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About
The David Project (TDP) was an American pro-Israel advocacy organization founded in 2002 by Avi Goldwasser and Charles Jacobs, who previously co-founded CAMERA. It began as an agency of Hillel International and focused on countering anti-Israel sentiment on college campuses through 'relational advocacy,' training Jewish student leaders to build alliances with diverse campus groups and shape discourse on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including efforts against the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement. Initially known for its confrontational media tactics, TDP produced influential documentaries, including 'Columbia Unbecoming' (2004), which alleged anti-Israel bias and intimidation of pro-Israel students by professors in Columbia University's Middle East studies department, sparking national controversy, and 'The Forgotten Refugees' (2005), documenting the Jewish exodus from Arab countries. The organization was involved in high-profile campaigns, such as pressuring Harvard University to reject a $2.5 million donation from the UAE's Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan in 2004, and became embroiled in a major legal controversy with the Islamic Society of Boston over mosque construction. TDP gained national prominence for its role in the 'Columbia Unbecoming' controversy and promoted pro-Israel narratives in media and policy circles. In 2012, under new executive leadership, it shifted its headquarters from Boston to New York following integration into Hillel International to scale outreach via Hillel's network, marking a strategic pivot toward long-term relationship building and broad-based campus coalitions with non-Jewish student groups rather than short-term media battles. In 2017, TDP officially merged with Hillel International's Israel Engagement and Education department, ceasing to exist as an independent entity while its programming was absorbed into Hillel's initiatives, and by 2019 evolved into the Hillel U Center for Community Outreach, where it now functions as a specific department focusing on Israel engagement and alliance-building strategies across over 500 campuses worldwide. Throughout its existence, TDP faced criticism for its aggressive tactics, with The Forward describing it in 2004 as having 'a national reputation for hounding Muslims that it perceives to be a threat to the Jewish community.'