The Blogs: American Jews Biggest Threat on Campus Isn’t BDS, It’s…

When I first started this journey, I thought the biggest challenge at the Universities would be to book my talks and have the opportunity to speak out.

But as I progress, I started seeing a different, more disturbing picture.

Speaking at the UNLV about Israeli tech. Credit: Lior Vaknin

Jewish students on campus (for the most part) simply don’t see the relations with their Jewishness or the connection to Israel as a priority in their lives.

Time and time again I hear from the different Jewish Organizations leaders on campus the huge numbers of Jewish students on campus (at the big ones their several thousands of them), yet the show up rate for most events and engagements is most of the time less than 1%!

In Las Vegas, the amazing Rebecca Avera and Greg Yellin hosted me for the Israel Week on Campus at the University of Las Vegas.

It was a great experience for me and the students who did show up got a real value from the talk, learned a lot about the Israeli tech scene and asked quite a few follow up questions afterwards (as you can see in the video).

But we’re talking about a group of less than 10 people at a FREE event, ON campus, where all the students received a notice about it weeks ahead of time.

And if it was just me or my talk I wouldn’t be this worried, but it’s not.

This ambivalent approach by so many Jewish students on campuses who care solely about their grades and professional careers and have no connection to their identity and show no involvement in the Jewish life on campus, should be a red flag for anyone who believes in the importance of American jewery and its relations with Israel.

P.S – If you think I’m exaggerating, see what happened at Barnard college and GW university these last few weeks…

—

To follow Lior’s Journey to promote Israel in all 50 States, Visit – http://vakninlior.com/