Community Members and UC Irvine Students Weigh in on iFest

As a follow-up to yesterday’s blog and photos on 2010 iFest at UCI, I asked a few people for their impressions on community day, the week-long event and on the campus. The first video is from UCI’s Hillel Women’s Council.

I also turned the video camera on a few UCI students and asked them to weigh in on the 2010 iFest Community Day yesterday.

iFest Community Day at UCI is a Huge Hit

I just returned from iFest Community Day at UCI this afternoon.  The crowd that turned out was very impressive.  Hundreds of students were matched by and just as many community members who came out to support a celebration of Jewish student life and support for Israel on the UCI campus today.

The area around campus “ring road”, between the book store and the administration building was lined with vendors, student groups, food, goods for sales and information about many of the great things going on in Israel.  The most popular stop was the falafel stand where people waited in line patiently for a great tasting middle-eastern falafel.

I especially liked the small yellow signs that were planted in the ground.  These informational posts had positive facts about a wide variety of Israel’s accomplishments.  I later learned iFest organizers placed hundreds around the entire university this week and students walking to class had the opportunity to learn about Israel as they moved around campus.

A strong contingent from the Women’s Council for Hillel, led by Liz Merage and Orly Glick had many of their 250 new members wearing iFest t-shirts in support of the event.  Merage also called on a dozen friends who drove down from Los Angeles especially to support the students.  Jordan Fruchtman and the Hillel team were also very visible as well as members from the Rose Project and Jewish Federation Orange County which helped fund the week-long events.  I am told the AJC and ADL also had a strong showing this afternoon.  I did see some of their leaders enjoying the cloudless afternoon.