A condom giveaway on the campus of U.C. San Diego has gotten plenty of people hot and bothered.
As the highlight of an on-campus campaign entitled “Got Israel?” pro-Israel students at UCSD recently handed out condoms and T-shirts emblazoned with an anthropomorphic condom cartoon and the catchphrase, “Israel: It’s still safe to come.”
In addition to spouting a double entendre lewd enough to make Benny Hill blush, the condoms proved the point that Israel is the only country in the Middle East in which women and homosexuals are entitled to equal rights, according to the giveaway’s student organizers.
The condoms came equipped with a card discussing “sexual freedoms and women’s rights in different Mideastern countries and Israel. It showed the literacy rates of women, the percentage of women employed, whether homosexuality is legal. On that basis, people could make their own decisions on how free and democratic Israel is,” said co-organizer Eddie Cohen.
But not everyone got the joke, or cared to. After photos and an article about the late April giveaway appeared in the San Diego Jewish Heritage newspaper, the campus Hillel began receiving some angry phone calls. Executive Director Rabbi Lisa Goldstein confirmed that she has lost some donors, but she would not say how many.
Co-organizer Neta Retter said the giveaway was wildly popular with students and faculty on campus, adding that she is still getting calls and e-mails asking for pro-Israel condoms or T-shirts.
Those complaining about the risqué manner of distributing a pro-Israel message don’t seem to recognize that the giveaway was aimed at twentysomethings, Retter contends.
“People stand on library walk [a major campus thoroughfare] every day handing out different fliers. We needed some way to find ourselves different. It made people think twice about Israel…I think on the campus itself, we got overwhelming support,” she said.
“When it was printed in the Heritage, some people were very offended. The paper is mostly sent to older people…so I think some older members of the community thought it was a little offensive. But they have to keep in mind who the target audience was. Students on campus weren’t offended.”
Mention of the condom giveaway also ran nationwide, with a brief distributed through the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Goldstein, however, is irritated that no mention was made of Cohen and Retter’s other pro-Israel programs.
“I’m not happy about that,” said the rabbi.
“This is part of a large campaign called ‘Got Israel?’ and it’s one of only about five or six programs they did. This is the only one that got media attention. It was a way to be provocative. The sad thing is that students at UCSD have been [creating] very high-visibility wonderful pro-Israel programming all year long.”
Goldstein is also confused about the backlash from some members of the San Diego area Jewish community.
“The students are kind of bewildered why the rest of the community is making such a big deal about this,” she said.
“You would think Californians would be more open-minded and understand things come in a context, but I don’t know.”
Cohen and Retter applied for and received funds from the Avi Chai foundation, a New York-based Israel advocacy group, and photos of UCSD students waving “Got Israel?” and “Got Milk…and Honey?” banners appeared on the national Hillel Web site.
With funds coming from elsewhere, Goldstein said Hillel was not in a position to tell the students what to do — even though angry donors are taking out their frustrations on Hillel.
“It was shock and awe, and a little bit risqué,” said Retter. “College students were talking about it. We need more political demonstrations, and birth control on campus is not a bad thing.”