As she walks through the Union, the average person would think Rona Gotlieb, a 25-year-old world traveler and management major, has been working on her tan.
Her English is perfect, but her Hebrew is better.
Gotlieb is a visitor from Israel. She is a third-year student who spent a year at Arizona State University and is a former sergeant in the Israeli armed forces.
Gotlieb’s post-high school plans were unorthodox compared to American life. She spent two years in the Israeli army in accordance with an Israeli law that has stood since the state’s inception following World War II.
She came to campus along with her two travel companions Monday to share her story. The group held a small forum on Israel in the Vieux Carre Room of the Union.
Gotlieb and two other Israelis, Naftali Aklom and Eli Alifant, are visiting the United States thanks to a New York-based program called Israel at Heart.
According to Rabbi Barry Weinstein, the forum’s sponsor and a religious studies instructor, the Israel at Heart program is sponsored by a philanthropist who privately finances trips for groups of Israelis to share their experiences with American students.
“There are several dozen students who visit around the country as well as in Europe and Canada,” Weinstein said. “They are sponsored to come to America and tell about life in Israel.”
The trio, all of whom are Jewish, answered questions given by a group of interested students and other community members.
“When you are not from Israel, you see Israel portrayed in the media, and that’s not always how it happens,” Gotlieb said.
Alifant, a 26-year-old government studies major in Israel, said he has been on one previous trip for the non-political organization.
Alifant said his life was atypical for an Israeli male.
“At 19 I joined the army and stayed for six years, finishing as as officer,” Alifant said. “After high school, Israeli men are required to give three years of service and women two years.”
Alifant and Gotlieb said crime in Israel is much different than crime in the United States.
Gotlieb said there is very little crime in Israel, but terrorism is more prevalent.
“In Israel if you are Jewish you are being fought for your beliefs,” Alifant said. “In a place like New York City, crime is random or for robbery.”
Aklom, who is a Jewish Ethiopian, said he immigrated to Israel from Ethiopia when he was 8 months old.
“My family walked 300 miles from Ethiopia to Sudan,” Aklom said. “It took us two months, and many people died along the way, old and young, including my brother who was three years bigger than me.”
Aklom said after a three month holdover in Sudan, his family finally acquired the funds to reach Israel.
“Israel is my home,” Aklom said. “I grew up in Israel, I went to school there and I served in the air force as a fireman.”
Aklom and Alifant agreed racism is much less of a problem in Israel.
“It’s different there,” Aklom said. “In America, blacks were originally brought from Africa as slaves. Jewish Ethiopians came to Israel as free people.”
Alifant said there is very little racial discrimination in his home town of Tel Aviv.
“There are a lot of black people in my neighborhood,” Alifant said. “There’s no issues of getting jobs. Racism is just not at such a high level in Israel.”
All three of the Israelis agreed they have led a very different lifestyle than some of the students they have encountered in America.
“Everyone just looks so young,” Gotlieb said. “I think that you guys [American college students] just chill. We try to do what we do in the best way we can.”
Alifant said he hopes his children will be able to grow up as Americans have.
“In Israel, everyone is just hoping their children don’t have to fight in another war,” Alifant said. “Not everything is taken for granted, and not every door you walk through is guarded.”
Gotlieb said she hopes LSU students remember to live life to the fullest as she has.
“Try to grab every day and just suck the life out of it,” Gotlieb said.