 Founded in 2010 with 12 students from UCLA, USC, and CSU Northridge, it has since expanded to include 54 students from those institutions as well as Santa Monica College, Cal Poly Pomona, Chapman University, and UC Irvine.Brett Cohen, national program director of StandWithUs explained that while the organization is responsible for many of the same types of activities as StandWithUs Emerson Fellows, Shagririm is important to pro-Israel advocacy in the US because of the deeply personal connection that the involved Israeli-Americans have with the cause.Their deep connection and personal experience with the region, he explains, helps other non-Israeli American supporters to gain a more profound understanding of the situation in the region.