Uplift (v): to improve socially, culturally, morally, or the like: to uplift the spirits of those downtrodden.

Yesterday on my campus I experienced a form of pride in my Judaism and Zionism that I have never experienced before. Let me give a little background: There is a student group on campus called SAIA, "Students Against Israeli Apartheid". If you have about an hour I can sit here and type all of the atrocious propaganda that this group spreads on campus against Israel, but their main project right now is what is called "The Wall". Yes, as this name suggests, it is a mock version of the wall/fence in Israel that is protecting innocent civilians from terrorist targeted attacks. But of course, they don't describe the fence's function quite like I do. Their pamphlets are filled with with humanitarian aid stories, how the people are caged with minimal food, water, and electricity. And truthfully, it's very difficult to negate those facts. But what they have conveniently left out of the pamphlets is the nature of some, (not all....because I obviously do not believe that all Arabs are terrorists) of the people within the fence desire, yearn, and ache to kill innocent Israelis because they are, well, Israeli's.

"The Wall" on campus is up. Everyday. For hours. In a public student walkway. I have received countless of calls from friends who have walked by the wall and who have been harassed as they walk by. I can name a student who told me that he is scared to wear his kippah as he walks by, because he can't stand to hear the comments from those who are manning the booth. Listen, I'm all for equal representation on campus. If they want to spread their lies to vulnerable students who are uneducated about the situation then fine by me. But to harass a Jew because they are Jewish? Circle one of my girlfriends in the hall, inciting her into a political debate debasing and demoralizing her religion and country because she is wearing a skirt and a Magen David?! No way. So, when you're a student on a campus that is comprised of pretty much equal Jew to Muslim ratio we could not stand idly by.

So we didn't.

Basically, a bunch of Jewish kids went to Home Depot on the weekend and built a fence. An honest to goodness fence. It's probably about 15 feet long and five feet tall, and this fence is covered, I mean covered with facts. By facts I mean fifty seven pages detailing each terrorist attack in Israel, including the most recent one at Merkaz Harav, beginning in January of 2000. The Hamas Charter is bound and clipped to the wall. Posted is a list of other countries that uses a fence, just like the one in Israel, to protect their citizens from unlawful groups, just like in Israel. Slogans, stats, facts, statements, pictures...you name it. It's on the fence. When people ask how long the fence is going to stay up, we say "until rockets stop falling in Sderot". What is posted on the fence isn't anti-anyone, or pro-anything (besides for anti-terrorism. But thats a given). It displays facts. And that's why it works.

So, I'm pretty much glued to this fence. If my lap top hadn't completely died yesterday (z''l Betsy...until the techi revives you. I hope) I would be there right now. So I decided if I couldn't be there, I'd tell you guys about it. Anyways, yesterday I was manning the fence with my friend Sammy when we are approached by a guy. Early 20's, average height, clearly Arab. We begin talking, speaking our views and expressing our worries, politically and as they pertain to our respective religions. He's originally from Iran, his family fled before Ahmadinajad came into power, they just got out...it was truly a remarkable story. He is vehemently opposed to the government is power right now in Iran. He spoke of his families plight in Iran, and of his cousins suffering in Israel because of the fence. Then and there I understood the "other side", and I told him how helpless I felt sometimes because the probability of peaceful action succeeding seems so distant, so far off. I told confided to him that I didn't know if we could actually make a difference.

Then all of a sudden he looks me straight in the face, leans forward and says, "Just off the record, can I tell you something?". I looked at him and said "sure, I guess so". And he looked at me, with such truth in his eyes, and said, "SAIA doesn't stand a chance on campus. Any group that is combated with a group of Jews is toast. No one can touch you guys. Not even close. You want to know why?" And I leaned in...waiting wanting to know this certain truth that I already possessed without even knowing it and nodded. He said "You guys are so united, so together, so cohesive in your cause that at the end of the day, when you come together no matter how small your group is...no one can touch you".

It was the most incredible thing I had ever heard. Such chizuk, such strength from an outside source. And I realized, looking around at everyone standing around the fence, that we are united. Kippahs of all kinds, no kippah at all, skirts, pants, Israelis, Russian Jews, Sephardim, Ashkenazim. I thought of www.merkazmemorial.com and thought of how Dan raised over $3000 dollars in just a week! I looked again at the fence, to my peers, and finally at the Arab student who managed to give me back my strength and courage . My neshamah soared and my spirit was renewed with a sense of hope.

So, we exchanged phone numbers and information and it looks like the Arab from Iran and the Zionist Jew really could understand each other after all.

It seems as though the fence that we built really tore down some walls.