Students “write” on for Israel

July 17, 2011 - 10:06 AM by Brian Blum

Jonathan Carey, BluestarPR

I hadn’t seen or heard from Jonathan Carey for 20 years. But there he was, standing in my living room on a recent Saturday night. Jonathan and I used to be buddies back when we were both starting our careers in the then burgeoning business of “multimedia.”

Multimedia? Sure, you remember when you could buy a CD-ROM with a whole encyclopedia on it? Or a cute animated rabbit who’d teach you to read? The Internet killed the CD-ROM industry, of course. Why pay $50 for Microsoft Encarta when you have it all for free on Wikipedia. And the kind of video we called state-of-the-art back in the day is now quaintly naive.

Both Jonathan and I reinvented ourselves – me by returning to my roots as a writer; Jonathan creating with a service for lawyers. And yet, somehow, 20 years later, we’re back in the same business. This time it’s doing what we can to promote a view of Israel “beyond the conflict.”

Jonathan’s company, Bluestar PR, started in 2003 by creating pro-Israel posters and postcards to distribute on college campuses (he’s still doing it). He was responding to the fears among students to show that they were Jewish publicly at the University of California at Berkeley during the height of the 2nd Intifada. His latest venture – and the reason he was visiting Israel – is a very cool project called Write On for Israel (WOFI). 100 high school students (sophomores and juniors) sign up for a heavily subsidized two-year journalism program.

Participants interview IDF Col. Bentzi Gruber

Participants in the program, which is based in San Francisco and is now in its fourth year, learn about Israel from a variety of experts. They hone their writing skills and then, during the summer between the two years, visit Israel for 10 days where they meet with more experts, tour the country, and shoot a video about a particular slice of Israel reality, hopefully balanced with all of the knowledge they’ve gleaned.

The videos I’ve seen are a bit more hasbara then straight journalism, ranging from the role of women in Israeli society, to understanding the fabric of life here from food. But they’re well made and brimming with optimism. Here’s an example.

Jonathan says his aim is to train leaders who will jump into college with the pro-Israel skills they’ll need to combat the pervasive delegitimization that’s all but taken over most North American campuses.

Jonathan adds that he’s seen some real success stories. He points to one graduate who was so enthusiastic in her support of Israel she’d plastered the walls in her bedroom with posters about the country. Her parents suggested kindly that maybe she’d gone too far. But her tireless energy on campus has already made a difference where she goes to school.

The program is backed by the the Avi Chai Foundation. Jonathan is currently working on expanding it to college students and young adults later this year.

It was a true pleasure to reconnect with an old friend who is doing his best to do good for Israel. Maybe he’ll even make a CD-ROM out of it.

Share with others