On April 13th, the Augsburg College’s SSI (Students Supporting Israel) organization, an EMET for Israel group, hosted a CAMERA sponsored event on campus where Assi Azar spoke to an audience of around fifteen students. Assi Azar is a homosexual Israeli television personality who went public about his sexual orientation in 2005. During his presentation at Augsburg, Azar spoke about his life story and what it was like to grow up as a homosexual in Israel. In addition, Azar shared with his audience what it’s like for the entire LGBTQ community in Israel in terms of both their rights and their struggles.
Milo Ingram, a member of his college’s pro-Israel group, stated after the event that Assi Azar was “truly helping spread the love of Israel.” Azar’s audience was engaged and interactive, asking the speaker a variety of questions concerning gay rights in Israel and in general. Although the audience was not as large or diverse as the SSI organization had hoped, it was still a very meaningful, successful, and enlightening event for all who attended. In addition to speaking at Augsburg College, Azar has also given presentations to students at Harvard, Ohio State, Cornell, Indiana University, and many more universities.