San Diego Jewish World
August 19, 2020
The pro-Israel organization StandWithUs, which educates students about the Jewish State and responds to anti-Zionist and antisemitic propaganda, has named three local high school interns and two Emerson Fellows for the upcoming academic term.
High School interns will be Mark Zaga at the San Diego Jewish Academy, Ben Davis at La Jolla High School, and Rebecca Danzig at Canyon Crest Academy. Emerson Fellows — so called because of a grant given by Steve and Rita Emerson to promote pro-Israel education on college campuses — were awarded to senior Niv Levy at San Diego State University and junior Sivan Barashy at UC San Diego.
Levy founded and served as president of the Israel American Council’s Mishelanu (One of our own) chapter at UC Santa Barbara, and while studying there, through involvement with Hillel and Students Supporting Israel, helped to defeat student resolutions in support of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel. Barashy, meanwhile, serves on the executive board of Tritons for Israel and previously served as president of that group’s Ambassadors at UC San Diego.
Yosef Condiotti, the San Diego regional director of StandWithUs (who completes one year in that position on Thursday), commented that he was “thrilled that this year San Diego has such strong representation from exceptionally high-quality students who will passionately educate about Israel and have already demonstrated their ability to combat antisemitism. I am proud of how well they adapted to the ‘new normal’ of virtual reality. Teaching the future generation about Israel is critical and no pandemic will stop us from accomplishing our mission.”
Normally, high school interns and Emerson fellows would be brought to StandWithUs headquarters in Los Angeles for five days of orientation, but this year both conferences were held via Zoom because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Read the full article here.
