Israel advocate Richard Greene addresses Milken community
Eden Jablon
News Editor
On Sunday, March 18, almost 100 Milken students and parents gathered in the Beit Midrash for an Israel Advocacy Seminar. The speaker, Richard Greene, is a world expert on Israel advocacy and the author of Words that Shook the World.
“This is the first of what we hope will be many wonderful experiences of learning,” Rabbi Liat Yardeni-Funk, Jewish Studies teacher and Israel coordinator, said.
Greene began by sharing a story of how he became involved with Milken, which was primarily due to his daughter’s decision to attend the school. He then went on to explain why he came to speak at Milken.
“I love sharing whatever skills I can share to help you guys be the messengers for the most important human rights challenge the world has ever seen: The struggle for the Jewish people in the state of Israel,” Greene said.
As Greene finished his introduction, the eager parents and students in the audience were quick to speak up. Less then twenty minutes after the seminar began, Greene posed the question, “How do you have a dialogue when you are in communication with somebody whose position is that they do not want Israel to exist as a Jewish state?”
In response to Greene’s prompt, audience members quickly became engaged in heated role-play.
“I don’t believe that just because you’ve heard this all your life, you should cave into the thought. What evidence do you have that we are killing your people?… What does the demise of your cousin have to do with the Jews living in Israel?” Mr. Mel Plutsky, senior parent, said.
As Milken students and parents attempted to debate with a stubborn Greene, the audience quickly realized how frustrating it was to “fumble in the dark,” as Milken parent Ms. Miri Rabinovitch put it.
Greene then introduced startling statistics, such as the fact that Israel is one-eighth of one percent of the Middle East. He went on to elaborate on his solutions.
“One of the things that will help is for those people to go to Israel. If you only stay in one place, your reality box becomes so small and finite that it becomes impossible to understand others,” Greene said. “The best form of conflict is not to go head to head; you need to be creative and run around the side.”
Greene concluded by asserting that what everyone wants is a better life. Opportunity for education and a healthy standard of living will help people deal with their own future. That is all they need to be given, though some extremists will always remain. At this point, Milken parents again spoke up.
“My understanding of what the issue is is very different. I don’t think asking the world for money is going to work. There is no rhyme and reason why Israel is hated; it’s a very ingrained pattern of thinking,” Ms. Fariba Nourafshan, junior parent, said.
Greene was quick to answer these questions, but not to the satisfaction of Milken parents. To the audience, the problem was the ingrained hatred that the Arabs felt – not something that could be fixed. Looking at a sea of raised hands, Greene continued with his presentation.
At this point, Ms. Metuka Benjamin, Director of Education, spoke up in dissent for Greene’s approach. Her idea was that the most essential thing was not giving money, but education.
Greene, again continuing with his presentation, concluded with the following words: “Even though we talked about information, the answer is not talking. The answer is listening. Listening is the most powerful communication tool that there is.”
Tif Student • Mar 29, 2012 at 12:55 pm
I was very disappointed with Mr. Greene. I found him to be rude, judgmental, and condescending. I personally enjoy speaking in front of a crowd, especially about something I hold as dear to my heart as Israel, and was looking forward to be able to learn how to appropriately and efficiently defend the actions and beliefs of Israeli citizens. However, this is not what happened at all. Greene spent a good 45 minutes humiliating a student by making him stand in front of everyone else and repeat the same words over and over again until Greene was satisfied with every single inflection he used. In addition, Greene was very rude to the students, saying things like, “I feel very bad for your teachers.” While I am sure Greene can be a good speaker, he is clearly not fit to teach high schoolers.
dfs • Mar 28, 2012 at 2:15 am
is there a video of this somewehre?
Student • Mar 23, 2012 at 9:33 pm
I will admit I came to this seminar rather grudgingly, as tifferet fellows were required to attend. Nevertheless, I hoped to get something, anything, out of it. Richard Greene was blatantly rude, often ignoring raised hands when audience members disagreed with his “solutions.” His defensive attitude did not instill me with confidence, and if he was so unwilling to listen to audience members I wonder what he is like with people who don’t want Israel to exist as a Jewish state. At one point, very frustrated, he even said “I feel bad for your teachers.” Another time a kid came to the front of the room and Greene said his posture looked “like a homeless man on a street corner.” Overall, he left me with an incredibly bad impression. I’m glad to know that others were also offended by his behavior (Bernard, great point about the NRA – I really did not go to the seminar hoping to hear something so out of context and personal), and I am curious to hear more student’s opinions.
Tiff Fellow • Mar 23, 2012 at 1:23 pm
I found Richard Green to be condescending as he tried to impose his views during the seminar. I thought I was going to learn HOW to advocate for Israel. I did not go to listen to this man speak about how his views were certainly the best option to solve the issue in the middle east. Clearly this issue has not been solved due to its complex nature and this man acted as if he knew how to fix everything. If he were to speak again, he should not take a bias because the point was to learn Israel advocacy and not what this man thought was the only way to solve a complex issue.
Bernard Fuchs • Mar 23, 2012 at 12:32 pm
I thought I signed up for a seminar about how to talk to people who dislike Israel, but what I actually signed up for was a class that was 1/3rd about how to do that, 1/3rd about how to give speeches, and 1/3 Richard Green’s personal political opinions, some of which weren’t even related to Israel. Also, I found what he said about the NRA to not only be inappropriate in the context of an Israel advocacy seminar, but also personally offensive to myself and other gun-owners.
Daniel Kort • Mar 23, 2012 at 8:10 am
Greene’s dogma that Israel is the world’s most important human rights challenge is a clear violation of our school’s pluralism. Perhaps an introduction into why supporting Israel is important should have been given rather than immediately jumping to HOW to defend Israel. Consider this analogy:
The KONY 2012 video garnered a lot of acclaim for its innovation in addressing the issues of Invisible Children. However, we now know that this video’s numbers were fabricated. Tiferet gave the students who attended this seminar irreversibly preconceived notions about Israel that neglected several perspectives. It’s a shame that our school has fallen victim to this political bias, and most of the school is blind to it.