Amna Farooqi is the newly elected president of J Street’s national student board.

Amna Farooqi spent the spring of her freshman year poring over the 1930s-era diary entries of Israel’s first prime minister. 

She enrolled in a class in which each student was assigned a historic figure to role-play during a semester-long simulation of Jewish-Arab negotiations, and Farooqi immersed herself in the task of impersonating David Ben-Gurion.

Now a senior, she’s again taking on the role of a leader in the pro-Israel movement — this time as the recently elected national president of J Street U, the campus branch of the liberal lobbying group that calls itself “the political home for pro-Israel, pro-peace Americans.”

But unlike Ben-Gurion and other prominent Zionist figures who advocated Israel as a homeland for the Jewish people, Farooqi is Muslim.

“It’s interesting to have the perspective of someone who came from a different background but ended up in the same place and ultimately wants the same thing for the American Jewish community,” she said, “which is for it to be active and thriving and acting on its values.”

Farooqi, a government and politics major, was elected last month after running against three other candidates during J Street U’s Summer Leadership Institute in Washington. She previously served as the national board’s Southeast representative and interned with the group in Israel last summer.  

Farooqi is the first Muslim student to be elected president of J Street U, said Alan Elsner, J Street’s vice president for communications. The organization has almost 60 chapters at universities nationwide. 

Some called J Street’s mission into question in the days after Farooqi’s appointment became worldwide news. The group, which calls for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, has previously come under fire from other Israel lobbies for taking critical stances against the Israeli government during invasions into Gaza. 

J Street also supports President Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called “a historic mistake.”  

Joel Pollak, who writes for the conservative website Breitbart, wrote in an Aug. 19 column that Farooqi’s election “confirms that J Street is not, in fact, a pro-Israel organization.”

While Farooqi said she’s experienced some negativity from “fringe groups” and on Twitter, the reaction has been positive overall.

Sophomore Sam Koralnik, Maryland Israel Coalition president, another pro-Israel group on the campus, said he’s excited to see the direction Farooqi takes J Street U. 

“I don’t really think her being Muslim changes her being a passionate student who really cares about the state of Israel,” said Koralnik, a government and politics major. “If the people inside J Street believe she’s the right person, more power to them.”

Farooqi, who is of Pakistani descent, grew up in a “fairly religious” Muslim home in heavily Jewish Potomac. In seventh grade, she spent weekends attending bar and bat mitzvahs and said she was always aware of the difference between the Orthodox, Conservative and Reform synagogues she’d frequently drive by.

But her parents also made her aware that, while those synagogues put up signs expressing their support for Israel, her mosque would face backlash if it did something similar regarding Palestine, she said.

“Growing up, I was so sensitive to Palestinian suffering, but then also growing up in Potomac, it was difficult to talk about it and be critical of the Israeli government,” she said. 

When she arrived at this university, she decided to immerse herself in the topic to better understand the conflict and the term “pro-Israel.” She started going to Maryland Hillel, a campus Jewish student group, and meeting with staff members to discuss the issues facing the Middle East.

When exploring Hillel as a freshman, she first discovered J Street, which she said appealed to her ideology.

“[J Street] is the only place where you can actually work to end the occupation and oppression of Palestinians but still support Israel as a Jewish and Democratic state and try to work for both,” she said. 

Ari Israel, Hillel’s executive director, first met Farooqi three years ago when she reached out to him to ask about the organization. A few weeks later, he saw her buying challah at Hillel on a Friday before Shabbat, Judaism’s day of rest.

“I knew then and still know now that she is a unique individual,” he wrote in an email. “She genuinely participates in Hillel activities and is warmly embraced by our diverse student population.”

Through the classes she’s taken as an Israel studies minor and after her semester abroad in Jerusalem, she said she came to understand Zionism.

“The intentions of Zionism became clear to me in that it was about a group of people taking responsibility for their future and trying to figure out their identity,” she said. “I get it; I get why this state is so special and why its creation is so special and why it needs to be here.”

As president, Farooqi said she plans to work on getting American Jewish institutions more active in supporting a two-state solution. On college campuses specifically, she wants J Street U to provide “a proactive alternative to BDS.” The movement — which calls for boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israel — has gained popularity at universities nationwide. 

“We’re coming to campuses at a time when many are frustrated with the status quo,” Farooqi said. “We don’t think BDS is productive or realistic in terms of ending the conflict, and people are joining because they’re frustrated after the [Israel-Gaza conflict] last year. For us to provide a way to support Israel, but also oppose the occupation, that’s the first step.”

Professor Paul Scham, who taught Farooqi as a freshman in ISRL448D: Dividing Palestine? A Simulation of Jewish-Arab Negotiations, said her election will increase the sense of inclusivity among J Street supporters, as well as the skepticism among its opponents. 

“I have no doubt she’ll do a good job. She’s a person who really likes to and has the capacity for throwing herself into a job she cares about,” Scham said. “I saw it with David Ben-Gurion.”