Last spring, now junior Ben Gerstein created a new club at DHS, Deerfield Students For Israel, or DSFI. The club’s purpose is to teach DHS students about Israeli culture and issues concerning the State of Israel. In particular, Gerstein wants students to learn how to advocate for Israel, especially as they move on to college.

The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement (BDS) which was started in 2005, is one of the reasons Gerstein thinks advocating is important. According to their website, the organization calls for, “broad boycotts, [to] implement divestment initiatives, and to demand sanctions against Israel…” BDS’s academic boycotts have spread throughout the country, from University of California to campuses as close as Northwestern University.

Gerstein wants to tie these events into the club’s agenda, saying he wants to give people the tools they need that would allow for them to advocate for Israel and be able to answer the tough questions and handle anti-israel confrontations in a peaceful manner.

“If the pro-Israel students are not educated, don’t know enough about Israel, or don’t have the verbal tools to defend themselves from this hate, BDS is going to trample over them because they have growing support, they are picking up steam on all of the college campuses, and they are a really dominating force,” Gerstein said.

Mrs. Berman, DHS Hebrew teacher and club sponsor, shares Gerstein’s opinion and hopes students learn about Israel and how to advocate effectively for it.

“Students have to be knowledgeable about what’s going on on campuses right now and what they stand for…when you don’t know [about the issues], it makes it very difficult to respond and to be able to fight against it,” Berman said.

Learning how to advocate is not the only thing people will experience in Israel club. Both Gerstein and Mrs. Berman say that culture will play a major part in the meetings. Members of Israel club will be able to listen to exciting speakers including, congressmen, soldiers, and diplomats.

Gerstein was inspired to start the club after representing Congressman Bob Dold at a meeting with the Israeli Consulate staff. When Gerstein heard all that Israel does for the world at this meeting, he realized how much of a positive impact Israel has on global society. From that point on, Gerstein knew he wanted to spread that knowledge to others.

The first club meeting took place on September 17th and had over 50 people in attendance showing a promising future for the club.

One club member, junior Ayelet Sheffey is very excited to have a pro-Israel organization for high school students in the Deerfield community.

“Since we don’t currently have something associated with Israel I think that it will be really interesting to introduce something new to this school and to spread knowledge about Israel that I think a lot of people don’t currently have,” Sheffey said.

Gerstein and Berman want to bring a diverse body of students to the club, and would like to see not only pro-Israel students, but also those that may not agree with what the club stands for.

“[Israel] is a place that can really unify everyone” Berman said, “And I hope this mirrors the attendance in the club.”

DFSI’s first school wide event, which they are sharing with Hebrew Honors Society, is movie night, where they will be screening “Beneath the Helmet”- a movie about the daily struggles and triumphs during the basic training phase of one of the most elite units of the Israeli Defense Forces.

Gerstein hopes that the club grows during the course of the year and in years to come. He also hopes that, in the future, DFSI is one of the staple clubs at Deerfield.