The ILC hosted its opening event for the Shagririm

10/11/2010 11:11:12 AM

ILC Launches "Shagririm: The Ambassadors" on College Campuses

The ILC is proud to announce the launching of the Shagririm program (The Ambassadors) across southern California University campuses. The mission of Shagririm is to increase support for Israel among campus communities through effective coalition building, public diplomacy, outreach, alliances and community building.

The Shagririm programs focus on training students to build coalitions with the non-Jewish organizations on their respective campuses. We will highlight the shared values of human rights, environment, arts and sciences as a way to create common grounds with other communities. Through personal relationships, leveraging on the intensive educational sessions led by world known professionals, the Shagririm will have the tools to strengthen pro-Israel coalitions on campus.

As anti- Israel sentiments on campuses are on the rise, Shagririm aims to create in each participant a sense of pride in being associated with the community of Israel, to foster a pro-Israel community of leaders and to build a long-term network focused on Israel advocacy. Through monthly lectures, workshops and assignments, the Shagririm will be mentored and trained to become effective ambassadors on their respective campus.

The opening event took place this Sunday, October 3rd at the Legacy on Wilshire. The ILC was proud and thankful for having the support of Israeli Consul General Jacob Dayan; ILC Board Member and Milstein Family Foundation founder Adam Milstein; StandWithUs co-founder and CEO Roz Rothstein; AIPAC Valley Leadership Management Director, Kate Eisenberg; and AEPI Supreme Governor and community leader, Elan Carr. During the event, the speakers of the supporting organizations spoke about the importance of coalition building with the non-Jewish communities, as an introduction to the main theme of this project.

The dynamic group is composed of students from USC, UCLA, SMC, and CSUN who have a connection with Israel. These highly qualified students are all excited to be part of such an important program. Raquel Saxe, a UCLA Shagrira, expressed her enthusiasm to us: “It was phenomenal how the Israel Leadership Council was able to bring these different groups and resources together and present them to college students. I also really liked how students from different nearby campuses were brought together in one space. I look forward to learning a lot from this program and seeing what projects we all come up with.”

Shlichim, or emissaries, Itzik Yarkoni of UC Irvine; Sigal Rosenblit of UC Santa Barbara; Amir Lev of UC-San Diego; Ido Adulamy of USC; and Oded Oron of UCLA also attended, and are all an integral part of this movement on campus.

The Shagririm have the opportunity to attend the StandWithUs “Israel in Focus” conference this upcoming November, which includes advocacy seminars from such speakers as Roberta Said and Eliot Chadoff.

The ILC is proud to welcome the first members of Shagririm and is confident that this program will develop and nurture future community leaders. The ILC would like to thank The Milstein Family Foundation for helping to make this important project a reality. 
 

Israeli Leadership Council