There are numerous ways that Jewish advocacy groups advise students to counter anti-Israel activity on college campuses, ranging from holding demonstrations to simply ignoring the threats. Promoting a positive connection to Israel is instrumental in countering anti-Zionism, according to The Jewish Agency for Israel, which together with Hillel International created the Israel Fellows program—a network of 75 Israeli young professionals serving as “ambassadors” at more than 100 North American university campuses. The fellows—who come from Ethiopian, Middle Eastern, Indian, European, and central Asian backgrounds—work to demystify Israel for those who have little knowledge about the country. They seek to organize events in which students from different cultures can discover shared values, fostering a climate of mutual respect. While anti-Israel groups “try to separate people,” Israel Fellows “try to bring people together,” said Shachar Levy, an Israel Fellow at the University of Texas at Austin.

The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel might be garnering the most headlines when it comes to college campuses and the business world, but the Israeli government is taking the battle against BDS to the United Nations. On May 31, Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon is hosting an international conference that seeks to equip and empower more than 1,500 attendees—students, diplomats, academics, legal professionals, and others—to become “ambassadors against BDS.” Israel's Permanent Mission to the U.N. has decided that it “cannot ignore BDS anymore,” Danon told JNS.org. “I believe [the conference] will empower the students and the activists…to fight and win. I think we can win against BDS, but we have to fight back,” he said.

Dr. Sara Bedoya was raised in a small Cuban town. She was a member of the town’s only Jewish family. Though she knew of her faith and heritage, she was raised without access to a Jewish education or resources. When her mother passed away 12 years ago from cancer and her family moved to the city of Camaguey, where there are more Jews, she decided to honor her mother by learning more about her religion. Soon, Bedoya began to observe Shabbat and take part in community events. Three years ago, she was elected president of the Camaguey Jewish community. Last week, she and nine other Cuban-Jewish women visited Israel for their first time on a trip sponsored by the Jewish Women’s Renaissance Project and Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs. “I have so much love for this country. It was so perfect,” Bedoya told JNS.org regarding Israel on the final day of her nine-day trip.

Israel has endured terrorism for decades. But ever since 9/11 and subsequent major terrorist attacks worldwide, more countries are starting to ask the same question: What motivates terrorists? It’s a question that is as pertinent as ever for Israelis amid the current months-long Palestinian terror wave. The immediate answer on the question of motivation is often one that many politicians like to give: Terrorists are poor and don’t have anything to live for. But according to a series of studies, that premise is wrong. Instead, the studies reveal, terrorists tend to be better educated and more financially stable than the casual observer would expect. Research conducted by Prof. Claude Berrebi, a public policy scholar at Hebrew University of Jerusalem, found that among a group of 285 Palestinian terrorists, 16 percent—compared to 31 percent of Palestinians in general—were characterized as poor. “Political activity is mainly the work of better-educated individuals and people of a higher socioeconomic status. If you start to think of terrorism as a political move, it makes more sense,” Berrebi told JNS.org.

Telling Israel’s story. It’s the specific title of a short film directed by Eyal Resh. It’s also the theme behind the 27-year-old Israeli filmmaker’s broader body of work. “Telling Israel’s Story” seemingly begins as a promotional tourism video, but quickly evolves to offer a multilayered perspective. Spinning shots depict the natural beauty of Israel’s geography and landmarks. Viewers glimpse the religious passions underlying the society; the business and artistic ventures for which Israelis are known; and the violence that all too often puts Israel in the news. Sirens blare as a rocket streaks across the night sky. But when the rocket is later revealed to be part of a festive fireworks show, the music and montage resume with renewed vigor, depicting the celebration of life that underlies Israeli existence. “I see it as my responsibility to use my abilities to change Israel’s image in the U.S. and the world,” Resh tells JNS.org.

Member of Knesset Michael Oren (Kulanu), the self-described “resident old man,” surveys the scene unfolding before his eyes with growing astonishment. Seven-hundred pounds of grilling meat, 20 bags of charcoal, 150 gallons of Negev beer, and 600 new immigrants from the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, France, Chile, Japan, Ukraine, Russia, South Africa, India, Greece, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Venezuela, and Guatemala, all coming together last week to celebrate Israel’s 68th Independence Day at JNFuture Israel’s annual Yom Ha’atzmaut barbecue. Israel’s former ambassador to the U.S. shakes his head in astonishment. “I don’t know whether to be excited or to cry,” Oren quips as he enjoys a hot dog right off the grill. “I’m a little envious. We had nothing like this when I came to this country. Zero. Israel was a frontier country then.”

