Argov Study Tour 2014--Your Responses

[Alisa Rubin]

Dear fellows,

I really enjoyed reading your study tour essays which were very thoughtful and beautifully written. I will be sending each one of you individual comments shortly. It never ceases to amaze me how you all take such different lessons from the experience. I just wanted to share with you the individuals that you found most inspiring (with the number of you who selected each individual listed below) as well as the institutions/norms/practices you thought Israel should adopt or not.

Wishing you all a great summer and best of luck in your first post-B.A. adventures. Stay in touch.

Regards,

Alisa

Argov Study Tour 2014: Statistics

Individuals

Jonathan Kessler-9

Susannah Wellford-8

Peter Geffen-5

Joshua Margolis-4

Meg Newhouse-4

Ambassador Ron Prosor-4

Bret Stephens-4

Marvin Kalb-3

Alec Ross-3

Jewish Student Connection (Westchester)-2

David Saranga-2

Yossi Siegel-2

Jed Willard-2

Jim Wolfensohn-2

Peter Berkowitz-1

Dr. Julien Klener-1

Judge David Tatel-1

Filippo Grandi (UNRWA)-1

MEP. Annemie Neyts Uyttebroeck-1

Rachel Whitlark (Belfer Center, Harvard)-1

Institutions—Adopt

European bureaucracy (respect and efficiency)

US Court of appeals (to take pressure off of the Supreme Court)

US decentralization

US higher education system-2 (teaching methods, four year undergraduate degree)

Interactive, creative teaching approach of the Heschel School-2

Early education programs to increase women’s involvement in politics

Putting an end to what Dick Simon called "THEMification" - seeing others through the lenses of "them"

US greater inclusion of the disabled in the work force

US think tanks

US inter-collegial collaboration (as in Boston)

Academic journal in English

NGO like Running Start-2

Trusting your employees and giving them freedom to perform their jobs

Citizen diplomacy

Washington, DC example of a voluntary raise in taxation

Education system that values philosophy and history

Neutral media

Institutions—Reject

Reconstructionist Judaism (fragmentation of the diminishing community)

US two-house Congress (gridlock)

Automatic equal citizenship for all (will threaten Israel’s future as a Jewish state)

Foreign country lobbies like AIPAC-2

Mutual US-Israel Defense Treaty-2

“Apocalyptic approach” to the idea that Jewish communities have no future in Europe/European “rhetoric of danger” and view of the whole world as the enemy

Isolationism

US jury system-3

US Jewish religious pluralism

Biased political propaganda dissemination on college campuses

NGO like Jewish Student Connection-2

Constitution

Defensive hasbara/public diplomacy-2