Fighting and Winning the Battle on Campus

Publication Date: January 2003

Publisher: Coalition for the Advancement of Jewish Education

Author(s): Mitchell Bard

Research Area: Education

Keywords: Higher Education; Youth Engagement; Dialogue; Israel advocacy

Type: Report

Coverage: United States

Abstract:

Many Jewish high school and college students are ill-informed and ill-prepared to know how to respond to virulent anti-Israel advocacy groups on campus, the author asserts. He discusses one of the causes for this situation: the perceived necessity for people in academic settings to hold a "balanced" view that gives equal credence to both sides of difficult questions. The author points out that when the two sides are not equally loyal to fact over fiction, this desire for balance becomes a fallacy, but a fallacy to which many Jewish college students cannot respond. Jewish educators should prepare Jewish teens ahead of time for these and other aspects of the issue of the Israeli-Palestinian debate on American college campuses.

In Jewish Education News, Winter 2003.