In the current U.S. presidential race, one presumptive nominee proudly made large donations to politicians “so they would do what I want” to facilitate his business goals, while the other took actions benefiting special interest groups—which then “coincidentally” donated large sums to her family’s private foundation. It’s clear that their approaches to accumulating wealth have worked. According to Forbes, Donald Trump is worth more than $4.5 billion, and the Clintons have made $230 million since leaving the White House. Historian Rafael Medoff wonders what Harold Jacobs would have thought of all this. Jacobs, an Orthodox Jew, built Precisionware into the second-largest manufacturer of kitchen cabinets in America. Medoff recounts a speech that Jacobs gave to a group of Jewish businessmen in 1964 on the topic of business ethics. Jacobs's words, he writes, were at once a stinging rebuke to his professional colleagues and an inspiring insight into the theme of his career.

On the campus of University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), they’re partying like it’s 1948—and Israel’s usual detractors are staying silent. Advocates of Israel celebrated Israel Independence Week at UCLA, participating in numerous activities courtesy of Bruins for Israel. As is the case with a number of the schools in the 10-campus University of California system, UCLA is regarded as a staunchly anti-Israel campus. According to the anti-Semitism watchdog group AMCHA Initiative, there have been 13 incidents of anti-Semitism at UCLA over the past 18 months. Yet during UCLA's Israel Independence Week this year, the campus chapters of anti-Israel groups such as Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace chose not to stage protests at the pro-Israel events.

In our current age of constant Holocaust analogies, Jacob Kamaras admits that he has been guilty of “Holocaust fatigue.” But he doesn’t want to feel that way. His late grandparents on his mother’s side survived the Holocaust. For a grandchild of survivors, the Holocaust should be consistently meaningful. Therefore, beyond his professional duties of covering the annual March of the Living walk from Auschwitz to Birkenau as a journalist, he hoped that the event would help cure his “Holocaust fatigue” and desensitization to news stories of all varieties. He wasn’t cured in a day, but fittingly, what might have put him on the path to being cured was others’ desensitization. At March of the Living, Kamaras writes, he shared young participants' experience of taking important steps in the journey toward learning how to emotionally connect, learning how to feel, and learning how to live.

As 2015 began, Christians United for Israel (CUFI) proudly announced that their membership had surpassed the 2 million mark. In just under a decade since its founding, the Christian Zionist organization had become the largest pro-Israel group in the country. But just a few months later, news headlines were dominated by turmoil between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Barack Obama as well as negotiations surrounding the Iran’s nuclear program. As attention focused on the U.S.-Israel relationship as well as surging anti-Semitism around the world, CUFI saw their membership growth shift into overdrive—and membership now exceeds 3 million.

The entrance to Jerusalem’s Sacher Park was transformed from April 25-27 by a fire-breathing robotic dragon, which flailed its arms and attempted to take flight. The robot, a signature feature at Jerusalem’s first-ever “Geek Picnic,” was one of more than 150 scientific amusements available for the public to experience. This particular dragon was designed by students from Moscow’s Art Industrial Institute, and its pilot’s chair was made from a former Russian fighter jet. 2016 marked the first time that the Geek Picnic took place outside of the former Soviet Union. Carmi Wurtman—owner of 2BVibes Productions, the company that licensed the rights for the festival—said that for five years, he had been eyeing the event as one that would “work well with Israel’s DNA.”

If any city needs a nonjudgmental space, it’s Jerusalem. Both sides of Israel’s capital—the Muslim eastern half and the Jewish western half—have in common large numbers of socially conservative residents who look down on homosexuality. “In the west, you have Orthodox Jews, and in the east you have Arabs—and the Arabs are so homophobic,” says Khaled Alqam, a gay Arab, while sitting under a heater on the patio of the Video Pub in Jerusalem. “They think if you’re gay, you’re a spy.” That’s why Video—which has been Jerusalem’s only gay bar virtually since it opened four years ago—is such an important place for Alqam and a rotating cast of regulars, along with other locals and tourists who drop in. By virtue of its status as a gay bar, the cubbyhole of a venue has a solid clientele of gay Arabs in an area where most bars serve a predominantly Jewish customer base.

“Do you remember when Leonard Nimoy said, ‘Live long and prosper?’” Dr. Frederick Krantz asked an audience at the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue of Montreal. Listeners chuckled in approval of his “Star Trek” reference, indicating that a large percentage were familiar with the iconic TV series and had fond memories of the late Canadian-Jewish actor. Krantz continued, “Well, that is very true. Israel is not only a power in the Middle East, but will be a power in space.” The Canadian Institute for Jewish Research last month held its 28th anniversary gala, an event titled “Israel in Space.” It was North America’s largest-ever gathering dedicated to Israel’s space exploration achievements, according to Krantz, the Jewish research institute's director.

