There will be dancing, there will be singing and there will be Jewish pride. This is the Canadian Friends of Hebrew University’s response to the upcoming Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW).
CFHU is launching its Be U Be Hebrew campaign during its Purim party on Feb. 28, which will feature the Israeli hip hop band Hadag Nahash. The campaign’s goal is to motivate students to maintain their Jewish pride while they prepare for IAW, which will run from March 1 to 14.
IAW, which will include speakers and rallies on university campuses, compares Israel’s situation to apartheid in South Africa.
“Apartheid week is… in my opinion a one-sided, anti-Semitic campaign,” said Rami Kleinmann, the national director of CFHU.
“It’s intimidating Jewish people. It’s actually forcing a lot of students to hide their Jewish identity this week, which is something that… the Jewish community cannot stand.”
CFHU will continue to support pro-Israel activities on campus after the party through their campaign.
“[It’s] a very simple message of [being] proud of who you are. You did nothing wrong; don’t let anyone else make you feel ashamed of who you are,” Kleinmann said.
The CFHU decided to launch its campaign through this party because of the comparisons that can be made between the current situation and Purim, which celebrates a foiled plot to eradicate the Jewish people in the ancient Persian empire.
“If you look at both situations, there is a very strong link between what happened 2,000 years ago and what people in Apartheid Week are trying to do,” Kleinmann said. “What we’re trying to do is give [students] a historical perspective by saying… this is not something new.”
The CFHU’s campaign aims at providing the right tools to the younger generation to combat anti-Israel initiatives like IAW, Kleinmann said.
“[The younger] generation is becoming a player in this unfortunate game. By giving them a little bit of pride, it will be a good place to start,” he said. “Fortunately we’re living in a democratic country where we can use the democratic tools to combat anti-Semitism.”
Funds from the Purim party will go to the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Anti-Semitism at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, which focuses on relations between Jews and non-Jews in situations of crisis.
For Miriam Pilc-Levine, the national director of communications and marketing at CFHU, the party is a good way to launch the campaign.
“It got started because we wanted to play a role in showing the students that they have support from the Jewish community,” she said.
“The whole piece kind of fits together with Purim and wanting to have a celebration. I guess the students find themselves overwhelmed by the supporters of Israel Apartheid Week. We wanted to give them an opportunity to be proud of who they are.”
