Currently, Be a Mensch is touring the US to promote “Extreme Trauma,” holding fundraisers and raising its profile with the goal of creating college courses based on material from the book.
A nonprofit based in Israel is launching an effort to reach thousands of Jewish college students in the US amid what it called an “unprecedented global surge” in antisemitism.
Founded in 2012, the Be a Mensch Foundation grew out of a partnership between author Dr. Moshe Kaplan, MD, and Mordecai Geduld, which began after Kaplan edited and published a book of the same title in 2009.
Kaplan conceived the book, which comprises essays by Israeli academics and medical practitioners, as a vindication of the role of ethics in forming complete young men and women.
Later, “Be a Mensch: Why Good Character Is the Key to a Life of Happiness, Health, Wealth, and Love” became the basis of programs the organization held to unite religious and secular Israelis.
Now, following Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel and the resulting war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, Kaplan has published a new book, titled “Extreme Trauma: October 7 as an Outlier in the Range of Human Potential,” to help Jewish communities across the world process the globalization of antisemitism promoted by social media, far-left groups, and far-right podcasters.
Jewish college students need access to “Extreme Trauma” the most, Be a Mensch spokesman Gavriel Sanders told The Algemeiner during an interview on Tuesday.
“Antisemitism right now is everywhere — Australia, South America — being fueled by social media and, of course, by the classroom,” Sanders explained.
“The book is pretty blunt, hard reading, but what makes this particular work unique is its emphasis on the resilience of the Jewish people, and people of conscience who have been affected by this, and its active quest for hope, presenting us the choice between being bitter and better and showing us how to emerge better from this moment.”
Throughout the long history of antisemitism “that’s one of the historical characteristics of the Jewish people,” Sanders said, “our trying to operate at a higher level of awareness which recognizes the tragedies which befall us but stresses the importance of moving forward as victors, not as victims. So, for students, this book facilitates a perspective not only of looking back and remembering but also being an advocate of action and truth.”
As previously reported by The Algemeiner, the Oct. 7 massacre changed the Jewish experience in higher education. In the months following the Hamas attacks, colleges across the US were roiled by antisemitic activity, which included calls for the destruction of Israel, rationalizations for Hamas’ sexual assaulting of women as an instrument of war, and several incidents of assault and harassment targeting Jews on campus.
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