Standing tall, while others try to make him fall

Seligman approaches each challenge with gusto, like when he started university classes in Hebrew: ‘It was time to give myself that kick in the butt,’ he says.

By ABIGAIL KLEIN LEICHMAN
Chaim Seligman (photo credit: ITAI SCHREMER)
Chaim Seligman
(photo credit: ITAI SCHREMER)
Whenever the going gets tough for Chaim Seligman as a new immigrant to Israel, he thinks about a life-changing ordeal he survived when he was a high school junior.
“In an affluent Hollywood neighborhood [in my Florida hometown], I got jumped by three guys on a Friday night.
They didn’t rob me; they just wanted to beat up Jews,” he recounts.
“I was in bed for two weeks after that, surrounded by family and friends all the time, but thinking a lot. I came to the realization that we can be taken at any time, and that means that we always have to be on the right path in life. From then on, I’ve been determined to do so.”
Four weeks after that nightmarish experience, he participated in the March of the Living program in Poland. “I walked in the camps with survivors and I heard over and over the anger, passion and strong emotions people were feeling, and I knew we could turn it into something positive – into helping Israel and the Jewish people.”
Sharpshooter Seligman came to Israel after high school in 2007, to attend Yeshivat Ohr Yerushalayim and learn more about his roots. He came back for another semester the following year, then volunteered with Magen David Adom and Best Buddies Israel, a global organization that fosters one-on-one friendships and job placement services for people with special needs.
Following the next summer at home, he came back to serve as a sharpshooter in the Kfir Brigade through the Mahal volunteer program.
Throughout his military service and all that entails – including daybreak training maneuvers in freezing weather – he kept in mind the advice offered by his older brother, Yaakov, who had served in the IDF before him: “Chaim, it’s all about mentality. Go into it with the mentality that this is summer camp with guns and explosives.”
“We [siblings] all learned to shoot guns when we were younger, and we loved the outdoors. So it helped a lot to have that mentality,” says Seligman.
After a quick post-army trip to Greece and Thailand, he went back to Florida with the intention of starting college, but soon reached the conclusion this would be a waste of money.
“I said to my parents, if I’m going to make aliya, what’s the point of pulling myself away from Israeli society?” Model UN He enrolled in Bar-Ilan University’s international program in English, and the following year switched to the regular law track.
“Even though the classes were in Hebrew, it was time to give myself that kick in the butt,” he says. “The first year was very hard but I had a lot of support from family and friends, and I started working in the external relations department at the university’s VIP visits and events desk, which has helped me integrate more. I love meeting diplomats and presidents of other universities.”
Diplomacy has always attracted Seligman.
Ever since high school, he has been involved in Model United Nations and he became co-president of Bar- Ilan’s team, BarMUN. Now in his fourth year at Bar-Ilan and third year of law studies, he has competed on a regular basis all over Israel and the world. He never returns from a MUN competition without an award in hand, usually first place.
He and fellow BarMUN member and close friend Josh Weixelbaum represented Saudi Arabia – while wearing kippot on their heads – at the Catalonian Model UN competition in Barcelona earlier this year. They took home the award for best delegation on the Human Rights Council, where they were seated next to two students from Malmö, Sweden.
“Malmö is one of the biggest hotbeds of anti-Zionism, and we were curious to see how the two – one of whom was of Iraqi Kurdish descent – would react when we told them we were Jews from Israel,” Seligman recounts. To their surprise, not only were barriers broken down between them very quickly, but they remain in touch.
“At night at the social events, you meet people from around the world who have never talked to someone from Israel, or never even met a Jew, and it opens their eyes and changes their outlook,” says Seligman. “That’s why the Foreign Ministry supports MUN strongly – we’re the best ambassadors for Israel.
“I’m not naïve or a super leftist, but I believe our activities break down a lot of stereotypes.”
Helping teens gain self-confidence Seligman credits MUN for sharpening his skills in public speaking, negotiating, writing in diplomatic English, problem-solving, condensing an argument, convincing others and defending a position – even if it’s one with which he does not actually agree.
“If you can participate in a simulation of the Security Council and successfully defend Iran’s right to nuclear weapons, then you can defend anything you really do believe in,” he points out.
“The networking is also great. Some of my good friends from MUN are now working in the Knesset, the World Zionist Congress, the US Embassy – everywhere you turn, there are MUN alums.”
Seligman is vice president of the Israeli Model UN Association, and works with students in Petah Tikva through ProMUNers, an organization specializing in the establishment and management of MUN clubs for high school students.
“It’s not just a game, and not just about the UN; it’s about leadership skills,” he explains. “I love working with youth and seeing how they gain self-confidence; it’s amazing to see.”
Seligman also works for Bar-Ilan’s international program, focusing on recruitment and marketing in America and Israel; in addition, he is on the student life staff and is an administrative adviser.
He also advises the BarMUN team, now that his term as co-president is over; the team is still a central part of his life as he continues his studies in international humanitarian and trade law.
He credits his parents, grandparents, siblings, girlfriend and close friends for being a source of moral support, as well as the Stern family in Ma’aleh Adumim, who “adopted” him and his brother Yaakov during their earlier sojourns in Israel. To Seligman’s great delight, his brother and two sisters followed in his footsteps in making aliya.
His older sister and her husband and three children live in Ma’aleh Adumim; his brother and wife and two daughters are in Haifa; and his younger sister and her new husband live in Jerusalem.
“I was alone my first five years here, and then in a matter of 12 months all my siblings made aliya. I feel very blessed.”