The David Project

The David Project provided curricula and support intended to help high-school and college students speak knowledgeably and confidently in support of Israel, while its campus work sought to shape opinion about the country.[1][6] Its educational work extended beyond contemporary political argument to Jewish identity, the Jewish people’s historical connection to the Land of Israel, and the histories of Middle Eastern and North African Jewish communities.[6]

Campus organizing became increasingly centered on relationships with students and organizations outside the Jewish community.[7] Rather than relying principally on public rebuttals or large events, its later approach emphasized personal conversations, cooperation with influential campus groups, and sustained student-led engagement.[7][8] Educational trips, leadership training, and staff support were intended to help students develop those relationships over time.[8]

The organization also operated within a wider network of campus-focused pro-Israel groups, whose different capabilities it recognized in its strategic planning.[8] By its transition into Hillel’s community-outreach work, its stated purpose emphasized enabling student leaders to build enduring, mutually beneficial partnerships that would make the pro-Israel community an integrated and valued part of campus life.[4]

Charles Jacobs founded The David Project in Boston in 2002, during the Al-Aqsa Intifada.[4][9] Its original public framing cast Israel as “David” in a David-and-Goliath understanding of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.[9] The organization’s establishment followed September 11 and reflected its founders’ desire to influence public discussion of Israel, particularly at universities.[10]

Early activities included advocacy training: in 2004, Jacobs led a session for Stand With Us activists and promoted framing the conflict around Jewish existence in the Middle East.[11] By 2005, The David Project was a six-person grassroots organization whose work was directed almost exclusively toward universities.[10] Ralph Avi Goldwasser served as executive director, and he and colleagues visited Harvard, Northeastern, and MIT to assess Jewish students’ needs.[10] Their organizing responded to concerns that students supporting Israel lacked sufficient communal support.[10]

A visit to Columbia University brought approximately 30 students to a meeting where they discussed difficulties they had experienced.[10] Student Daniella Kahane proposed making a video testimonial for alumni, an idea that developed into Columbia Unbecoming, with Goldwasser serving as executive producer.[10] The resulting 40-minute film included testimony from 14 students and recent graduates.[10]

The film was first screened for a small group of Columbia alumni in March 2004 and was subsequently shown to a trustee, a senior administrator, and provost Alan Brinkley.[10] By October, viewers included Columbia president Lee Bollinger, Barnard president Judith Shapiro, and Israeli minister Natan Sharansky; press attention followed.[10] The film continued to undergo revision, with material added and removed during this period.[10]

Documentary production also supported a separate strand of historical education.[3] The organization produced Michael Grynszpan’s 2005 documentary The Forgotten Refugees, and in 2007 worked with Justice for Jews from Arab Countries to create an accompanying pilot educational unit.[3] Its curriculum work subsequently included teacher-training institutes planned for 2009 in St. Louis, Boston, and New York City.[6]

The 2012 publication A Burning Campus? Rethinking Israel Advocacy at America’s Universities and Colleges set out an approach emphasizing positive support for Israel and relationships with campus influencers.[8] By 2014, its work concentrated on a limited group of “core campuses,” with programming tailored to local networks and conditions.[5] Its listed expenses for 2014 were $2,860,142, and Seth A. Klarman and Grace Zimmerman were listed as board chairs.[5]

The organization’s change in approach continued under director David Bernstein.[7] Executive director Phillip Brodsky described its earlier combative methods as insufficient to achieve its broader goal, explaining a two-year shift toward relationship-building and Israel conversations on selected campuses.[7] By 2015, this moderated approach had become central to its work.[7]

In August 2017, Hillel announced that The David Project would join its Israel Education and Engagement Department, following five years of partnership between the organizations.[7] The arrangement provided for the existing staff to continue and for an advisory board to be established with Hillel.[7] In September 2019, The David Project evolved into Hillel International’s Hillel U Center for Community Outreach, supporting local Hillels in building relationships beyond the Jewish community.[4]

The David Project used full-time staff to assist campus organizing and provide in-depth education, while supporting student leaders through grants, off-campus conferences, and other educational experiences.[8] Students worked alongside other pro-Israel campus organizations rather than solely through a separate institutional structure.[8] Its training combined discussion of Israel with practical organizing skills, including running meetings, establishing task forces, recruiting members, and planning activities around strategic outcomes.[8]

Its 2012 framework recommended identifying influential individuals and groups on each campus, considering the extent to which they might be persuaded, and designing activities around local circumstances.[8] A campus-specific theme could guide work for a semester, an academic year, or longer.[8] The proposed measure of progress was movement in campus discussion and greater acceptance of Israel’s legitimacy, not agreement with every Israeli government policy.[8]

Small gatherings and sustained personal engagement were important elements of this approach.[8] After a February 2012 BDS conference at the University of Pennsylvania, students arranged ten informal dinners in student residences to discuss Israel with people from across campus.[8] Other examples included a welcome Shabbat reception involving non-Jewish students, invitations to discuss Israel over coffee, and seminars in Washington and Israel for students with leadership potential.[9] Such activities prioritized particular relationships over attendance figures alone.[8]

