It was always easy to spot Chris Silver on the U.C. Berkeley campus. He was, after all, “the guy with the hair.”
And, after winning the 2005 Haas-Koshland award, he figures to be easy to spot at Tel Aviv University. That’s where he’s headed, thanks to the $15,000 grant initiated and administered by the S.F.-based Jewish Community Endowment Fund for study in Israel.
Silver’s Jimi Hendrix-like hairstyle made him easy to spot at rallies in Sproul Plaza, but his most effective pro-Israel activism was behind the scenes.
After doing little more than reacting to pro-Palestinian demonstrations during his first years on campus, Silver and fellow student David Singer vowed to go on the offensive when they took over the campus Israel Action Committee. They inaugurated a history of Israel class, which was taught by students and enlarged the pool of Israel-savvy students willing to participate in campus activism. And they began programming activities regardless of what pro-Palestinians were doing.
Speakers such as Dennis Ross, Ehud Barak, Yossi Beilin and Daniel Pipes, whose appearances were co-sponsored by the Israel Action Committee, brought varying viewpoints to campus.
Silver said the last couple of years have been a 180-degree turnaround from the campus’ difficult times in 2001 and 2002. “There were certainly situations, especially two years ago, that were literally unbearable,” said Silver, 22, who graduates in May with a degree in Middle Eastern studies.
Through the Haas-Koshland award, a JCEF program of the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation, Silver will spend a year in Tel Aviv, working on his master’s thesis on the essentially Moroccan nature of the Shas Party. He’ll also volunteer for Hila, which works to combat discrimination against Jews of color and Arabs in Israel. The master’s is a two-year program, and Silver still isn’t sure if he wants to complete it in Israel, or transfer his work back to an American university.
As a pro-Israel Middle Eastern studies major, Silver experienced his share of slights — instructors leaving Israel off a hand-drawn map or going out of their way to chide the Jewish state. But that kind of experience has been for the best. “After four years, what I’m equipped with is unparalleled. I couldn’t have gotten this kind of education and exposure anywhere else,” said the Los Angeles native with a laugh.
“I’ve not only heard all the standard pro-Israel opinions out there, but what people are saying against Israel. For me, it’s gotten to the point where my ‘pro-Israel-ness’ isn’t a reaction. It’s a patient formulation, I guess you could say. I have absorbed everything and still come out pro-Israel.”
After years in the Middle Eastern Studies department, he has a widely diverse group of friends. Before leaving Berkeley, Silver and a Palestinian buddyhope to bring dialogue sessions back to the polarized campus.
Silver realizes he’s always formed a human bridge between differing groups, and he’s hoping that, somehow, he can make it his life’s work.
And, hopefully, that line of work won’t require a haircut.