"Vision is what one has, but visualizing is the active challenge to all of us and that is what we are about today," University President Frederick Lawrence said at the Brandeis Visions for Israel in an Evolving World conference on Sunday.

Over 200 students from 17 schools across the Northeast attended the conference, which was held to help facilitate discussions about Israel on college campuses. bVIEW is a movement created by students who feel that current discussion about Israel can be polarized and unproductive.

Lawrence pointed out that the V in bVIEW stands for visions. There are multiple visions for Israel, and all of them need to be talked about, he said.

The conference, as bVIEW content and program director Natan Odenheimer '15 said in the introduction, would help students "think constructively about the future." Odenheimer said he had noticed that students have "difficulty discussing challenging issues regarding Israel."

The bVIEW founders believe that in order for positive change to occur in Israel, the discourse on campus needs to be improved. The conference encouraged students, who bVIEW deem as the next generation that can influence the situation in Israel, to voice their opinions in a healthy, open environment.

Following the introductory session, bVIEW Codirector Erica Shaps '13 moderated a panel on Israel programming on college campuses. The panelists included Lex Rofes, a senior at Brown University and a student representative on the Board of Directors of Hillel at Brown; Matt Lebovic, senior campus associate at Combined Jewish Philanthropies; Daniel May, director of J Street U; and Larry Sternberg, executive director of Hillel at Brandeis.

The first question Shaps asked the panelists was about who plays a major role in dictating campus programming on Israel.

Lebovic said that he believes students should make most of the decisions but outside organizations can still be important. Student organized programs can be heavily influenced by activists, Sternberg pointed out.

May added that programs do not have to be adversarial in order to be productive. "The most successful student groups are the ones that understand that the university is a political universe," he said. He continued that it is important for students to lead the discussion, but it is impossible for it to be completely separate from the outside world.

The panelists were then asked what they would like campus programming to look like in an ideal world.

"I think that we learn a lot more when we associate very directly ... with people who differ from ourselves," said Rofe, adding that conferences such as bVIEW allow for the necessary "constructive discomfort." May also said that different ideologies should interact, to make the discussion "intellectually rigorous, diverse and politically engaged."

Lebovic said that there can be a disconnect between what students are discussing in America and what is happening in Israel, and he would like to see students continue the discussion by going to Israel to see the situation for themselves.
The final question posed to the panelists was whether or not there are boundaries to the discussion on Israel.

May answered that there are no limits to who is included; all parts of the population in Israel need to be part of the conversation.

There are, however, limits to what should be said in the discussion, he said. "There is such a thing as hateful speech."
Sternberg brought up the example of a Knesset debate, where all of the members talk over each other. "The purpose of the convening is conversation. Conversations require listening," said Sternberg. He believes that the extremes should be included if everyone listens to each other.

There is a difference between having boundaries on opinions and having them on actions, Lebovic said. "Universities should be able to self-select their members and strategies based on the actions of who wants to [join]." Only expression that leads to violence should be limited, said Lebovic.

The questions asked by students, as well as the individual table discussions that followed the panel, reflected the goals of the event as a whole. Students wanted to know what their impact will be on the outside world and how to make that world what they want it to be.

Thirty-eight bVIEW student facilitators led the discussions, including Hannah Kober '16.

"I think that people should gain a greater understanding of what Israel discussion could look like on campus, as opposed to what is looks like right now, which is very polarized," Kober said.