New campus rep offers consulate a student’s view

Two years ago, the consul general of Israel created a new position to deal specifically with college students. In that position since June is a student herself.

Born in Moscow, the 21-year-old Vera Lev first introduced herself to the Jewish community by speaking at the first Bay Area solidarity rally for Israel when the second intifada began almost two years ago. Now a senior at the University of San Francisco, Lev described the difficulties of being a pro-Israel activist in the hostile campus atmosphere that has become the norm in the Bay Area.

Lev's agenda is twofold. Not only is she representing Israel to all of the college campuses and high schools in the Pacific Northwest, but she's also developing a network of pro-Israel students.

Called the Israel Student Leadership Network, Lev is training about 50 students to be advocates for Israel on campus.

"This is for passionate, involved, motivated students," she said. Through an online listserv, the students can communicate with each other as well as Lev. "They can get feedback from us and brainstorm as a collective body."

It will also fall to Lev to get speaking engagements for the consul general and vice consul general, not only in campus-wide lectures but in political science and history classes as well.

Lev will also take on some speaking engagements herself; she credits her internship with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and its director, Elliot Brandt, with teaching her to speak in front of a crowd of hundreds, if not thousands.

Lev spent most of last year at Tel Aviv University, on her junior year abroad. She had to return early for personal reasons, but she returned feeling like she has the authority to speak as someone who knows what it's like to live with the constant fear of terrorist attacks; in other words, as an Israeli.

"Terrorism is very foreign to most people," she said. Just as she believes only New Yorkers truly felt the impact of Sept. 11, most Americans have no idea what it means to live the way Israelis have these last two years.

"You don't want to spend more than five minutes at the market, because markets are known to be prime targets," she said. "You hope the bus isn't too crowded and you're looking at every person." Living in Israel during this time, she said, "changed my being as a whole."

When Lev returned to the Bay Area, she learned about the anti-Israel atmosphere on campuses, and how the Palestinians were being portrayed by the media as the underdog, she said. "I wish people could better understand the depth of the conflict," she said.

Lev believes that her still being a student can only be an asset in her new position.

"Having been an Israel activist and leader, I know what it's like to be on the front lines," she said, "with all the feelings and emotions.

Of the students she'll be working with, she said, "I'm an officer of the consulate, but I'm also their counterpart. It makes my job more rewarding, with me being a student, and being able to help my fellow students."