20 MB - University of Toronto Magazine

lumniNotesAP ROFILES•NEWS•EVENTS•CALENDARPHOTOGRAPHY: RYU VOELKELINhis new book, Shut Up, I’mTalking: And Other DiplomacyLessons I Learned in the IsraeliGovernment, University of Torontograduate Gregory Levey describes how,at age 25, he was unexpectedly propelledinto the role of speechwriter forthe Israeli government. Two years later,he became a speechwriter for Israeliprime ministers Ariel Sharon andEhud Olmert.Dissatisfied with law school in NewYork, Levey went looking for an internshipto alleviate his boredom. He endedup at the Israeli Mission to the UnitedNations, where he was offered a position– not as an intern, but as a speechwriter.Under tight security, Levey wrotespeeches for the Security Council, tookHebrew classes with Jewish grandmothersand courses in combat firearms, andattended meetings with an Israeli foreignminister who once showed up injust his underwear.Government officials were impressedwith a speech Levey wrote for ArielSharon (then Israeli prime minister)to deliver in New York, and in 2005recruited him to come to Israel andwrite speeches for the prime minister’soffice. Levey took the offer, despitehis uneasiness about many aspectsof Israeli policy, including the route ofthe security barrier Israel was constructingto separate itself from the WestBank Palestinians.“I’m fundamentally supportive ofIsrael’s right to exist, and its safetyand security as a Jewish state,” he says.“[But] when government policies andactions made me uncomfortable, what Idid, and what a lot of people inside theIsraeli government did, was temper itdown a bit.” He says that his contributionwas to offer a more moderate perspective;he even slipped the occasionalSeinfeld reference into his drafts.It was not just government work thatTHE VIEWFROM TEL AVIVGregory Levey traces his journey from Uof Tstudent to speechwriter for Ariel Sharonchallenged Levey, but also life in Tel Aviv.“Every day was some new absurdity,”he says. “I didn’t speak the languageproperly, and I didn’t understand everything,even beyond the language.” Hereturned to Toronto in the summer of2006, and was hired to teach speechwritingand intercultural communicationat Ryerson University, which heacknowledges is far removed from theexcitement and unpredictability of hisformer life.Levey finished law school in nightclasses while working at the IsraeliMission in New York, but has no desireto practice law or work in governmentin the future. His ambitionsinclude more teaching and possiblywriting other books. He has remainedengaged in Israeli affairs by filing freelancestories from Toronto about theMiddle East, an area in which he “accidentallydeveloped a specialty.”– Sarah Treleaven40 UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO MAGAZINE / SPRING 2008