‘Conversations Across Difference’
June 20th, 2022
An organization that promotes dialogue and understanding among people with different political and religious perspectives is expanding its partnership with Hillels to address tensions among Jewish students about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Elyza Veta, a recent graduate of New York University, was excited to go on a group trip to Israel in the middle of her sophomore year in 2020. The trip was sponsored by Birthright, a program that takes Jewish students and young professionals on free tours of Israel with the goal of promoting and strengthening their Jewish identity and their ties to Israel.
But things got off to a rocky start—the students got into heated debates about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“It was sort of this looming thing throughout the whole trip,” Veta said. “And everyone sort of retreated to the people they knew agreed with them. You have all the anti-Zionists whispering in one corner, the Zionists whispering in another corner … The conversations were just breaking down at that point, and no one was talking about it in ways that were productive.”
Read the full story: “Conversations Across Difference,” Sara Weissman, Inside Higher Ed, June 3, 2022