StandWithUs launching locally
PLANS are underway to launch an Australian branch of the international Israel education and advocacy organisation StandWithUs, with the local chapter aiming to educate Jews and non-Jews with facts about the Holy Land.
PLANS are underway to launch an Australian branch of the international Israel education and advocacy organisation StandWithUs, with the local chapter aiming to educate Jews and non-Jews with facts about the Holy Land.
Based in Los Angeles, StandWithUs has 18 offices and chapters across the US, Canada, Israel and the UK.
The principle goal is to empower youth to feel confident about their knowledge and ability to stand up for Israel.
StandWithUs Australia will organise speaking tours within Australia, workshops to train advocates and a seminar for Australian gap year students in Israel. Thousands of StandWithUs brochures will be distributed on university campuses and throughout communities, as well as hundreds of hours of activism training for student and community advocates.
Ilana Kempler, one of StandWithUs Australia’s three directors, told The AJN it is important that today’s university students, both Jewish and non-Jewish, are educated with facts about Israel including its history.
“These students are the future policymakers of our country and we shall reap the benefits 20-30 years later,” Kempler said.
The organisation also hopes to target non-Jewish high schools, bringing students information and facts about Israel’s successes and achievements in many areas such as IT, environmental issues, humanitarian aid and water management.
“This is a way of exposing Israel to youths in communities who normally would know nothing about Israel,” she said.
“We also want to provide support through seminars to the older community who wants to learn how to advocate and fight media bias with facts and figures.”
StandWithUs Australia is a not-for-profit charity and will be funded through donations, sponsorships and fundraisers.
“We have been in discussions in the past year and hope to have a desk at [Melbourne’s] Beth Weizmann Community Centre with a full-time operational officer running the programs, so as to be part of the community’s wonderful Jewish organisations which we hope to partner with in many of our activities,” Kempler said.
“It has taken a few good years of effort to get this off the ground, and I am so pleased to say that it is finally happening.”
She added: “We live in a world full of lies and deception and it is time for ‘good people’ to start advocating the truth and getting some moral fibre.”
EVAN ZLATKIS
For more information, email australia@standwithus.com or search for StandWithUs Australia on Facebook.
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