A photography exhibition portraying Israelis from every facet of society, curated by students from Baruch College in New York City, went on display Thursday on the school’s 25st Street plaza, on the occasion of Israel’s 68th Independence Day. 
The exhibition was made possible thanks to a $5,000 award from the World Jewish Congress and the Israeli Consulate in New York, after the students won first place in the first annual Campus Pitch Competition.
The students, Amit Gutin and Orr Izkovic, took the top prize in the February competition, facing off against four other student group finalists from the tristate area. In addition to the grant, the winners were also invited to participate in an international WJC conference in Europe later this year. The other four groups – from Connecticut College, Stony Brook College, New York University Law School and Binghamton University – each took home a $2,500 dollar grant to carry out their projects.
The exhibit, “Faces of Israel” featured a walking gallery of 40 to 50 portraits of people from across Israel, accompanied by a short story describing the subject of each image. The gallery shows the true melting pot of Israel, with subjects including Jews, Muslims, Christians, members of the LGBT community, and immigrants, among others.
The competition was the culminating event of a semester-long campaign in which student groups from the Tristate region submitted proposals for events, initiatives and ideas to broaden the conversation about Israel and Jewish issues on campus. The World Jewish Congress looks forward to future events of the kind as part of its efforts to promote Israel in the face of delegitimization.
Photographs of Faces of Israel event by Cory Weiss
