Emory Sophomore Wins StandWithUs Prize

Emory University’s Zach Pearlstone won second place in the StandWithUs competition for the 2022 Movement Builder Award for Creativity and Impact.

The award, named after the StandWithUs Movement Builder platform — which is designed to help student leaders articulate their campus climate, map out goals and develop an effective strategy for Israel education — is presented each year to an exceptional StandWithUs Emerson Fellow who has approached and successfully implemented Israel programming tailored to their campus climate.

Founded in 2007, the one-year Emerson Fellowship trains, educates and empowers student leaders around the world. Fellows learn how to strategically navigate antisemitic activity on their campuses and inspire their peers to run impactful educational events and campaigns about Israel.

Pearlstone became an Emerson Fellow as a sophomore at Emory, ready to make an impact within his community and beyond. As a junior, he will serve as copresident of the Emory Israel Public Affairs Committee.

As an Emerson Fellow, Pearlstone organized an Israel-Latin Night that brought 80 students from the Jewish and Latinx communities together. Attendees learned about Israel’s relationship with the Latin world and celebrated each other’s cultures alongside representatives from the Israeli and Honduran consulates.

Pearlstone also implemented important events to educate his community, hosting Neil Lazarus of Awesome Seminars, Gil Hoffman of Honest Reporting and Michael Eisenberg, managing partner at Aleph, a Tel Aviv venture capital fund.

“In the Emerson Fellowship program, I developed and strengthened my leadership and professional skills as I educated my peers on issues including the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign and how to support and defend Israel on campus. I am eager to continue strengthening dialogue about Israel on campus,” Pearlstone said.

The 2022-23 StandWithUs Emerson Fellows include Gabriela Lefkovits of the University of Georgia and Gabriel Grau of Kennesaw State University. Both are participating in the August training conference and will attend the “Israel in Focus” International Conference in January.

StandWithUs is an international organization that supports Israel and fights antisemitism, with an office in the Southeast.

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