In today’s world, a consistent hot topic on the daily news is Israel. Many news magazines and media outlets are oftentimes biased in favor of a single viewpoint, or portray a story leaving out significant information. It is often hard to know what news source to rely on for accurate information on current events in Israel. Many people don’t know Israel outside of the political sphere; it is a diverse place with many amazing attributes including culture, people, and technology. In my opinion ISRAEL21c, a newsmagazine dedicated to covering Israel, is the most reliable source of news and information about the country in the 21st century. The newsmagazine covers various aspects of Israel, including technology, health, culture, environment and travel.
ISRAEL21c was founded in 2001, in the wake of the Second Intifada, to broaden public understanding of Israel beyond its typical portrayals in the mainstream media amidst the conflict in the Middle East. The writers are all journalists of Canadian, British and Israeli backgrounds who have written for major Israeli newspapers, and their goal is to spread awareness of Israel. ISRAEL21c’s stories are unique because they utilize a team of people on the ground in Israel whose focus is finding stories that are not in the media and are not about politics. The organization’s motivation is to bring a little piece of Israel back to the States. You can’t bring all the people from Israel to the States, but you can bring back its essence through the stories of the people in Israel.
ISRAEL21c recently implemented a few changes in order to attract a broader audience. Its staff decided to focus on education as a large aspect of ISRAEL21c because they wanted to design a resource that gives educators an opportunity to link the study of Israel to all types of learning environments. “There are not enough resources that make the everyday Israel feel real for Diaspora Jews,” said Bil Zarch, the director of Education. EDUCATORS21c is a great resource for educators to use, as it is not the typical educator’s resource. It gives educators more than just the foundation; it lends the support they need to integrate Israel into classroom learning. EDUCATORS21c is an incredible resource as it utilizes the real life stories of what Israelis are dealing with every day, drawing upon those unique studies as lesson programs.
Recently, ISRAEL21c also added a Spanish channel, ISRAEL21c Español, seeing it as an opportunity to broaden their audience.They chose to add a Spanish channel prior to other languages like Arabic or French because they noticed a lot of interest from the Spanish-speaking community. The Spanish channel is a good place to start, and they may add channels in other languages soon as well.
In terms of getting the word out, ISRAEL21c is using social media and word of mouth. They operate via a robust digital strategy to spread the word, in which they utilize college students who become digital ambassadors for ISRAEL21c. It is a program for anyone who is interested; in fact, many UCLA students have participated in the program in the past. If you’re interested in the program, you can reach out to ISRAEL21c to become a digital ambassador as well. ISRAEL21c wants to reach everyone, but particularly young people and people who are not familiar with Israel outside of the political realm, and students on campus.
Israel is a colorful place, and there are so many inspiring stories that need to be told. ISRAEL21c offers people a different view of all the amazing people, places and accomplishments in Israel that people often don’t see in the media. I believe that this resource will have a significant impact on the future and provide awareness about the true essence of Israel that is oftentimes missing from the media.
