J Street U student Town Hall an important opportunity

This coming Saturday, the J Street U student Town Hall will be happening on our very own campus. Over 300 students from across the country will gather with experts, activists, and prominent political figures to stand united in support of U.S. leadership to achieve a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

There are a few reasons why this Town Hall is so important – and why you should be there!

The first reason is the timing. Almost nine months ago, Secretary of State John Kerry called on the American people to demonstrate a “Great Constituency for Peace,” one that supports him as he works tirelessly to bring the two sides to the table. We have seen over the past months that the journey has not been easy, and now more than ever is a time for those with a vested interest in seeing the end of this conflict to come together. Furthermore, this is a time for us as college students, so often told they cannot make any real impact on the issues they care deeply about (and on this conflict in particular) to act.

The second reason is to demonstrate our power. Largely, the broader American political and Jewish community has remained virtually silent on Secretary Kerry’s current efforts. We at J Street U refuse to be silent. And this is the time for us hold our leaders accountable to the two-state solution that so many pay lip-service to, refuse to support in practice through acknowledging the actual compromises necessary to make peace possible.

The final reason is the life and vibrancy of the Johns Hopkins Homewood community. Our school gets a bad rap when it comes to political advocacy, and maybe this is justified. The fact that it is impossible for political advocacy groups to receive annual funding from the university serves as an example of how political conversations are stifled here; groups like the College Democrats and the College Republicans, recently classified as political advocacy groups, have lost their budgets. Currently, many advocacy and awareness groups – J Street U included – have formed an alliance to officially endorse an SGA ticket that would work towards the instatement of annual funding. Further, this weekend, the Town Hall serves as an opportunity for action by students to make their voices heard on one of the most pressing issues of our time, something that needs to be encouraged on our campus now more than ever. It is time for us as Hopkins students to fight back against our reputation.

Of course, there are many issues I care about, and many things I get angry about when I try to fall asleep at night: the state of global inequality, the quiet suffering of those in extreme poverty in the United States, gender differences in the workplace, the fact that gender exists as a concept at all, and how we abuse the environment, just to name a few. But principle among these is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and J Street U has given me the community and the tools to learn, to question, and to advocate for something I feel I have a personal stake in.

We as a student movement have grown immensely since I first became involved with J Street U at the beginning of my sophomore year. I attended a Regional Workshop after a close friend and I had a conversation about how we felt that the American Jewish community discouraged discussion about the conflict, and what was needed was a more open conversation - one where questions were encouraged, not shut down. We have successfully opened up a space for a conversation that was missing here at Hopkins, and other chapters are doing the same thing at over 55 college campuses across the country.

But J Street U is about more than conversations. J Street U is about standing up for change. Being in J Street U has inspired me to take up the moral responsibility to work for justice.

The Town Hall represents an incredible opportunity to be a part of something that will shape the future of this issue. And for those of you who don’t know what you think about J Street U - or are even pretty sure you disagree with us - come and see for yourself why we are ready to take action. It’s never been easier.

I’m ready to take action because I care about the unrecognized statehood of the Palestinian people, the democratic nature of the Jewish homeland, and the fact that our government has taken a risk to actually do something about this issue now. If we are lucky, our generation will be the one to see the end of this brutal and entrenched conflict.

But I’m not one to depend on luck. This weekend, I will be at the J Street U Student Town Hall. Will you?

Jennny Ferentz is a senior sociology major from New York, New York. Because of the delay in uploading old articles to the website, the J Street U Student Town Hall to which she refers has already occurred.