An Irish-American college student has taken on the role of coordinator of an internship program that’s designed to prepare Jewish teens for challenges they may face regarding Israel when they enter college.
Liz Brough – who isn’t Jewish – found her personal connection to Israel during a post-high school trip to Israel. Then upon entering college, she says, she was shocked by the antagonistic anti-Semitic statements she was hearing on campus – and was motivated to join StandWithUs to educate other students concerning the real truth about the Jewish state.
Brough
“In my very first year [in college], I saw quite a bit of anti-Semitism and I heard a lot of statements about Israel that really bothered me because they were so egregious,” Brough tells OneNewsNow. “Statements like Israel is the number-one human rights abuser in the world. [And I thought] Oh, my goodness. I care about human rights. I went to Israel and I didn’t see that. What are we talking about?“
The group’s High School Internship program, which began in 2012, is a year-long mentorship program for Jewish high school students that trains, educates, and inspires them to be leaders once they enter college – and prepares them for effective Israel advocacy. The program includes attendance at national conferences, online educational workshops, and guidance and funding to run related programming in their high schools and youth groups.
Brough says she likes to think of the program as “spring training” – and students’ advocacy on college campuses as “the big game.”
“When we start in high school, that allows them to practice [their leadership skills and] to develop as young leaders and influencers so that by the time they start as freshmen in college, they’re ready to go,” she shares.
Brough is the coordinator for six states in the Southwest Region.
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