My name is Eitan Gilboord and I am a third year politics and government student at Ryerson University. I am currently employed by Hasbara Fellowships as a campus coordinator for Toronto universities, and the founder and chair of the Hillel Israel affairs group at Ryerson. I was a product of a modern orthodox family, and had two years of Jewish/Zionist high school (CHAT) education and another two years of public school education. In that time I went on March of the Living, became President of our Jewish students group, and student President of NCSY for Toronto. I was under the impression that I was ready to deal with any encounters I could have met on campus. In my first year I argued with someone during IAW and they were able to throw around “facts” and quotes I had never heard of. It wasn’t until I started reading books, attending classes, and participating in wide scale advocacy organizations until I learnt how to effectively respond to the anti-Israel accusations. 

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   When I decided to revive the Israel group at Ryerson University I encountered many students who were passionate about Israel, but were simply lacking the knowledge, and consequently become too scared to get involved. This is why I always set up training seminars for students in my group. When discussing what sort of training we wanted to have (media training, advocacy training, history training) Richard’s name was enthusiastically mentioned multiple times by students who knew of his course from high school. We brought Richard to speak with us and he provided an unbelievably wonderful seminar that was able to effectively communicate the broader history of Israel and Israeli rights to the land. These sorts of 3 hour intensive sessions are exactly what are needed to make effective advocates on campus.

Richard delivered the speech to some 20 odd Ryerson students who were given the confidence that they needed to be able to communicate efficiently. Almost all of the students that attended the seminar have been significantly more active since, and often were critical components of our campaigns afterwards (See Israel Peace Week Ryerson).

When more students are able to go into university properly aware of Israeli and Jewish claims to land, then there will be much better advocacy occurring on campus. People like Richard need to continue teaching students the critically important history of Israel.  

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It was my honour, along with my colleagues at Israel on Campus at the University of Western Ontario, to host Richard Bass this year as a speaker to close our programming for this year's Israel Awareness Week. Richard had given us the opportunity to choose between a 2.5 hour or 1 hour lecture, and we thought it would be prudent, in order to ensure that people would stay, to opt for the 1 hour lecture. We were mistaken. In addition to Richard's lecture, nearly all of the 75 attendees stayed for a 2 hour question and answer session in addition to the 1 hour lecture. Usually these question and answer sessions last approximately half an hour; for Richard's talk people simply did not want to leave. His approach to the issue of the sovereignty of the land of Israel is unique in that he does not take any sides, and presents a purely academic representation of the various issues surrounding the respective positions of the claimants to the land of Israel. He often invokes international law, which is another rare position, as many experts on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict focus on demographic, religious and humanitarian issues when discussing the same topic. Richard's position also focuses very strongly on removing such extraneous issues from the discussion and shifts the focus strictly to the legal/historical claims. In all my 15 years of Jewish education, including a year spent in Israel, I had never heard this type of talk before. The information in Richard's presentation, as well as in other materials that he has provided me (many of which are the sources for the presentation) have changed my views on the entire situation in Israel.

I mentioned before the question and answer session that lasted approximately four times as long as usual. Even after this session, around 10 people stayed an additional half hour. One person who stayed to speak with Richard was a student who is known to be an ardent and passionate supporter of Hamas on campus. He is visibly involved in every presentation that decries Israel and played an integral role in the week known by him and his cohorts as Israel Apartheid Week. During a display in which they role played various situations that they perceive to be reality at Israeli checkpoints, he wore a Hamas headband. He stayed the entirety of Richard's presentation, from start to finish, and sat down with Richard respectfully and calmly and went through many of the sources on Richard's computer and they exchanged contact information at the end. This is also something I have never before witnessed on campus. Even during the week leading up to the event, members of Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (a misnomer, given that they dedicate their time to delegitimizing the State of Israel and nothing more) barked lengthy, biased and disrespectful questions at experts who we had brought in to speak, one of whom was a professor of Middle Eastern Studies at Western, and two who were recognized experts in the field. Richard's presentation and approach to the issues make it exceedingly difficult to take issue to any of his positions in an intellectually honest way. He is also unafraid to recognize the negative aspects of Israel. I believe that this is why people who are deeply anti-Israel are comfortable speaking with him; they trust that he is objective. I truly believe that, given a larger platform, Richard will be able to change many people's perspectives regarding Israel in a profound and permanent way.

Shawn Bank