Journalism by Jewish college students, for Jewish college students.
Last week, New Voices (and everyone else on the planet) reported on the tale of the YU Beacon, a Yeshiva University student newspaper that decided to go independent to save itself from censorship. This week, it’s all about the editorials, including two op-eds — not one, but two! — from Beacon editor and New Voices…
The Union for Reform Judaism’s biennial convention, held this year at a gargantuan conference center/hotel outside Washington, D.C., is bigger than ever: It sold out when 5,000 people signed up before registration closed. But the excitement is palpable for another reason: This is Rabbi Eric Yoffie’s last, and Rabbi Rick Jacobs’ first, biennial as president…
We take this as an article of faith: A press free from censorship is a prerequisite for an open, modern society. It is the right and responsibility of every community, acting through journalistic institutions, to hold a mirror up to themselves, to examine every inch of their communal face — and to linger when a blemish is found.
When it works, we don’t always like what we see; hopefully, we will right the newfound wrong. Sometimes we will simply avert our eyes in shame; this too is our right.
But we must resist the urge to shoot the messenger.
The ugly inclination to lash out at the press for bringing up a woefully seldom discussed issue reared its head at Yeshiva University last week.
If they’re not slogging through all-nighters, most college students are already home for the break. (Unless you’re on the quarter system; we have no idea what’s going on with you guys.) After meeting liberal and left-of-center Israel activists at school, they may bring some unwelcome ideas about Israel home with them. Many parents and students will find that bringing up Israel can create an atmosphere at home almost as tense as the atmosphere on some campuses.
College, as the cliche goes, is all about discovering unfamiliar ideas, stumbling into new interests and encountering fresh ways of looking at the world. At least, that’s what our parents always said, staring off all misty-eyed at the dinner table while recounting the glories of their radical days. But the dinner table is about to get a little more interesting. The Israel that many Jews hear about on campus today isn’t the same place they remember from Hebrew school.