Dear Fellow Members of Shomrei Emunah:

For some time I have become increasingly concerned about the growing Anti-Israel activities at college campuses across the United States as reported by numerous newspapers and news outlets nationwide. Anti-Israel and Anti-Semitic activity on college campuses with the largest Jewish undergraduate enrollment drastically increased during 2016 and incidents are continuing this year. Who is there to answer these charges and offer the Pro Israel students and others the other side of the Israel story? To continue to do nothing about this growing phenomenon was not acceptable to me.

As I was looking for a way to be more pro-active about this, the son of a lifelong friend recently introduced me to an organization called StandwithUs whose stated mission is to educate the public while focusing on nurturing the next generation of Pro-Israel leaders among high school and college students. I met with Shahar Azani, a former member of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, who currently is the Executive Director for the Northeast for StandwithUs and based in New York. In learning about StandwithUs’ affirmative role in promoting “all things Israeli”, I was struck by the fact that, despite having millions of impressions on Facebook and thousands of followers on Twitter worldwide (confession – I am not on Twitter), I had never even heard of StandwithUs or its efforts to “get the facts out” about Israel and provide a resource to combat the BDS movement and modern Anti-Semitism. I told Shahar that despite all the good work done by StandwithUs “you need to get much better known” and “where better but New Jersey?” In response he immediately offered to come to Shomrei to introduce StandwithUs to members of Shomrei Emunah.

If you share my concerns I invite each of you to come meet Shahar Azani (April 30th at 10:30am at Shomrei) and become better informed about “The Anti-Israel Movement on the U.S. Campuses – and what Pro Israel Jewish students and YOU can do about it”?

Obviously this being a Jewish/Israeli oriented event there will be a light brunch (bagels, cream cheese, etc.). So we can properly plan for the food and seating please let Marge Wise know if you plan to attend. I hope to see many of you on April 30th.

Best,
Alan Epstein