Looking For a Few Good Mensches: Israeli NGO Seeks to Inspire Jewish College Students in US to Confront, Transcend Rising Antisemitism

A nonprofit based in Israel is launching an effort to reach thousands of Jewish college students in the US amid what it called an “unprecedented global surge” in antisemitism.

Founded in 2012, the Be a Mensch Foundation grew out of a partnership between author Dr. Moshe Kaplan, MD, and Mordecai Geduld, which began after Kaplan edited and published a book of the same title in 2009.

Kaplan conceived the book, which comprises essays by Israeli academics and medical practitioners, as a vindication of the role of ethics in forming complete young men and women. Later, “Be a Mensch: Why Good Character Is the Key to a Life of Happiness, Health, Wealth, and Love” became the basis of programs the organization held to unite religious and secular Israelis.

Now, following Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel and the resulting war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, Kaplan has published  a new book, titled “Extreme Trauma: October 7 as an Outlier in the Range of Human Potential,” to help Jewish communities across the world process the globalization of antisemitism promoted by social media, far-left groups, and far-right podcasters.

Jewish college students need access to “Extreme Trauma” the most, Be a Mensch spokesman Gavriel Sanders told The Algemeiner during an interview on Tuesday.

“Antisemitism right now is everywhere — Australia, South America — being fueled by social media and, of course, by the classroom,” Sanders explained. “The book is pretty blunt, hard reading, but what makes this particular work unique is its emphasis on the resilience of the Jewish people, and people of conscience who have been affected by this, and its active quest for hope, presenting us the choice between being bitter and better and showing us how to emerge better from this moment.”

Throughout the long history of antisemitism “that’s one of the historical characteristics of the Jewish people,” Sanders said, “our trying to operate at a higher level of awareness which recognizes the tragedies which befall us but stresses the importance of moving forward as victors, not as victims. So, for students, this book facilitates a perspective not only of looking back and remembering but also being an advocate of action and truth.”

As previously reported by The Algemeiner, the Oct. 7 massacre changed the Jewish experience in higher education. In the months following the Hamas attacks, colleges across the US were roiled by antisemitic activity, which included calls for the destruction of Israel, rationalizations for Hamas’ sexual assaulting of women as an instrument of war, and several incidents of assault and harassment targeting Jews on campus.

The issue has drawn a determined response from US President Donald Trump in the early months of his second administration, which has been resolutely following through on his campaign promise to inflict severe financial penalties on colleges and universities deemed acquiescent to antisemitism. Since taking office, the Department of Education, headed by Secretary Linda McMahon, has launched investigations of 60 universities that failed to address antisemitism after Oct. 7, and institutions such as Harvard University, Columbia University, and Princeton University have been stripped of billions of dollars in research grants and federal contracts.

In Israel, the Be a Mensch organization has tried to help Israeli college students comprehend what rising antisemitism has meant for Jewish students worldwide and what it could mean for the future of the State of Israel, establishing for-credit undergraduate courses and offering field trips and relationship-building activities that forge ties between secular and religious Jews, as well as Jews and non-Jews.

Similar initiatives in the US would seek to steel Jewish students and allies of the Jewish community against a world that is increasingly hostile, Sanders told The Algemeiner. Currently, Be a Mensch is touring the US to promote “Extreme Trauma,” holding fundraisers, and raising its profile with the goal of creating college courses based on material from the book. The courses have proven popular at colleges in Israel, so much so that Be a Mensch staff are spread thin due to high demand for the foundation’s message.

“We want to equip the students with a manual of answers, a go-to place for receiving the counsel of dozens of voices, such as Douglas Murray and Noa Tishby, who have risen to the occasion to offer substantive and accessible commentary,” Sanders continued. “‘Extreme Trauma’ was engineered to counter false narratives and declare the truth plainly and universally. It’s critical for our Jewish youth, who are caught in the ideological crossfire on university campuses across the globe.”

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.

The post Looking For a Few Good Mensches: Israeli NGO Seeks to Inspire Jewish College Students in US to Confront, Transcend Rising Antisemitism first appeared on Algemeiner.com.