In order to better educate students on Israel’s culture, Binghamton University hosted a panel of flight attendants from the Israeli airline El Al Airlines, who spoke about their experiences living and working in Israel.
The event was sponsored by Hillel at Binghamton and was put on after members of the El Al Ambassadors program approached the group and proposed the event. Through this program, El Al employees spend their layovers at universities all over the world talking about their life in Israel and connecting with students.
Joshua Seed, president of Bearcats for Israel and a senior double-majoring in geography and Judaic studies, spoke on the importance of building a connection between the El Al employees and the students here.
“The idea behind it is to give a different perspective that you don’t normally hear about Israel,” Seed said. “To bring here the people who bring Israel to everybody else, I think is really important.”
El Al Airlines is the national airline of Israel and the most widely used airline by people traveling there. When the audience was asked who had flown to Israel through El Al before, every hand in the room went up.
Yonatan Hammerman, a sophomore majoring in accounting, is a StandWithUs fellow, which is a non-profit group that supports Israel around the world and helps to spread a positive image of the country. He helped put on the event, and said having El Al come and speak gives students a unique view of Israel.
“El Al is everyone’s first experience to Israel,” he said. “Getting on that plane, that’s their first experience to anything Israeli, and for them to have that amazing attitude, it gives a good light to Israel.”
The event was serious at times and lighthearted at others, with topics ranging from touching stories about their families’ pasts in Israel to stories about experiences they’ve had on flights.
But when they weren’t teasing each other for their broken English or making the audience laugh with jokes, the flight attendants spoke seriously on their experiences at home in Israel and what life is like there. The topics they covered included experiences like living through bombings, how their families moved to Israel during the Holocaust and how they felt being Israeli in different countries.
Moran Kaufmann, one of the panelists from the airline, said it is much better for people to learn about Israel through people who live there than from second-hand sources.
“You can be fed from the news and by talking to family and friends,” Kaufmann said. “But there’s nothing like meeting a day-to-day person and to have them tell you, you know, look at me, it’s OK.”
Through the El Al Ambassadors program, students around the world are given the opportunity to connect with Israelis and hear their stories, deepening their own understanding of the culture.
“If we can inspire you and tell you what it means for us to be Israeli,” said Maor Lotan, an El Al flight attendant. “Then that’s really important.”