Jewish Life Digital Edition June 2015 | Page 62

EDUCATION I V E TO E X C LU SW I S H L I F E JE Advocating FOR ISRAEL Today’s students are tomorrow’s leaders of government and industry I BY DAVID OLESKER THEY WON’T BE A BUNCH OF GRUBBY STUDENTS FOREVER. AT SOME POINT THEY WILL BECOME GRUBBY POLITICIANS, JOURNALISTS, CAPTAINS OF INDUSTRY AND OTHER PEOPLE OF INFLUENCE. 58 JEWISH LIFE ■ ISSUE 85 Campus is sometimes referred to as the “bleeding edge” of the anti-Israel campaign, but this young man’s actions came close to making the metaphor literal. The most extreme arguments against the Jewish state are heard in the halls of the academy; it’s the place where, at least in Western countries, violence is most likely to erupt, and it’s the place where the demonisation of Israel has made the most progress. Reading the autobiography of former president of Israel Chaim Herzog (Living History: A Memoir), and his memories of University College London in the 1930s, where he punched a Jewish communist who used an anti-Semitic slur to oppose Zionism, makes it seem it ever was so. WHY IT’S IMPORTANT But, who cares what a bunch of grubb B