Serious topics and light hearts mix at community’s 4th annual Israel festival

by Ron Kaplan
NJJN Staff Writer

Unabashed celebration vied with discussion of more serious topics as crowds gathered Sunday in Whippany for the fourth annual Cultural Celebration of Israel sponsored by the MetroWest NJ Grassroots Coalition for Israel.

While some in the crowd enjoyed the music, clowns, crafts, and other festivities during the daylong event at the Alex Aidekman Family Jewish Community Campus on Jan. 8, others attended sessions where experts discussed Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s health crisis, Iranian saber rattling, and the perception of Israel on American campuses (see related story).

The speakers, too, drew different audiences. While a mature audience attended a presentation by Benjamin Krasna, Israel’s deputy consul general in New York, mostly high school- and college-aged people and their parents sat in on a talk on campus advocacy by Emily Topolosky, AIPAC’s northern New Jersey director.

Sharon’s illness and the resultant uncertainty over Israel’s political future have created a flurry of concerns, said Krasna, who lives with his family in Teaneck. “This is a development that has no script because you don’t know what the next day or week will bring, especially in light of events over the last 96 hours,” he said.

Krasna, who took up his diplomatic post in September, compared Sharon’s situation with the previous day’s Torah portion, Vayigash, in which Joseph asks his brothers if their father, Jacob, is still alive. “For many of us, every three to four hours, that’s the question.”

With Palestinian elections looming later this month and Israeli elections scheduled for March, Krasna said he maintained a philosophy that, politically speaking, life will go on. “I have every confidence that there is no vacuum of [Israeli] leadership,” he said.

He called on Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to take a firm hand in the election process. “It’s a question of will,” Krasna said. “Abbas needs to do more” to ensure that Hamas will not disrupt the democratic process.

Krasna also castigated Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, president of Iran, for his incendiary remarks about Sharon’s health, his denial of the Holocaust, and his repeated calls for the destruction of the Jewish state and the United States.

“Iran presents the most significant obstacle” to stability in the Middle East, Krasna said. He called on European leaders to take a stronger position, especially in light of Iran’s intentions of developing nuclear weapons. With the technology available to increase missile range from 200 to 800 miles — far enough to reach European nations — it was time for them to “sit up and take notice,” Krasna said.

“When [Iran has] the knowledge, you can’t take it away,” he warned. “Remember, Iran is a world leader in terror, supporting it in Israel and around the world. Put that together with all of the above and it doesn’t leave much to our imagination as to what could happen.”

The international community is getting involved, he said, but not to the point at which leading countries are ready to bring the situation to the United Nations Security Council.

Topolosky’s presentation was geared toward educating and prodding young people to get involved in the political process on the grassroots level. One way to do that, she said, is a multi-step process that begins with circulating a petition on behalf of the United States-Israel relationship. Once completed, the petition would be turned into an advertisement that could be published in school and/or community newspapers.

Working with the school’s student government, the ads could then be presented to local members of Congress as an indication of support for Israel. Contacting elected officials was the most effective instrument in expressing support for Israel, she said.

According to Topolosky, studies have shown that young people involved in student government frequently become involved in politics as adults.

She expressed concern that students who are not products of the Jewish day school system are not well versed in Israel’s history, which makes them unprepared to deal with anti-Israel propaganda issues on high school and college campuses. It’s up to the American-Jewish community to voice their concerns over such issues, she said, because “no one else really cares.”

Topolosky advocated a proactive policy. “We have to get in front of the situation,” she said, “instead of waiting to see what others are going to do.”

Ron Kaplan can be reached at RKaplan@njjewishnews.com.

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