- Hasbara Fellowships
Hasbara Fellowships is an organization that brings students to Israel and trains them to be "effective pro-Israel activists on their campuses". Based in New York, it was started in 2001 by
Aish HaTorah in conjunction with the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The organization claims to have trained over 1,000 students on over 220 US campuses, and is expanding into Canada. [http://www.israelactivism.com/index.php?mode=israelprograms]Students in the program have the opportunity to meet high-level Israeli officials.A sample itinerary given by the organization includes meetings in Jerusalem with the foreign press advisor to the Prime Minister of Israel, the mayor of an Israeli city, a member of the Knesset, and the foreign minister of Israel. [http://jerusalemfellowships.org/act/itin.htm]
The organization also refers to these fellowships as "Jerusalem Fellowships".
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Hasbara Fellowships was founded and is, as of 2008, still run by Elliot Mathias, who has a degree in political communications from
Northwestern University .Mathias is also an advisor toHonestReporting . [http://jerusalemfellowships.org/act/meetus.htm]Activities
Activists trained by Hasbara Fellowships have been involved in several notable campus demonstrations. In 2002, Hasbara Fellowships organized a rally at the National Student Palestinian Conference at the University of Michigan. [http://www.aish.com/jewishissues/jewishsociety/The_Michigan_Rally_A_Report.asp] In 2007, Hasbara Fellowships members at
Brandeis University protested against former US PresidentJimmy Carter 's book, "" [http://www.dailynewstribune.com/homepage/8998982704573710335]In 2007, Hasbara Fellowships called for volunteers to counter what it described as a "dangerous trend" of
Wikipedia entries portraying Israel in a "negative light". Interested readers were encouraged to consider "joining a team of Wikipedians to make sure Israel is presented fairly and accurately". [ [http://www.israelactivism.com/index.php?mode=newsletter#article11 "Wikipedia.org", Hasbara Fellowships Newletter, 31 May 2007] , accessed 29 July 2007.]In 2008, Hasbara Fellowships helped to organize "Islamic State Apartheid Week" at York University to counter the rival "
Israeli Apartheid Week ". [http://www.excal.on.ca/cms2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5724]ee also
*
Hasbara
*JIDF
*Internet Haganah
*Aish HaTorah
*Israel On Campus Coalition "Hasbara Fellowships" is a founding member.Footnotes
External links
* [http://www.Israelactivism.com "The official website of Hasabara Fellowships"] .
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