Brooke Drabkin ’18 of Roslyn, N.Y., describes her surprise at the importance that off-campus relationships played in her �ֲ���ý experience.

“Spending time with the Jewish community in Lewiston-Auburn has really opened my eyes to the differences that can exist in one tradition,” says Drabkin, a history major who has been co-president of �ֲ���ý Hillel.

https://vimeo.com/266351678

With a minor in education, Drabkin has been active in local literacy efforts. She joined six other �ֲ���ý students to research the effectiveness of literature circles in English-language learning in Lewiston schools.

“We come to �ֲ���ý and live in Lewiston for four years, and I think it’s really important to emphasize that piece,” she says. “We are Lewiston residents.”

This October 2010 image shows Mikey Pasek ’12, at right, with Jourdan Fanning ’13 moving furniture in the Office of Intercultural Education, a location that includes space for �ֲ���ý Hillel. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College.

Soggy rice in Commons, issues with general education requirements or unjust national energy policies — many of us are content to complain about the issues that irk us on a daily basis.

Not Mikey Pasek ’12, senior class co-president. It isn’t Pasek’s style to grumble while waiting around for improvement. Instead he feels duty-bound to take action and make change happen.

A native of Ardmore, Pa., Pasek has served as class co-president since his junior year, and is a student government representative to both the President’s and Dean’s advisory committees. He was one of four students taking part in the committee that revised the college’s mission statement in 2010. In all these positions, Pasek challenges the apathy that he sometimes recognizes among peers and sees as symptomatic of larger cultural tendencies.

He explains, “We are so lucky to live in a world of democratic institutions — at �ֲ���ý the student has a voice, and if you don’t take up your own voice, you take away part of your own self-determination.”

Pasek finds that one of the most effective means of championing issues is to make specific in-person appeals — one-on-ones with peers or campus officials. Creating personal connections, highlighting individual potential and establishing a narrative other people can feel positive about, quite simply, all get results.

At �ֲ���ý, he says, “appealing to an institutional framework is often not the most effective way of getting support. Campaigning for a personal cause shows you believe in what you’re working for and makes people excited to help you.”

Pasek is just as straightforward with his opinions of the world beyond �ֲ���ý. He has contributed several opinion pieces to various publications in the last four years, including articles in Lewiston’s Sun Journal and Jewish Exponent, a Philadelphia-based weekly newspaper.

Pasek also helped co-found �ֲ���ý’ J-Street U, a chapter of the national student activist organization promoting peace, security and social justice for Israel and Palestine. He serves as vice-president for the local chapter and is the national organization’s co-chair for New England.

The �ֲ���ý chapter is highly regarded by the national organization. With Pasek and President Alex Friedman ’12 at the helm, the chapter collected 500 student and staff signatures that persuaded Maine’s U.S Rep. Michael Michaud to sign the so-called Price-Welch letter encouraging continued U.S-Palestinian aid.

Pasek’s interest in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict shapes his academic experience as well. He is currently gearing up to defend a yearlong honors thesis on American Jewish perception of Israel for his self-designed political psychology major.

Recognizing that not all �ֲ���ý students share his ease in leadership roles, Pasek has also helped facilitate �ֲ���ý communities of interest that he is not as personally tied to. Co-president of Hillel, Pasek does not identify as particularly religious, but is aware that Hillel serves an important role on campus creating a space for a group sometimes underrepresented on campus.

Pasek is well-attuned to the activist’s delicate balancing of self-interest and the common good. For him, it boils down to engaging issues that one is passionate about, but also appreciating that part of effective engagement is removing oneself from the equation. He cites a well-known saying by the ancient Jewish sage Hillel: “If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am only for myself, what am I? And, if not now, when?”

— By Elana Leopold ’12

�ֲ���ý senior Smadar Bakovic of Neve Illan, Israel, will introduce the film and lead a discussion afterwards. The public is invited to attend the screening, sponsored by �ֲ���ý College Hillel, free of charge.

This internationally recognized film (in Hebrew and Arabic with English subtitles) has won multiple prizes, including audience awards for best film at the San Francisco and Paris international film festivals. “Promises,” wrote New York Times film critic Julie Salomon, “demonstrates the unusual power of thoughtful, subjective filmmaking.”

Produced and directed by Justine Shapiro and B.Z. Goldberg, the 106-minute film presents seven children between the ages of 9 and 13, an age group that rarely has the opportunity to speak for itself. The children are neither as self-conscious as teenagers nor as polite as adults. They speak directly, without self-censorship, and as “children of war” are far more amusing than an audience might expect. The film captures each child’s unique idiosyncratic style of communication.

Mirrors of their culture and spokespersons for future generations of Israelis and Palestinians, the children are acutely aware of the political reality that surrounds them. Their freshness of expression contrasts the entrenched and often embittered opinions of adults. These seven children live in and around Jerusalem. Though only 20 minutes apart, they exist in completely different worlds.

A native of South Africa, filmmaker Shapiro grew up in Berkeley, Calif., studied history and theater at Tufts University and hosts the award-winning travel series Lonely Planet. Born in Boston, Goldberg grew up outside of Jerusalem and studied filmmaking at New York University. He worked as a television journalist during the Intifada.