On April 22, 196 nations across the world marked Earth Day, the annual day dedicated to environmental protection that was enacted in 1970. Not to be forgotten on this day is Israel, which is known as the “start-up nation” for its disproportionate amount of technological innovation, including in the area of protecting the environment. For Earth Day 2016, JNS.org presents a sampling of the Jewish state’s internal achievements and global contributions in the environmental realm, including in water conversation, recycling, renewable energy, and fighting air pollution.

Aside from Israel itself, those with a vested interest in the Jewish state are accustomed to tracking developments related to Middle East players such as Iran, Syria, Jordan, and Egypt. But global attention has recently focused on the Caucasus region at the Europe-Asia border, specifically on intensified violence between Azerbaijan and Armenia in the mountainous Nagorno-Karabakh area of western Azerbaijan. The Azerbaijan-Armenia conflict, while not taking place in Israel’s immediate neighborhood, has what one expert called potential “ripple effects” on the Middle East. “If indeed we have a full-fledged war between these two, it is not hard to imagine Turkey involved in some way on the Azerbaijani side,” said Amberin Zaman, a Turkish-born public policy scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. “Then I can see Iran helping Armenia. Instability in the Caucuses region is always going to be very destabilizing for the wider region. There would be multiple negative ripple effects.”

This is Marisol. As a child, Marisol was sent from place to place in Israel after her father passed away and she was ordered by the court to leave her drug-addicted mother. She’s been everywhere in Israel, from a boarding school, to an orphanage, to a kibbutz, and even to a 6-month-old girl’s leadership program in the southern city of Ofakim. But she maintains that she’s never lived in a stable home. In fact, she said that she does not even have a conception of what “home” is. For Marisol, the place where she finally found a home was in the ALMA program, a mechina (pre-army educational program) that provides Israeli girls with six months of studies, hiking, volunteer service, and physical training—all intended to build their leadership skills and prepare them for the IDF and for the rest of their lives. 

Akko (also known as Acre), an Israeli city famous for Crusader-Muslim showdowns and Napoleon’s failed attempt to take its port from the Ottomans, is undergoing a transformation. In 2001, UNESCO named Acre as a World Heritage Site, a designation that spurred the municipality to cultivate world-class tourism attractions. Yet until now, Akko didn’t have the high-end accommodations to match the prestigious UNESCO designation. Creative entrepreneurs are increasingly realizing how this mixed Jewish-Arab city offers a model of coexistence, at a time when Muslim-Jewish tensions are heightened due to the spate of stabbings and other terror attacks against Jews in the streets of Israel. With its stone seawall recalling the city’s days as a fortress and a lively port, Akko evinces the antique charm of places like Jerusalem and Jaffa—minus the commercialization.

What do many Muslims, Christians, Bedouin, and Druze living in Israel have in common? It’s not the obvious fact that they are members of minority populations, but that they are minorities who love and support the country they call “home”—despite preconceived notions about Israeli Arabs. These Israeli minorities are given a voice in “My Home,” the latest documentary from filmmaker Igal Hecht and winner of Best Director upon its world premier at Boston’s Global Cinema Film Festival. The Hebrew-language, English-subtitled film explores what it calls the “silent Arab majority” in Israel—through the perspectives of four individual leaders, from the Muslim, Bedouin, Christian, and Druze communities.

In its latest attempt to enhance Israeli lawmakers' knowledge of American Jewry, the Ruderman Family Foundation last week brought a delegation of Members of Knesset (MKs) to the U.S. During the mission, now in its fourth year, the six visiting MKs met with American Jewish leaders and U.S. government officials in order deepen the Israeli leaders' understanding of the challenges facing U.S. Jewry amid the unpredictable future of the U.S.-Israel relationship. “We just want a higher level of discussion in Israel about the American Jewish community,” Jay Ruderman, president of the Ruderman Family Foundation, told JNS.org.

For Americans, it has been the Oklahoma City bombing, the 9/11 attacks, the San Bernardino shooting, and school shootings. For Israelis, it’s the daily threat of terrorism. Last month saw massive terror attacks in Istanbul and Brussels. As Sarri Singer puts it, terrorism knows no borders and doesn’t differentiate between race, religion, and geography. “We all share something that bonds us for life. The idea is to work together to not let [terrorism] destroy us, but to move forward by building a future of peace and being productive members of society,” says Singer, the founder and director of Strength to Strength, a non-profit organization that brings bereaved family members and victims of terror from around the world together to heal. From April 5-12, Strength to Strength’s Young Ambassadors Program brought together 25 participants from ages 16-20 who have lost a parent or other immediate family member in a terrorist attack, or were injured themselves. The participants—who came from Argentina, Colombia, France, England, Ireland, Spain, Israel, and the U.S.—spent a week together in New York City.