Student activist set to visit Israel

"I will be bouncing off ideas and bringing others back here and seeing what I can do with them," Lande said. "It's a good way for me to network with other people on other campuses."\nLande, a senior majoring in Jewish studies, history and Hebrew, is involved with many campus organizations, but particularly likes to reach people on a more personal level.\n"One thing that makes Dan unique is that he does things himself," said Josh Margo, a campus field worker with the North American Jewish Student Alliance in Montreal. "He's a one-man show doing things on campus."\nLande has helped bring speakers to campus, including Maurice Singer, director of the Jewish Agency Office in Chicago, who spoke Tuesday at the Simon G. Hillel Center.\nLande currently works at Falafel's, 430 E. Kirkwood Ave., an Israeli restaurant. \n"I work there because it's a great way for me to embrace the Israeli culture and to practice my Hebrew," he said.\nHe and his roommate Danny Farahan also recently formed a Web site selling Israeli-related clothing items such as T-shirts and hooded sweatshirts. The two are active in Hoosiers for Israel, as well.\n"We just want someone to stop and realize the people of Israel are real," Farahan said. "It's not just a scoreboard of people killed. It's not just a game."\nLande said he saw the horror of life in Israel during his first three trips to the Middle Eastern nation. \nHe said he once witnessed a riot in Jerusalem.\n"When thinking about sitting in a restaurant, you think about whether you would survive if someone blew themselves up," he said. "I understand what it means to live in terror."\nLande made his first trip to Israel in 1998 and stayed for six weeks. \n"Being a Jew, I thought it was a really big part of my life," Lande said. "I thought it was important to go to Israel to find out what this mystical land was about."\nIn 2000, he returned to Israel and spent a year studying at Hebrew University in Jerusalem working on a communal farm and volunteering in the army. He spent the summer of 2002 there as well, experiencing the culture on his own schedule.\n"I went back because I wanted to feel what I felt again," Lande said. "I wanted to see if it was real, to make sure it wasn't just a dream."\nBut on his trip today, Lande has a specific purpose in mind. He will listen to leaders from around the world, including former president, Bill Clinton, and Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., who are expected to attend. Lande will speak about advocacy on university campuses and perform some of his songs.\n"Open up. Take my hand. You can see I'm just a man, and I want peace in the land," Lande sings in his song. "CNN Lies. Don't get me wrong, I love America but I think we need to beware because we are naive."\nLande said he noticed a slant in American media coverage of events he had actually witnessed in Israel. Many of his songs carry this theme, which he has conveyed to audiences at local clubs and Israelpalooza, a solidarity concert sponsored by the Hillel Foundation last spring. "I don't feel people will have an interest in things if they don't have a connection to it," Lande said.\nHe uses music as a way of connecting people to the cause.\n"Almost all of his songs are about politics and his love for Israel," said sophomore Jordan Huffer, who sings with Lande. "He's one of those people to be admired because he always stands up for Israel."\nFarahan also said he believes Lande is admirable and is pleased that Lande will represent Indiana at general assembly.\n"It's important to send someone who knows what they're doing," Farahan said. "It's a priority in his life to go to Israel. He's missing a lot of school to go and a lot of people wouldn't do that."\nLande said his professors are being supportive by allowing him do to work ahead of time and e-mail papers to them. The national chapters of Hillel and the Jewish Federation are sponsoring his trip to Jerusalem.\nLande is excited to revisit Israel and get some new ideas for activism at IU. Though he doesn't have any specific plans for returning to Israel in the future, but he does know one thing for sure: \n"I have a place I feel connected with," Lande said. "That's Israel"