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Natan Sharansky and Ron Dermer: How to Fight Anti-Semitism
(JNS) Israel Kasnett - At a panel on anti-Semitism on June 6 in Jerusalem, world-famous Soviet dissident and human-rights activist Natan Sharansky said that on American campuses, "The best way to influence non-Jewish students is to bring back Jewish students' pride and feeling of the meaning of their Jewish life, where they are connected to Israel." Former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Ron Dermer said, "Each person has to fight in their little neck of the woods, and you never know what kind of impact it has either on Jews or on non-Jews. The problem we have with many young Jews is that the pull of the universal is very strong. And it's very hard for them to appreciate the particular. What we need to do is get them to understand that those values that they most admire about Western civilization actually come from the Jews." "We have the ability to engage young people with all the tremendous ideas of Judaism and to make them understand that the bedrock of the values that they cherish the most actually comes with the Jews. Then they'll have pride in their Jewish heritage and tradition and then that will make them more able to fight against the anti-Semites."