The dust refuses to settle across Israel. The north fluctuates between calm and chaos as fighting comes and goes with Hezbollah. For the first time in decades, there are no living hostages held in the hellish dungeons under Gaza. As we awake to the release of our remaining brothers whose souls lie in a geopolitical state, the question persists: now what? Since October 7th, I have directed 75 university students on advanced-level advocacy training trips for tomorrow’s leaders of the Zionist movement to Israel. This number doubled in December, but a constant sense of cynicism and betrayal persists for many of these students. Many have felt either abandoned or betrayed by those in power. Not in a way that will see them leave the movement or abandon their passion for fighting for the Jewish nation, but in a way that “the adults in the room” have no understanding of how to address, let alone remotely support, what they have been living through since October 7, 2023. What has happened on North American campuses has been covered ad nauseam and does not require my summation. What does matter is that Jewish students still feel abandoned not only by their administration but by the generations that have come before. Perhaps abandoned is not the correct terminology. What is more accurate is that there is a sense of juvenile treatment towards Jewish students. They have been on the front lines of the North American front of this war; they know what’s happening to them. What hasn’t been done is listening by those “adults in the room”.

During the off-season, when not in Israel, I work directly with my campus fellows, and every session starts and ends the same way: What do you need to feel supported? The answers always vary over a few options. Either they need an hour to not talk about Israel or school. Sometimes it’s an outline of the funds they need for their events that they have an extremely deep passion for getting exactly right. Other times, they just need to scream into the void and have someone tell them it’s going to be okay. As a good advisor, I lie; no one knows if it’s going to be okay. But we do what we need to do for these students.

In December, our program led the largest group of fellows we’ve had in several years, certainly the most since October 7th. Our waitlist was enough to have twice as many buses. This is not meant to be a brag of any sort. Internally, my counterparts and I discuss what has been so successful this season. We came to a simple explanation: we listen to the student. Until other Israel travel trips, we have a long-term follow-up program that requires constant meetings with our fellows. In those meetings, we can address the issues they’re dealing with on campus. And we address them honestly. We tell them what we can and can’t do, but we ensure that they’re connected with those who can do what we can’t. We are student-led. Students know their campus better than any “adult in the room”. They are just as bright and passionate as any other fighter in the history of the Zionist movement. Now is the time to listen to what they have to say and provide the support they ask for. The Jewish community lost a lot of allies over the last few years. Our students have been alienated, antagonized, and attacked at a rate that rivels the darkest epochs of history. They’re scared, and they need our help. When will we listen?

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)