JCPA

My volunteering placement for the final trimester is working as an intern at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. It is self described as "an independent non-profit institute for policy research and education". They focus on issues of Israel's security, standing in the international community and global anti-Semitism. It is headed by Dr. Dore Gold, former Israeli ambassador to the UN and frequently brings in experts and famous speakers as part of the ICA (Institute for Contemporary Affairs) program. JCPA publishes numerous papers, reports and briefings on all things Israel ranging from the threat of nuclear Iran, to the recent Jerusalem construction issue to relations between the US and Israel. The only thing they do not address is internal Israeli politics.

My friend Tal and I were placed in the marketing department (when I say department I mean a small room with 3 permanent people and several part time interns). At first I was disappointed. Here I was with the perfect opportunity, having just been handed an internship at an institute that seems to be tailored specifically to my interests and they have me putting together mailing lists. But after several weeks I can confidently say that I love how it all ended up. First off, JCPA treats their interns extremely well. Most significantly, they give us free lunch every day. And I don't mean shitty cafeteria food. I'm talking about ordering in delivery of everything from bagels to shwarma to hamburgers. Second off, the people I work with are so nice and accomodating. Sure, part of the time we are still compiling mailing lists but the other half of our time is spent doing something much more interesting. The marketing department is charged with the task of publicizing the institute in every way possible. This includes maintaining the website, facebook page, sending out mailings and most interestingly commenting on news sites, forums and blogs with posts linking back to relevant articles on the JCPA website. The latter is what I help out with. This not only gives me an excuse to have to read the news every day but I also have to be very familiar with the articles published by JCPA. If I had been put into a different department I would have only had to read that which was relevant to their area, here I have to read everything!

Additionally, there are also lecture series and briefings that we are always invited to attend. So far I have sat in on a lecture about American Jewish journalism and another about a survey of the Jewish community of greater Philadelphia (both of which were surprisingly fascinating). However, by far the coolest thing so far took place last Thursday morning. Dore Gold, the President of JCPA, was holding a special briefing for the diplomatic corp and foreign correspondents concerning US-Israel relations in light of Netanyahu's recent visit to Washington. I don't know if it was cooler that I was helping a former ambassador to the UN or greeting representatives of the embassies of Egypt, South Africa, France and Jordan or juggling the microphone between the reporter for the LA times and the Associated Press. And then of course there was what he was actually saying in the briefing.

In the scale of pro-Israel groups, I would rate JCPA very high up there. All of its publications are written by scholars and all very well documented. It's a very busy and packed website but you can read all their published material, watch video clips of lectures and learn about JCPA at www.jcpa.org

(I guess even when I'm not at volunteering I'm still promoting the place.)