The World Jewish Congress and the Israeli Consulate in New York are pleased to announce the first annual Campus Pitch Competition, the culminating event of a semester-long campaign in which student groups from the Tristate region submitted proposals for events, initiatives and ideas to change the conversation about Israel and Jewish issues on campus.
Five student groups have been selected from the dozens of participants to pitch their ideas to the judging panel. The student groups have been working with members of the WJC – Jewish Diplomatic Corps to perfect their proposals. The campus pitch initiative was launched by the Israeli Consulate and the World Jewish Congress in September 2015. In many ways, it can be seen as an initiative to counter-balance the rise of boycott movements across US campuses.
The event will be held on Tuesday February 8, from 6:00-8:30 PM, at Manhattan’s WeWork Bryant Park (54 W. 40th St.), with a young professional happy hour and networking to precede the live pitch competition.
The prize for the winning group will include $5,000 in funding to carry out the project on campus. In addition, the winning group will receive a trip to the WJC’s conference in Switzerland in 2016.
The esteemed panel of judges will include Robert Singer, CEO of World Jewish Congress, Amir Sagie, Deputy Consul General of Israel in New York, Guy Franklin, founder of Israeli Mapped in New York, and Stephanie Weiner, Venture Capital Investor at Bain Capital.
The students will be judged based on the following elements in their proposal:
Innovation- how creative and new is this approach?
Feasibility- is the idea practical to implement and are the next steps clear?
Intercommunal component- does the initiative reach beyond Jewish or pro-Israel students on campus and engage new groups about the issues?
Potential Impact - will the initiative change the conversation about Israel or Jewish issues on campus in a meaningful way?
Relevancy to current Jewish/Israel issues- does the proposal address current challenges on campus and in a broader sense relating to Jewish/Israel issues?
Details of the finalists’ proposals will not be revealed until the night of the competition.
More information about the competition can be found on the Campus Pitch Initiative’s website, http://studentproposals.wix.com/campuspitch.
