Honest Reporting Media Bias Workshops a Stunning Success

The Israel Committee members were nervously optimistic. Yes, a lot of people are interested in Israel. Yes, a lot of people note a wide gap between the media’s treatment of Israel and other countries. Still, we weren’t sure how many people would show up. Would our great turnout for the Israel Fair in December mean people would come? Or that they’d be tired of Israel-themed events?

They weren’t tired. Our scholar-in-residence, Gary Kenzer, North American Executive Director of Honest Reporting, had the rapt attention and enthusiastic participation of attendees from Sonoma County, San Francisco, and Mill Valley. Who knew?

Gary gave engaging, interactive talks on media bias against Israel on Friday after dinner, Saturday after lunch, Saturday after Havdalah, and Sunday all day. Whew! We learned how photos can be Photoshopped to look as though the events happened somewhere else, that headlines can convey serious misinformation (reporters don’t get to write their own headlines), and that we can’t believe a lot of what the media tells us about Israel. We learned who the worst offenders are and how we can dig for the facts ourselves. We learned how to write effective responses to biased articles.

It was a positive and uplifting weekend at Beth Ami and the comments from participants were heartening. Listen to this one, from a Christian participant: “Gary Kenzer led an insightful workshop exposing media bias against Israel and teaching us what we can do about it… {Honest Reporting’s} work has resulted in hundreds of apologies, retractions and revisions from news outlets worldwide. This weekend of training was one of the most profound and life-changing events for me. Israel must win the tectonic battle of ideas in the court of public opinion, if only for the sake of Middle East stability and our national security.” Brian Tada

We were especially happy to have the next generation of Israel advocates, some of Beth Ami’s Religious School kids, participating in the Sunday workshop.

You can see some photos below. The talks with the greatest attendance were on Shabbat, so no photos could be taken of them.

For more information about future plans and how you can get involved, contact Eli Cohen at EliCohen@IsraelUpdate.INFO or by phone at 537-2211.

This program is supported by a Ma’alot Grant for Israel Education and Advocacy, a partnership of United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism and Nefesh B’Nefesh.