The most common lies about Israel told on campus are:
- Arabs are Israel's "indigenous people" and Jews stole the land
- Israel is committing ethnic cleansing
- Israel is committing genocide
- Israel is occupying land that doesn’t belong to it
- Israel is an apartheid nation
It is every congressional rabbi's responsibility to make sure our teens go off to college knowing how to stand up against the big lies. We are urging our rabbis to make sure his/her teens know how to easily stand up against the slanders, including the blood libels.
Rabbis must prepare teens to fight campus antisemitism. This is their obligation. Otherwise, they are leaving our teens open to being bullied on campus, to cowering, hiding their Jewish identity, or worse, believing the lies, losing their Jewish pride, and even becoming anti-Israel activists a la the antisemitic J Street U and Jewish Voice for Peace.
By Rabbi Dr. Bernhard Rosenberg
