks of life, the film explores the effort to find and share a sense of community in spite of differences of religion and nationality.
Cost: $75 discounted rate
Availability: Inquire (Limited number of screenings available per semester)
Eyes Infinite Films
This is an innovative documentary series that portrays the conflict through the eyes of Israeli and Palestinian artists. “Mandatory Service,” one of the EIF short documentaries, won the shorts category at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival. Facilitated workshops can directly follow the films.
Cost of film: Free, Added Program: Director available for post film discussion. Speaker: $300 + travel from NYC, accommodations and food.
Encounter Point
Just Vision’s documentary about everyday leaders who refuse to sit back as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict escalates. The film follows a former Israeli settler, a Palestinian ex-prisoner, a bereaved Israeli mother and a wounded Palestinian bereaved brother who risk their lives and public standing to promote a nonviolent end to the conflict. Their journeys lead them to the unlikeliest places to confront hatred within their communities. The film explores what drives them and thousands of other like-minded civilians to overcome anger and grief to work for grassroots solutions. It is a film about the everyday leaders in our midst. Screening guides to help shape the discussion are available at: http://www.encounterpoint.com/dvd/index.php
Cost: To screen Encounter Point on your campus, your university library must own an institutional copy. Ask your library to buy an institutional copy for $350, or the shorter 52-minute version for $195 at: http://www.arabfilm.com/item/429/. For more information on campus screenings, visit http://www.encounterpoint.com/about/faq#7. Public screenings must be free of charge for attendees.
