Hasbarah, (haz-ba-rah) n. information; L’hasbir, v. to inform.
The publication of the Advocacy for Israel Committee ("A-Team") of Congregation B’nai Israel
Special Edition: Rosh Hashanah 5765
Volume 3 * Issue 121 September 15, 2004
Start the New Year off right: Ten Things you can do for Israel
Make 5765 a special year by devoting one hour per week to Israeli advocacy! 1. Make a contribution to the
Israel Emergency Campaign through your local federation, buy Israeli bonds, and support the JNF 2. Write or e-mail the President and your legislators E-mail President Bush at president@whitehouse.gov. Find your legislators' e-mail addresses at www.vote-smart.org/index.phtml. In the subject line write "Thank you for your support of Israel." 3. Buy Israeli products through http://www.shopinisrael.com/ 4. Learn the facts, and educate others. Visit the Israeli government's Web site (http://www.mfa.gov.il/) and American Jewish organizations' Web sites (www.ujc.org, http://www.adl.org/) Speak in your own community. 5. Challenge media coverage of Israel. Call radio talk shows, write letters to the editor, speak out in chat rooms. For information on contacting the media, go to www.honestreporting.com/a/contact.asp 6. Reach out to individual Israelis Go to the web site http://www.onefamilyfund.org/index to help families of recent terror victims. 7. Go to Israel. 8. Express solidarity with Israel: Wear a blue ribbon or pin, display a flag, sing Hatikvah. Participate in community events 9. Write a letter to boost the morale of an Israeli soldier: Letter to Soldier, POB 92, Jerusalem 91000, Israel, fax to 972-2-621-6133/6214, or e-mail as an attachment to lettertosoldier@jazo.org.il. 10. Join something Jewish. Connect locally with a project that helps build Israel. Volunteer your time, spirit and talents to the world Jewish community.TAKE ACTION: Media Monitoring Workshop to be held September 19
The A Team is proud to announce its participation in a special media workshop run by CAMERA, the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting. To be held in conjunction with our next regularly scheduled meeting on September 19, and co-sponsored at no charge to Israeli advocates by our local media monitoring group PRIMER, this event is intended to enlarge the body of media-watchers in the country. Highlighted goals of the workshop include: (1) how to get people involved in responding to unfair reports about Israel, (2) the importance of "proactivism", (3) how to get the media interested in your story ideas (4) how to include a local angle, (5) how to turn an anti-Israel event into publicity for our side, (6) how to generate videos for public access cable, and (7) how to get politicians involved.
The workshop will be run by Lee Green, the Director of CAMERA's National Letter-Writing Group, part of an organization that is a non-denominational media watchdog with over 50,000 members. Lee analyzes news coverage regarding Israel and the Palestinian territories and organizes nationwide letter-writing campaigns to counter inaccurate and unbalanced reporting and to promote more complete context. She founded the letter-writing group for CAMERA in 1990 and now has thousands of letter-writers in 44 states and 9 countries.
The symposium will take place at 11:00 am on Sunday September 19 at Philip Benjamin Tower, 250 58th Street North in St. Petersburg, just across the driveway from Congregation B’nai Israel. There is plenty of visitor parking, and we will meet just off the lobby, on ground floor. Phone 347-5191.
Advocacy for Israel Committee Information