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Israeli television star discusses diversity

Israeli reality television star Eytan Schwartz brought together leaders from prominent University of Wisconsin student organizations at Grainger Hall Wednesday to discuss negative images the United States media disseminates to the public about cultural diversity in the Middle East.

Schwartz starred in a television show similar to "The Apprentice" called "The Ambassador," but instead of winning a job under Donald Trump, Schwartz won a year-long trip to various college campuses around the United States to represent Israel and explain Israeli conflicts often ignored by the media.

The event's coordinator, the Madison-Israel Public Affairs Committee (MadPAC), works to promote strong United States-Israeli relationships and also invited other UW student organizations to help spread its message.

"Basically, the media says they only want something involving conflict regarding Israel, and [we Israelis] need to show a different face of Israel that never … comes across," Schwartz said, adding his job is to create better public relations for Israel.

UW junior and a leader of MadPAC, Yoni Macagon, explained the significance of Schwartz's presentation to the various cultural groups in attendance.

"There is always controversy surrounding Israel," Macagon said. "People came [Wednesday] to learn about another cultural perspective that they really did not know too much about."

UW freshman Johanna Stein, a member of MadPAC, emphasized the struggle to dispel myths about Israel often seen in the media.

"We want to bring together leaders of other organizations to build bridges and dialogues between influential groups on campus," Stein said.

The forum was not simply based on politics, but instead was primarily intended to address the effect of the U.S. media's failure to concentrate on Israeli culture, Schwartz said.

"We are not part of American politics, and Israel loves America, so we do not care who is president — Bush or Clinton," Schwartz said.

Each student organization in attendance at the forum shared a unique understanding of the repercussions of stigmatism.

"Minority groups are often misrepresented, and I want to bring my perspective forward as an Israeli," said Schwartz, who also stressed people sometimes find connections between different groups they did not know existed.

Schwartz continued to discuss the absence of knowledge about Israel.

He said when he asks students questions about Israel, they are usually incredulous.

"Twenty percent of Israelis are actually Arabs — not just Jews live there. It is a multicultural and multi-religious place," Schwartz said. "Most people do not understand the diversity of my nation."

Schwartz added America and Israel are actually very similar in the sense that they are both democracies.

Schwartz said he notices the similarities between the United States and Israel and cited them as more reasons why it is important to eliminate negative views toward Israel.

"I thought [Schwartz's presentation] was extremely informative to the Israeli culture and, instead of being satiated with war, it is good [Israelis] are actively seeking to change a stigma," Multicultural Student Coalition representative Lauren Woods said.