Community Advocate Meetings for Israel
 

These meetings will allow people to take pen in hand and write letters. People will learn about the priority actions that need to be taken on a given week. These actions come to us from key, reputable organizations. We would like to involve children and teens in these gatherings.

Here are the things that we would like to accomplish at the advocate meetings:

  • To write letters that tell our lawmaking representatives that their constituents care about Israel. We would like them to help pass financial aid packages to Israel, to penalize countries and governments who support (and actively incite) terrorism, and to support other pro-Israel bills. This information, including sample letters, are linked to our action page for you to print out for your meetings.
  • To communicate to the President that peace loving people would like him to publicly, regularly denounce terrorism.

  • To communicate to our young and vulnerable Israeli soldiers that we stand
    behind them at this critical time and that we appreciate their bravery as
    they watch over Israel for all of us.

  • We would like each community to pick a charitable project to sponsor.
    For example: aid to the victims of terror, repairing an ambulance, aid to
    the Israeli soldiers, bullet proof vans to transport children to schools,
    support of media organizations that tell Israel's story accurately, etc.

  • We would like to teach people how they can play an active role to help
    balance the media's bias.

  • We would like you to tell your friends and members to register with us
    because it is our overall goal to answer the burning question: what can I do for Israel? We give you priority actions that are continually updated.

  • To teach kids a sense of responsibility, involvement and love for Israel
    that will last throughout their lives.

Supplies you will need for the adults:

  • Envelopes
  • Pens
  • Sheets of paper
  • Addresses of representatives of your areas.
  • Sample letters that you will xerox for your meeting.

Supplies you will need for the children and teens:

  • Envelopes
  • Pens
  • Crayons
  • Paper
  • Construction paper
  • Glue stick
  • Scissors
  • A sample letter that you will xerox for your meeting.

Simple snacks for everyone:
Soda, water, cookies, paper cups-more snacks if you like, but not necessary.

Tasks for Kids and Teens:
The kids and teens will be making cards and letters to express their love and appreciation to the Israeli soldiers. Tell all the kids to speak from their hearts. The kids should make more than one card each. They should sign their names and give their addresses because very often the soldiers will write back. All letters should be placed in a box and mailed directly to Israel at:

AWIS
60 Weizman St.
Tel Aviv, Israel
62155

Any charitable donations for the IDF should be mailed to new York, at:

Friends of IDF
298 5th Ave.
5th Floor
New York, New York 10001

Adult Program:
You may want to begin your meeting with an informative tape that you borrow from your local Israeli Consulate's office. Keep the tape short, and make sure it speaks well to the current crisis. We suggest that each person write one letter to President Bush, one to Colin Powell, one to each of their state Senators, and one to their representative. (We would like to thank AIPAC for providing us with these Congressional letters.) You can bring a list of the representatives based upon the zip codes of the area that your community comes from. If you are not sure about the representatives for the areas, please go to the AIPAC site at http://capwiz.com/aipac/dbq/officials. Type in each of the zip codes that reflect your membership, and the reps will be listed for you. By the way, if you are not already a member of AIPAC, we would like to strongly urge you to join.

Depending upon the issues that week, you can take information for your sample letters from our site.There may also be media bias issues that your community will want to address. This will be dependent upon when you have your meeting, as to which paper or program you may want to write letters to.

We suggest that you develop a small social action committee for your organization if there is not already one in place. They will be the ones who can prepare the supplies for your meetings. Keep it simple. Make sure that a phone tree reminds everyone to attend.

StandWithUs is here to support your efforts. If you have any questions, please contact us.