Happy Tenth Anniversary to Hasbara Fellowships!

Dear Friends & Fellow Hasbara Alums,

Hasbara Fellowships is an extremely special program, and one that has contributed deeply to my own personal development, my love and support for Israel, and to the strengthening of Zionist and Jewish identity on campus at the University of Western Ontario, my alma mater.

As a Zionist, a grandchild of holocaust survivors, and a small-town, public-school educated Jew, I was always extremely proud of my Jewish heritage and the State of Israel. But attending university between 2001-2005 was a tough time to wear my convictions too proudly. As the Second Intifada raged on and the Canadian media accepted a largely uneducated perspective on my homeland, Jewish students were often reticent to make their convictions known.

In the Fall of 2002, I lost a cousin on a suicide bombing on a city bus in Tel Aviv. Though I barely knew him at all, that incident had a profound effect on me. The injustice that many of us felt about the portrayal of Israel at the time was increasingly felt by me. Never one to be quiet, hold my opinions to myself, and pull the menorah off the window sill, I sought ways to make a difference and to rally and educate my fellow Jewish classmates. As the Israel Advocacy Committee got off the ground at Western, I was invited to join Hasbara Fellowships.

Hasbara provides a truly unique balance of training for Jewish students on campus who seek to make a difference, and to enrich themselves and grow their communications skills in the process. Hasbara gives Jewish students the strength to celebrate their love of Israel, by showing them first hand what challenges lie in front of the nation, why today it’s in the ever-challenging position that it’s in, and how to positively communicate about it. Through my training at Hasbara Fellowships, I became more skilful at identifying untruths spewed about Israel on campus, and I was more able to help my classmates build supportive relationships with a diverse range of students on campus, thus building a more comfortable environment for Jews and non-Jews alike.

By donating to Hasbara Fellowships, you can have an exponentially positive affect on the Jewish and Zionist identities in North America. You will be helping to forge a new class of young Jewish leaders who will be educated, and imbued with the sense that they can make a difference in the way that those within their environment view Israel and Jews. By being prepared to speak up, and by using their creativity to devise visible campaigns on campus, the leaders that Hasbara Fellowships mints make university campuses, and later in life, work-places and communities, more comfortable for those Jews and Zionists that may or may not seek to take as active a role.

Indeed I owe a significant debt to Elliot Mathias, his organization, madrichim, and donours for the skills, strength, and support that they provided me as a student. Please join me in my support with a donation to Hasbara to pay it forward.

Thank you,

Mat Abramsky

Hasbara Fellowships, Summer 03

Student Madrich, Summer 05