Jewish students don't just need legal protection or advocacy training. They need an inner operating system — the skills to stay grounded, regulate fear, communicate under pressure, and recover after hostile encounters. ROC delivers that.
Antisemitism on campus is not only a legal or political problem. It is a human one.
Jewish students — and many of their Christian Zionist allies — are silencing themselves, withdrawing from community, and losing confidence in their identity. They came to campus for an education. Instead, many are navigating daily hostility, ideological pressure, and social isolation.
The existing response ecosystem — reporting tools, advocacy training, legal resources, institutional pressure — is necessary. But it leaves a critical gap: the student's inner operating system.
No one is systematically training students how to stay grounded, regulate fear, communicate under pressure, support each other, and recover after a hostile encounter.
"I can only imagine if I had an organization like ROC two or three years ago, how much more effective I could have been if I was taught emotional resilience, if I was part of a community whereby we felt that we were in this together."
The ROC Campus Resilience Curriculum is a skills-based program that builds the student from the inside out — so they can face hostility without being defined by it.
ROC doesn't compete with existing organizations. It completes the ecosystem by going deeper — to the person who has to navigate all of it.
| Organization | What They Do | What They Don't Address |
|---|---|---|
| ADL | Report and confront antisemitism at the institutional level | The student's inner state during and after the incident |
| Hillel / Chabad / Meor | Community, belonging, Jewish life on campus | Resilience skills for hostile encounters |
| StandWithUs | Advocacy, debate training, political activism | Emotional regulation and identity stability |
| ROC ★ | Builds the inner operating system — so students can use every other resource without burning out | ROC strengthens the student underneath all of that. |
Twelve years of successful social unity work in Israel — helping people comfortably dialog about uncomfortable topics. BAM's unity work now extends to North American campuses through the ROC initiative.
ROC is developed by the Be A Mensch Foundation in partnership with leading voices in clinical resilience and trauma healing.
In an exclusive interview with Rabbi Avi Landa, Gavriel Sanders explores "what's under the hood" of the ROC curriculum, clarifying how students benefit from the skill sets gained through the course.
Gavriel Sanders interviews Tamar Schwarzbard, founder of digital marketing firm Brandwidth, in an insightful discussion about the challenges Jewish Gen Z students face on today's hostile campuses.
Coverage of ROC's launch and mission from the Jewish and Israeli press.
JNS reports on ROC's official launch at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., where Rabbi Avi Landa and Gina Ross introduced the eight-module curriculum blending cognitive behavioral therapy, somatic experiencing, and polyvagal theory with Jewish identity and connection to Israel. The piece notes the program's planned pilot at the University of Maryland, with Israel's ambassador to the U.S. speaking at the launch about resilience as central to Jewish identity.
Read the full article on JNS.org →