Hasbara Fellowships

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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.[1]

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. [2]

The organization also refers to these fellowships as "Jerusalem Fellowships".

1 Staff
2 Activities
3 See also
4 External link

[edit] Staff

Hasbara Fellowships was founded and is, as of 2007, still run by Elliot Matias, who has a degree in political communications from Northwestern University. Matias is also an advisor to HonestReporting.[3]

[edit] 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. [4] In 2007, Hasbara Fellowships members at Brandeis University protested against former US President Jimmy Carter's book, "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid" [5]