Jewish college students must be prepared to counter anti-Israel propaganda on campus.

That was the message delivered by two representatives from Stand With Us, an organization striving to make sure Israel"s side of the story is told on campuses, in the media, and in houses of worship.

The two appeared Oct. 14 at Congregation Ahavas Achim in Highland Park to speak to high school and college students and their parents about how to deal with anti-Israel messages.

"There is a lot of anti-Israel hate speech on college campuses," said Ron Kutas, East Coast campus coordinator. "We work really hard to try and get teams of students out with a factual pro-Israel message."

The group produces booklets and fliers with positive information on such issues as the status of Israeli Arabs, Israel"s safeguarding of civil rights, and the historic Jewish presence in the Holy Land. Similar information can be downloaded from its Web sites, standwithus.com or standwithuscampus.com.

Students can also sign up to receive e-mail alerts about what"s happening at other campuses and receive tips from the organization"s "idea bank."

Stand With Us also has developed a protocol for blunting the message of and preventing biased anti-Israel classes, speeches, and lectures on campus. These include involving the larger Jewish community and enlisting university administrators in ensuring a balanced portrayal of Israel.

"We are very active on campuses on the West Coast, but we are just becoming established on the East Coast through our New York office," said Kutas.

The organization runs a separate campus division, which recently hired 40 students to serve as Emerson Fellows, fanning out at colleges across the United States and Canada to inspire others to run effective pro-Israel events on campus. While none was hired at any New Jersey college, there are fellows at the University of Pennsylvania, Queens College, New York University, and Columbia University.

Kutas said that through its campus representatives the organization became actively involved at the grassroots level at the University of California at Irvine, where the Muslim Student Union invited a series of speakers considered inflammatory by Israel"s supporters on campus. The same week saw the construction of a mockup of the security barrier that Israel has constructed to prevent terrorist infiltration.

Closer to home, Stand With Us organized student protests, including reaching out to Jewish high schools and to Jewish student groups at colleges throughout the New York area, in response to the appearance of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at Columbia University.

"We had a big delegation from Rutgers," said Kutas.

Avi Posnick, the East Coast campus outreach coordinator for Stand With Us, said he has been visiting high schools in the New York area to enlist students.

"We"ve been to day schools on Long Island," he added. "We have not yet been to New Jersey, but we hope to."

Jewish high school and college students need to hear the organization"s message, according to Chaye Kohl of Highland Park, former assistant principal at Moshe Aaron Yeshiva High School in South River.

"We need to educate our Jewish students even before they go to college campuses," said Kohl, now on sabbatical as a principal at Hillel Community Day School in North Miami Beach. "They will encounter people on campus that are so vitriolic, and our day school kids are not used to that."

The program was jointly sponsored by Ahavas Achim, Congregation Ohav Emeth, and Congregation Etz Ahaim in Highland Park; Congregation Ohr Torah and Congregation Beth-El in Edison; and the Young Israel of East Brunswick, together with the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Greater Middlesex County.