New Group on Michigan Campus: Connecting American Students to the State of Israel Through Business
Chana Scholl
Issue date: 12/21/09 Section: Israel
Eitan Ingall, a participant of the David Project Campus Fellows Seminar '09, is a cofounder and director of TAMID Israel Investment Group, a new and innovative initiative to foster long term, mutually beneficial relationships between American university students and the State of Israel by connecting them with the Israeli business world.
The Observer: Who are you, what is TAMID, and why did you start it?
Eitan Ingall: I am a senior at the University of Michigan pursuing a double major in political science and organizational studies, with a pathway focus in political economy.
Basically, I started out as a freshman like all other freshmen entering from Jewish day schools, where you hear about this clichéd fear that the second you step foot on a college campus everyone is out to get you and you think that you have to [so to speak] go to college and defend Israel. Looking back, I do not know if that is the case, but in any event, when I came I got involved with one of the Israel organizations on campus called Israel IDEA: Israel Initiative for Dialogue, Education, and Advocacy, which was great; we had some big speakers like Daniel Pipes and Brett Stevens, who is a writer for the Wall Street Journal, and I eventually went on to lead the organization.
But one night, me and my best friend, Sasha Gribov, the chair of the other Israel organization on campus were sitting in our dorm talking and we were asking ourselves "what are we doing, are we really being effective?" and that's when we came up with the idea for TAMID.
There are so many ways for students in other disciplines to learn about Israel, if they're interested in Political Science or History they can always go to a speech about the 'History of the Middle East' or go to a speech about the 'Political Situation in the Gulf', but there are so many students in business schools all over who aren't interested in going to speeches about politics or history, they're interested in business. So we realized that we needed to engage business-minded students with the business side of Israel in order to reach that demographic. And that's how it started two years ago.
The Observer: Who are you, what is TAMID, and why did you start it?
Eitan Ingall: I am a senior at the University of Michigan pursuing a double major in political science and organizational studies, with a pathway focus in political economy.
Basically, I started out as a freshman like all other freshmen entering from Jewish day schools, where you hear about this clichéd fear that the second you step foot on a college campus everyone is out to get you and you think that you have to [so to speak] go to college and defend Israel. Looking back, I do not know if that is the case, but in any event, when I came I got involved with one of the Israel organizations on campus called Israel IDEA: Israel Initiative for Dialogue, Education, and Advocacy, which was great; we had some big speakers like Daniel Pipes and Brett Stevens, who is a writer for the Wall Street Journal, and I eventually went on to lead the organization.
But one night, me and my best friend, Sasha Gribov, the chair of the other Israel organization on campus were sitting in our dorm talking and we were asking ourselves "what are we doing, are we really being effective?" and that's when we came up with the idea for TAMID.
There are so many ways for students in other disciplines to learn about Israel, if they're interested in Political Science or History they can always go to a speech about the 'History of the Middle East' or go to a speech about the 'Political Situation in the Gulf', but there are so many students in business schools all over who aren't interested in going to speeches about politics or history, they're interested in business. So we realized that we needed to engage business-minded students with the business side of Israel in order to reach that demographic. And that's how it started two years ago.
Viewing Comments 1 - 3 of 4
chana scholl
posted 12/24/09 @ 10:20 PM EST
For further information about TAMID, see www.tamidgroup.org, or email Eitan at eitan.ingall@tamidgroup.org.
Julie Helfand
posted 12/25/09 @ 2:51 AM EST
What a refreshing and exciting interview with this young man. Lets clone him as we are in dire need of smart visionaries like himself to ensure the Jewish future and future of Israel!! Thank you Chana Scholl for a most insightful article. (Continued…)
And you know who this is
posted 1/03/10 @ 1:54 PM EST
What an inspiration! People who take initiative are one of a kind, and people who write about them are of another kind ;)
Chana, I love you
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