The ProZ course “is designed to empower young people who want to defend Israel where it counts today, on social media,” says Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

(January 26, 2022 / JNS) A new initiative was launched this week to train online “influencers” in combating anti-Semitism.

The launch of the initiative, called ProZ, was timed to coincide with International Holocaust Remembrance Day, which falls on Jan. 27.

The course comprises six training sessions, scheduled to begin in February, designed to mentor activists in countering anti-Semitic content online.

“We have to confront anti-Semitism on all fronts simultaneously—those who hate and demonize Jewish people and  those who hate and demonize Israel as the State of Jewish people,” said former Jewish Agency chairman Natan Sharansky.

“We have to pay special attention to social media, which acts as an accelerator of hatred and racism towards Jews and others. We need to find creative solutions at the individual and group level. Therefore, the ProZ initiative is very important. I applaud their efforts,” he added.

World Zionist Organization chairman Yaakov Hagoel called the initiative “very important.”

“Anti-Semitism is … a terrible phenomenon that reinvents itself in various forms, which must be combated,” he said.

Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean and director of Global Social Action Agenda for the Simon Wiesenthal Center, said the center was “honored” to participate in the “groundbreaking” project.

“It is designed to empower young people who want to defend Israel where it counts today, on social media. We all face a tsunami of online anti-Semitism and  tomorrow’s influencers need to know how to respond,” he said.