The organization trained activists to educate peers through both one-on-one conversations and group programming.[7] Midwest campus coordinator Jason Horowitz emphasized speaking from personal experience about what Israel meant to an individual rather than relying on prepared talking points.[12] His approach encouraged students to explain why Israel mattered to them instead of concentrating on arguments about why Israel was right.[12]

Educational travel supported the same relationship-building model.[12][5] In January 2013, the Israel Uncovered initiative brought 35 campus leaders from 12 American colleges and universities to Israel for ten days.[12] Each campus delegation paired a Jewish student with one or more non-Jewish students, and participants met Israelis from different communities and backgrounds.[12] The trip aimed to encourage advocacy or constructive campus dialogue after participants returned, while the organization’s broader strategy emphasized connecting travel with student-led activities and follow-up.[12][8]

For younger students, The David Project provided integrated curricula for Jewish middle and high schools.[6] Materials addressed the Arab-Israeli conflict, Jewish identity, and the historical connection between the Jewish people and the Land of Israel.[6] A lesson plan titled Modern Zionism explored the movement’s roots and included an interactive student project.[13] Its educational approach also called for continuing support for college students through training, speakers, and materials.[6]

The 2007 Forgotten Refugees pilot unit was designed as two sessions for grades 6–12 and received approval from the New York Board of Jewish Education.[3] Built around a 15-minute version of the documentary, it combined film, testimony, maps, and population data to examine Jewish communities in Arab countries and their displacement.[3] Activities asked students to analyze population charts and maps and collect family or community stories about Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews.[3]

Teacher development accompanied the curricula.[6] Planned 2009 high-school training sessions included New York City on July 20–23 and Boston on August 10–13, alongside institute plans for St. Louis.[6] The educational program emphasized teacher training, effective materials, workshops, and supportive school administrations as components of integrating Israel into the Jewish curriculum.[6]

At the time of its integration with Hillel, The David Project had reached 10,000 Jewish and non-Jewish students on 45 campuses during the preceding academic year.[7] Its work cultivated student leaders and organizations as allies of Hillel and the pro-Israel campus community.[7] The subsequent Hillel U Center for Community Outreach carried forward the relationship-building approach through support for interfaith seders, dialogue nights, cultural exchanges, and other jointly organized activities.[4]

Its educational materials placed the histories of Middle Eastern and North African Jewish communities alongside contemporary Israel advocacy and Jewish identity education.[3][6] The combination of documentary testimony, demographic material, and student collection of family stories provided a way to connect communal history with classroom learning.[3] Its curriculum also explicitly included Jewish historical connections to the Land of Israel.[6]

Former staff members continued into other Jewish educational and advocacy roles.[2][14] Jacob Levkowicz, who had worked at The David Project, became Assistant Director of Campus Affairs at the American Jewish Committee in 2015.[2] Aaron Bregman, formerly the organization’s High School Curriculum/Program Manager, became that organization’s first Director of High School Affairs in 2022.[14] The David Project also appeared among Massachusetts participants in an educational-program list covering 2000–2023, although the listing did not specify the duration or nature of its participation.[15]

The organization participated in broader communal advocacy as well.[16] It was among 136 Jewish organizations signing a July 15, 2019 statement opposing boycott, divestment, and sanctions campaigns against Israel.[16] The signatories distinguished those campaigns from legitimate criticism of Israeli policies and characterized them as counterproductive to peace and contrary to academic freedom and freedom of speech.[16]

Columbia Unbecoming presented students’ allegations of academic intimidation and anti-Israel bias, including accounts of feeling intimidated by professors after expressing pro-Israel views.[10] Participants emphasized academic intimidation, while critics challenged the selection of interviewees, the film’s framing, and its reliance on emotional responses; the allegations were not independently established by the film’s production or circulation.[10] A Columbia committee issued a report on March 31, 2005, and Charles Jacobs criticized both its composition and its report.[17] A Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs commentary likewise criticized the university inquiry and reported The David Project’s strongly negative response, but did not independently adjudicate the underlying allegations.[18]

The organization was also named in a 2005 defamation lawsuit brought by the Islamic Society of Boston against several defendants, including the Boston Herald and a local Fox News affiliate.[19] The dispute arose during construction of an Islamic center, when defendants raised questions about connections to terrorist financing and hate speech; those underlying claims were disputed, and the lawsuit was dropped in 2007.[19] Jacobs also publicly opposed a proposed Boston mosque.[7]

Student participation in sponsored Israel travel generated a broader campus dispute affecting trips offered by several Jewish organizations, including The David Project.[20] Some opponents of student-government candidates accused participants of being “pawns” in efforts to “indoctrinate” non-Jewish students, although many such trips sought to present varied perspectives, including meetings with Israeli and Palestinian students.[20]

The organization’s campus assessments also require distinction from independent research findings.[8] Its 2012 report was a conceptual strategy paper, based on literature from 2000–2011, interviews, and a survey of its student contacts explicitly described as non-scientific.[8] Its estimates of hostility on 60–80 campuses, including more serious problems at 15–20 smaller colleges, were organizational assessments rather than independently established counts.[9] Its position that negative campus sentiment threatened longer-term bipartisan support for Israel similarly formed part of its strategic argument.[8]