The students at Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy in Bryn Mawr held a mock Israeli election just days before the real thing taking place in the Jewish state.
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Even before all the votes were cast and the results were in inside the Jewish state, the students at Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy in Bryn Mawr had made their choice. And the winner in the March 13 ballot was the Jewish Home Party, the religious pro-settlement party, with a decisive 45 votes.
Other results: Yesh Atid, 18; Likud 17; the Zionist Union, 16; Kulanu, 15; Yisrael Beitenu, 11; Meretz, 10; Joint Arab Alliance, 6; Shas, 2; and United Torah Judaism and Yachad, 1 each.
At the event, Elad Strohmayer, deputy consul general of Israel to the Mid-Atlantic Region, served as panel moderator, keeping peace and keeping apart the varied reps of Israel’s many political parties as he offered an overview of Israel’s Knesset system and threw out questions to the assembled “political leaders.”
How prepared were the students? “If you ask any of the students questions about the issues, they know the answers,” said Sigal Strauss, Barrack’s director of Israel programming.
“ It is important for the students to be informed about these current events because these elections will affect Israel’s future. And they could affect the relationship between Israel and the United States.”
Run and organized by the school’s Israel Club, the event signified a strong bond with Israel, said Strohmayer. “The students celebrated Israel democracy and diversity. Their interest in Israeli elections and its political system demonstrates the strong relationship between the U.S. and Israel based on these values.”
Adding her voice was Lindsay Chevlin, 17, one of the class presidents. “It’s really important at a pluralistic Jewish school that we be very pro-Israel,” she said. "In order to be true Zionists, we need to be educated about Israel and how Israel plans to approach the issues it faces so that it can remain a safe, Jewish, democratic state.”
Josh Shapiro, chairman of the Montgomery County Commissioners, offered concluding remarks and encouragement for the students to strive for political activism in both the United States and Israel.
