I met with Michael Lev after his guest appearance on a radio show at WYUR headquarters, YU’s official radio station, to discuss his experiences as one of L’man Achai’s four chairmen, his hopes for the group and his reaction, as a leader of an Israel-focused organization, to The Commentator’s recent decision to limit coverage of Israel.

What is L’man Achai?

L’man Achai is a non-profit volunteer organization that works in conjunction with the Israel Club and the CJF [Center for the Jewish Future] to raise funds and donations for Israel. We try to address their specific needs, like for Americans to alleviate poverty in Jerusalem and especially now in the North…As Chanuka gets closer, for example, we will be selling Tzfat candles to lend our support to that cause. Last year we made over $90,000 with no overhead.

How did you do that? Have you held any events, or is it more like food drives, etc.?

We haven’t held any events so far, although eventually we hope to put things together…right now it is more selling things that were made in Israel, getting people involved and informed with what’s going on there right now.

As an organization that is very in touch with the latest news from Israel, what do you think is the best way for students to keep themselves informed?

I would say Arutz Sheva is the best place to go…that’s where I get a lot of my news.

As you’re probably aware, the Commentator has decided not to include “in-depth news analyses, editorials, and student opinion…concerning the turmoil in the Middle East” in all forthcoming issues, saying that while the policy should not be considered disregard for the welfare of Israel, since these events are not occurring within the YU community, they “remain outside our domain.” It has also been suggested that this is an effort to exclude rants about Mideast politics written by students who have no political expertise in the subject. What is your response to that?

I think that’s completely ludicrous. Students don’t know about American politics, either, so why should they be able to have that discussion on campus then? I think it’s important that the students should be able to form their own opinions, they should be encouraged to research the issues for themselves and to express these conclusions and take action. That’s one of the things we try to do - we try to improve student activism, try to encourage students to volunteer to set up and run specific events, to inform and educate them and to help them inform others. We want them to do their own research and come to their own conclusions.