On the Knowledge Drop Off of Our Students

During a routine stop at the Gaza border with a student delegation earlier this year, the tour guide and I noticed something strange. None of our students knew when the Camp David Accords were signed. They also didn’t know who signed them. Not just the specific leaders, but the countries involved. You might be thinking, “Oh, these are younger students, and this clearly was a 101 tour of Israel.” Although a fair guess, it unfortunately isn’t the case. The groups that I work with are the leaders on university campuses. The presidents and vice presidents of Hillel, Chabad, and local pro-Israel clubs. These students are on the front lines of the war happening on campuses across North America. So why is it that they don’t know what seem like very basic pieces of information about the region’s history? This wasn’t the first time either of us had seen major knowledge gaps from our students when touring the country. Missing Prime Minister names, dates, and locations are a central bedrock of activism in Israel, especially for a movement that has always prided itself on going for the brains of its fellow students (not just the heart).

Why is it that only a few years ago (notably, before October 7th) Israel advocates knew all the very specific details on the subject? I don’t want to demean our current students, and I’m by no means calling them uneducated or dumb. What other Israel educators and I have noticed is a drop-off in the availability of specific information about Israel and its history. In conversations with others, I have realized that this comes down to the “why” of current Israel advocates.

When I was an undergraduate student a few years ago, joining the fight for the Jewish people in our ancestral homeland was a choice I made. It was the extracurricular that I got involved in because it was something I cared about. It was also an academic interest. Israel wasn’t in the news every day. There was no war, no blood libels, no major shift in public opinion. As a result, I could run fun, communal programs. I could read much lighter books and articles, which helped me build my foundation in Israel’s history: the names, dates, and locations.

That changed completely after October 7th, 2023. Since then, an overwhelming majority of Jewish and pro-Israel students who joined the fight did it out of obligation, not choice. They joined pro-Israel clubs because they had to. Because of defensive activism, these students didn’t have the opportunity to build their knowledge beyond the Jewish education they received before coming to university. When they got to school, they were inundated with encampments, threats of violence, and social isolation that have kept them on the defensive for over three years. They don’t have the time to read lighter books on the subject or listen to a podcast about Israel that was not about the war. The little downtime they have is spent recovering from a cause they feel obligated to fight.

How can we support them? I see two ways to best support our students’ education. 

Educate Yourself

The best way to prove you know something is your ability to teach it. As great as Hillel and Chabad extracurricular classes are, many students don’t have time to join them. If a student doesn’t have an extra hour each week for an organized class but is still interested in learning the subject, it is the campus professional’s job to become the teacher. Having your own knowledge bank and making it clear you’re someone they can talk to if they want to learn more. These conversations are much more normal than people realize. When I was both a student at Hillel and worked at one, I had hundreds of conversations about Israel and Jewish life with staff and students. They see staff as the experts in Jewish life; we must meet them in the middle and be experts, too. This extends to outside-of-campus professionals as well. 

Become a Librarian

The Jewish world has a million amazing podcasts, YouTubers, authors, thinkers, and journalists. As Jewish educators, we likely already follow all of them. We need to curate them better for our students. It is one thing for a Hillel or Chabad to have a robust library, but most of our students don’t have time to read a book unrelated to class. It is the obligation of a campus professional to be aware of materials on Israeli and Jewish history or current events that align with our students’ level of availability and mental fatigue. The student who is doing 19 credits and planning events does not have the mental capacity for a 74-minute video about the specifics of the 1929 Hebron massacre (even though it is a very interesting topic). Know the audience you are working with and choose materials that resonate with where the student is.

Keep Perspective

The pro-Israel student advocate of today is not the same as one from before October 7th. They are much more hardened. They are in this fight out of obligation, not choice. They are also exhausted. Because of the “why” behind their fight, their knowledge banks are thinner than in years past. We, as Israel educators and Jewish professionals, must meet them where they are and find non-traditional ways to prepare them better to communicate for our cause. We must be a unified front as Jews and allies alike to ensure they feel supported and knowledgeable on the subject of Jewish survival.