High school student heads Israel Advocacy Group





Adam Teitelbaum, a senior at New Community Jewish High School in West Hills, is hoping that the pen proves to be mightier than the sword.

As president of the Israel Advocacy Group, Teitelbaum, 18, is collecting signatures for a petition that urges United States lawmakers to pass House Bill 282, more commonly known as the Iran Freedom and Support Act. The bill is aimed at deterring Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

Iran’s recent pursuit of nuclear energy has been causing quite a stir in the Western world. The Islamic state recently removed seals placed by the International Atomic Energy Agency in their nuclear plant and has started programs to enrich uranium. While Iranian leaders claim they are pursuing the program in order to develop nuclear energy for their country, Western countries and Israel are worried that Iran may use the enriched uranium to construct nuclear weapons.

“It’s actually been much easier to collect signatures than I thought it would be,” said Teitelbaum. “The fact of the matter is that a lot of people here don’t want to see Mahmoud Ahmadinejad with a nuclear weapon.”

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president of Iran, caused much controversy in the American media when he publicly made statements declaring the Holocaust, in which 6 million Jews were killed, a myth and called for Israel to be “wiped off the map.”

The drafting of the petition and the drive to collect signatures is the first activity that Teitelbaum’s group has organized in support of Israel. Once the signatures are collected, the group hopes to publish the petition with signatures in local newspapers and to send copies of it to local congressional representatives.

To help raise funds in order to publish the petition, Teitelbaum and the Israel Advocacy Group are asking people who provide their signatures to also make a small monetary donation.

While most of the people that Teitelbaum has encountered are more than happy to sign the petition, he has had some opposition to the event from people of Iranian descent, even those who are Jewish.

“There have been a few kids of Iranian descent who have been very opposed to the petition because they feel that by signing it they’ll be going against their country,” said Teitelbaum. “On one hand they want to stop the nuclear programs, but on the other they don’t want to make the lives of their fellow Iranians more difficult.”

Joined by friends from New Community Jewish High School, Teitelbaum founded the Israel Advocacy Group to give Jewish students a greater appreciation for Israel as well as to inform people about Israel’s political situation in the world. While the group was founded on the school campus, it has no official school affiliation.

“I’ve always had an appreciation for Israel and as I became more and more politically involved, I decided to start a club that supported the country,” said Teitelbaum. “A lot of Jewish people say they love Israel simply b e c a u s e they’re Jewish, but they don’t understand the history of the land or why they should love it.”

By networking with old friends from other Jewish organizations, Teitelbaum and the Israel Advocacy Group have established relationships with 13 other high schools in the area. The group also has a similar petition drive taking place in San Diego.

The group is currently creating a curriculum to teach an unbiased history of Israel ranging from ancient to modern times.

“A lot of people don’t have any idea about what’s really going on in the Middle East,” said Teitelbaum. “We want to show Israel as Israel, not as the underdog or the oppressor, and we’re hoping to give uninformed people an idea of what’s been going on.”

Teitelbaum believes his admiration for Israel was fostered by his Jewish upbringing in conjunction with trips to the country. He has visited Israel on two separate occasions: once for his bar mitzvah and also as a foreign exchange student when he was in the 10th grade.

“I love the culture of Israel,” said Teitelbaum. “The pace is so fast and the joy of life is milked out of every second b e c a u s e people do have that fear that today may be their last.”

Teitelbaum’s greatest hope

or Israel is that it survives. While he does think of himself as an optimist, he also fully understands the dire nature of the situation and difficulty of esablishing peace in the region.

“I believe Golda Meir said

t best when she stated, ‘There won’t be peace until the Pales

inians learn to love their children more than they hate us,’” said Teitelbaum. “I want to see srael be able to exist without

he fear of being ransacked.”

Anyone interested in learning more about the petition can con

act Adam Teitelbaum at ateitelbaum@ncjhs.org.


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