The Missing Piece (Shanan Miller, Hasbara Fellow, Queens College)
I chose to be a Hasbara Fellow in order to be a more effective advocate for Israel on campus. I had grown up going to modern-Orthodox institutions that taught me about the Jewish homeland, as well as attending a gap year program in Israel after highschool. Still, somehow, I felt something was missing until I found Hasbara Fellowships.
As a Hasbara Fellow I was able to get up close and personal with information about relevant issues from those who are experts in their fields. I visited the border with Gaza with resident expert Col. (Res) Grisha Yakubovich, where we debated what the world’s reaction would be to the very real and looming possibility of Gazans running out of clean drinking water, and what Israel’s humanitarian obligation would be to Gazans in that situation. This was the moment when I realized what I had been missing was the firsthand knowledge of relevant issues to the conflict in the Middle East, and understanding that real people’s lives are affected by this conflict.
Because of Hasbara Fellowships, I can advocate for Israel as someone who has actually had access to and seen what they are talking about, rather than speaking from the standpoint of third party knowledge. In this way, Hasbara Fellowships has enabled me to gain the information necessary to become a more credible source as an advocate for Israel in my conversations on campus.
