The Northwestern Israel Public Affairs Committee recently changed its name to Students For Israel because the group’s leaders wanted a less politicized and more cultural name for the organization.
Leaders said they wanted to lessen confusion about the group’s ties to the similarly named America Israel Public Affairs Committee, a national pro-Israel organization. Although the student group often works with AIPAC, leaders said they do not want to actively endorse any political views and instead serve as a forum for political discussion.
“We don’t represent any one idea,” SFI President Avi Rosenblit said. “We serve as a forum for discussion on the Middle East. We don’t take one position. It’s important we have a name that doesn’t sound purely political.”
Rosenblit said NIPAC’s similarity in name to AIPAC often caused people to mistake the student group as a branch of AIPAC.
“We work with AIPAC closely, but we don’t necessarily hold their views on Middle East politics,” said Rosenblit, a Weinberg sophomore.
The student group’s executive board voted Jan. 21 to change the name.
SFI Treasurer Dan Golden said the new name encompasses more of what the group does, including political, cultural and Jewish holiday programming.
“We’re not a political action group with an agenda,” said Golden, a Weinberg sophomore.
For example, the group brought two Israeli soldiers to campus Fall Quarter, and it plans to hold an exchange with the Japan Club on Feb. 21.
Other group members agreed that the change better reflects the organization’s mission.
“It doesn’t change what we do,” said SFI Secretary Sarah Fleisch, a Speech sophomore.
SFI held its first event under the new name on Monday night at the Fiedler Hillel Center. Fourteen students attended a discussion led by AIPAC’s student regional director, David Newman, about Israeli Prime Minister-elect Ariel Sharon.
Newman discussed the history of the peace talks and violence in the Middle East and how he expects Sharon to handle future talks.
Newman refused to allow a Daily reporter to quote him because of his organization’s policy about talking to the media.
Weinberg junior Adam Blumenthal, who has family in Israel and has visited the country a few times, said Newman’s speech shed new light on the recent political developments in Israel.
“I’m very interested in the situation in Israel and the peace process,” Blumenthal said. “He talked about some of the inner workings of the Israeli government that I did not have knowledge of.”
