Campus Ready:
The New Jewish
Student Essentials
Why Campus Ready?
Your Campus
Your Story
Your Voice
Inside the Program
Roots: Your Place, Our Narratives
Session 1
Welcome and Icebreaker
Set group norms and create a welcoming environment with no elephants in the room. The session includes an icebreaker to foster curiosity about Israel and Judaism.
Session 2
Your Identity and "Us"
Explore how personal identities and backgrounds contribute to a collective group identity.
Session 3
Why Israel? What Does It Mean to Jews? To Israelis? What Does It Mean to You?
Reflect on Israel’s historical and contemporary significance to the Jewish people and explore personal connections to Israel.
Session 4
Din and Hesed
Learn to see the world through two lenses: One rooted in moral distinctions, and the other in empathy and curiosity
Unit 1
Counternarratives: Identity, Voices, and Power on Campus
Session 5
Counternarratives: Pro-Palestinian and Anti-Zionist Discourse on Campus
Explore the anti-Israel narratives dominant on campus, and often unaddressed in Israel education.
Session 6
Processing Counternarratives
Deepen ability to critically engage with counternarratives by examining what they reveal and what they conceal
Session 7
Fluent and Ready for Campus Discourse on Israel
Learn key concepts and campus lexicon related to Israel discourse.
Session 8
How Does Power Work on Campus?: A Crash Course in Identity Politics
Understand the dynamics of DEI on campus and how it intersects with Jewish identity.
Unit 2
Toolkit: Build Skills and Create Action Plans
Unit 3
Session 9
Build Your Resilience
Build individual and collective fortitude by reflecting on Jewish narratives and yours.
Session 10
Build Your Confidence: Real Campus Scenarios and Role Plays. What Would You Say?
Practice responding to real-life campus scenarios through role plays, building confidence and readiness for challenging interactions.
Session 11
Build Your Memory: Jeopardy! Review of all Concepts From Campus Ready
Reinforce key concepts through a competitive review game, solidifying understanding and fostering a supportive community.
Session 12
Build Your Action Plan: Next Steps
Develop personalized action plans for navigating campus life, including strategies for leadership, resilience and building support networks
Frequently Asked Questions
The Jewish Agency is a Zionist organization, as are the designers of Campus Ready. We believe strongly that a mature and deep relationship with Israel is an inextricable part of Jewish identity. Nevertheless, we do not demand or expect participants to hold any particular political view or allegiance. Campus Ready is a curriculum that encourages critical thinking, open dialogue, and exploration of one’s own Jewish identity and of diverse perspectives.
The program does not focus on the question of when anti-Zionism constitutes antisemitism — though anti-Zionism certainly often does. We focus instead on exploring anti-Israel ideologies on campus, how they impact Jewish students, and how students can engage with them on their own terms. We also offer our students resources for identifying and reporting antisemitism.
The curriculum does not align with a specific political ideology. Still, it explores both the range of views our students hold and the dominant progressive paradigm they will encounter on campus. The goal is to empower students to assert their Jewish identity and engage confidently with multiple viewpoints on campus.
We make a firm commitment that no topic will be off-limits — there are no “elephants in the room.” We understand that high school students are still forming their views and must be free to speak their minds and hear their peers’ perspectives. Notwithstanding the importance of free and unencumbered exchange, we establish group norms emphasizing respect for diverse opinions and experiences, understanding that. And we affirm Israel’s right to exist with safety and security for its population and believe that Jews around the world deserve equal rights in their national and institutional settings.
No. While we appreciate the need for Israel advocates, we believe that young Jews on campus need much more than advocacy training. Graduates of “Campus Ready” will be better prepared to advocate for Israel. However, we do not provide scripted talking points or presume everyone in the room has the same personal relationship with Israel. Our models of action and advocacy are individualized, assets-based, and planned by the students themselves, with our support.
