Hundreds of supporters of CAMERA gathered last week to honor the student activists on campus, leading the fight for fair coverage of Israel. The David Bar-Illan Award for Outstanding Student Leadership was presented to Mustangs United for Israel (MUFI), the CAMERA-supported group at California Polytechnic University San Luis Obispo.
MUFI is a real force on campus at California Polytechnic. It now has a 18 member board, and engages with 440 students. It has hosted a wide range of CAMERA speakers, including Hen Mazzig, an IDF Commander, Jonathan Elkhoury, a Christian Lebanese refugee, Gil Cohen-Magen, an Israeli photojournalist, and Gilad Segev, a groundbreaking Israeli musician, amongst others. On campus, they won “Club event of the Year” for a CAMERA-sponsored event with Seth Siegel, author of “Let There Be Water.”
Camera Fellow Jody Miller accepted the award at the Gala, and spoke about how much CAMERA has helped her and her fellow students. She spoke about the difficult atmosphere on campus that the students faced, and how CAMERA has helped MUFI grow into a dynamic and vibrant group, that is building connections and networks with different elements of the student population on campus.
MUFI are not now sitting back and relaxing; since their award, they have already run another fantastic event, celebrating Yom Haatzmaut on campus. MUFI has grown to be an exciting force of pro-Israel activism – and they are looking to get bigger and better the whole time.
Contributed by Aron White, CAMERA intern