1968_4_arabisraelwar

AMERICAN PUBLIC OPINION / 213
hand, I find war and its inherent loss of life revolting and I could not and
would not participate. On the other hand, I realize that Israel has been struggling
for its existence while surrounded by hostile neighbors bent on her destruction,
and I sympathize with Israel. The net result is that I sit home and curse
war and the Arabs.
Their teacher concluded that their responses varied according to the strength
of their feelings of Jewish identity. Yet none was indifferent, not even the
hippies among them, who have been least involved in the real world.
When the Israel crisis was becoming acute, most college students were
taking final examinations or preparing to leave campus. On June 5, when war
actually broke out, many campuses were deserted, with only scattered groups
of students, mostly graduate students, remaining. A survey of the responses
of students still on campus showed that they, too, responded strongly and
demonstratively: "The spirited concerns, emotional shock waves and eagerness
for positive action that swept across the adult Jewish community during
the Israel crisis was mirrored in the most striking expression of Jewish identification
and responsibility that ever welled up on university and college
campuses." 17
Students volunteered to go to Israel for civilian service. They volunteered
for local Jewish community service. They gave money and collected money.
They signed petitions and solicited signatures. They attended teach-ins, prayer
vigils, marches, and mass demonstrations. They wrote letters and sent telegrams
to Congressmen and Senators.
Here are a few characteristic episodes. At Case Western Reserve University
in Cleveland, 500 students jammed the Hillel House to pick up applications
for volunteer work in Israel. In fifteen minutes the 200 available applications
were gone. One student commented, "My parents feel that Israel is
worth saving. They are willing to let me go. 1 ' Another said, "Being 18, we
were born about the same time as the State of Israel. I feel we, in our generation,
have an obligation to go." And a third, "I think we are at this moment
at the crossroads of Jewish history. We must stand up and be counted."
At Wayne State University, Detroit, there was increased traffic at the Hillel
House, where the radios were kept going to provide news. There were constant
telephone inquiries. The question was always the same: is there news
from Israel?
A thousand students attended a vigil for peace in the Middle East at the
University of California at Los Angeles. About 200 students signed up for
volunteer service in Israel.
At New York's City College, 100 students signed up in four hours for the
Sherut La'am program in Israel. Questioned about his interest in Israel, one
confessed to a feeling of guilt for never having done "anything for his people,"
and volunteered to distribute a leaflet about civilian service in Israel.
17 Saul Goldberg, comp.. The Campus Response to the Israel Crisis (Washington, D.C.:
B'nai B'rith Hillel Foundation, 1967), 21 pp. (Mimeographed.)