Meet the Movement: Chapman University

Students Supporting Israel is a grassroots pro-Israel organization composed of students that are devoted to showing Israel’s narrative for what it truly is on campus. SSI at Chapman University is a newer yet strong chapter, one with a president, Dalia Vered, who is knowledgeable in regards to Israel, and is very passionate with what she does.

Dalia is a student at Chapman University that is constantly working during the little free time that she has. She studies film and television at Chapman, and is a screenwriter that also does costume design on set – “basically I’m always on set producing between jobs”.

Dalia was called by Ilan, the founder of SSI, and was told that there was a new chapter in need of a president. Immediately, Dalia knew that she needed to step-up and become president, ensuring that her campus could thrive in regards to pro-Israel advocacy.

She felt motivated by the fact that she feels a connection to Israel, “I’ve always been super involved when it comes to Israel, and I’ve met a lot of people at Chapman that I felt were very ignorant about the subject so I spent a lot of time educating them. When Ilan asked me to take over, I knew that I had to step up and focus on educating a larger group of people”.

Dalia would describe her campus as moderate, and although there are groups with opposing perspectives, they are not overly active, and her SSI chapter was able to accomplish all that was needed throughout the semester.

An event that she felt was very successful was the event they held on International Women’s day, “we basically tabled in the Piazza and decorated poster boards with pictures of Israeli women and notes to young girls, and then we delivered the poster board to an elementary school in our neighborhood”.

She would like to see her campus turn into one that is, “more aware and knowledgeable about the conflict”, and recognizes that SSI does play a big role in that aspect.

This is the first semester on campus for most of the members of this chapter, so they’ve been focusing on building fundamentals for the coming years, ensuring that there are good relationships between everyone they meet, and making sure that there is positivity surrounding their club.

Israel advocacy has taught Dalia a lot, and makes her, “more productive as a human being, and makes her feel more wholesome as a Jewish individual”.

In 10 years, Dalia sees herself being a famous director. The one piece of advice she has to give to the rest of the SSI members across the country is to: “just keep doing what you’re doing – keep learning and teaching your peers on campus all you can about Israel, and everything else will fall into place”.