Journalism by Jewish college students, for Jewish college students.
Shimon Peres wants you to be his Facebook friend [JTA] President of Israel Shimon Peres has launched a clever media campaign, enlisting the help of remix artist Noy Alooshe to extend his message – be my Facebook friend, for peace. Civil War Bigotry, Revisited [Slate] While pretty much everyone is familiar with the racist history leading…
We recently posted an op-ed by Carolyn Klaasen, a member of Young, Jewish & Proud. Carolyn argued that a queer safe space is one where queers can “strategize, energize, and organize to fight for our safety outside of that space.” She applies this understanding to a dispute over whether queer Palestinian solidarity activists should be…
Whoever thought that Bubbe’s track suit could help her land a part Off Broadway? All she’d have to do is stand up, tell a joke, and she’d be part of a long tradition of old Jews who love keeping the youngin’s in stiches. Old jews telling jokes is a source for cute, quick humor that is…
A couple nights a week in downtown Tel Aviv, a group of young people pay a small cover charge to dance late into the night. They move energetically for hours, before eventually getting tired and going home. It might sound like the nightlife Tel Aviv is famous for, dancing in the city’s clubs to the latest hip-hop beats. But this group prefers a different scene, and some much older music.
Today’s Required Reading featured a recent story about the Rabbinical Assembly (Conservative Judaism), with controversy brewing over whether or not the RA was sponsoring a fair and equal number of female voices in an upcoming annual conference. While Conservative Judaism is by definition non-Orthodox, and seen as generally more open to the leadership of women…
Rabbinical Assembly’s May conference sparks discussion about female speakers [Forward] After information regarding an upcoming conference hosted by the Rabbinical Assembly (Conservative Judaism) was released, debate has been sparked as to whether or not enough women speakers will be present at the event. Since the initial report, the RA has released a statement stating that…
Just when you thought Israel Apartheid Week was over, IAW Madrid makes a showing with one event – one week after most cities have wrapped up the program. Rebecca Powell delivered this dispatch from Madrid: With a tinge of fear, I planned to go witness some of the Spanish events myself. Yet, with only two…
Florida law might threaten authority of Orthodox batei din [Forward] It began as a state bill to oppose Islamic sharia law, but it may end in compromising the authority of Orthodox courts. The Application of Foreign Law in Certain Cases bill, which is one of many such bills nation-wide based on model legislation (ironically by…
A queer solidarity activist reclaims NYC’s LGBTQ community center
‘Slutwalk’, the controversial feminist movement in which women dress provocatively in response to social criticism that labels women who have been raped while being dressed “immodestly” were “asking for it” is coming to Israel. While I agree with Varda Bachrach that the term slut is derogatory and otherwise detrimental to female empowerment, I find the message…
Purim & the Hunger Games [Tablet] Abigail Miller discusses the similarities between the age old Jewish holiday and the popular book series, highlighting the importance of pageantry, in an insightful portrait connecting past to present. “When fashion blogger Michael von Braithwaite writes, “You probably won’t want to dress like a dystopian hero every day, but if…
As promised, I was on Al Jazeera on Monday, where I joined: Pro-Palestine activist Max Blumenthal, Breitbart.com editor Ben Shapiro, Al Jazeera anchor Derrick Ashong, Al Jazeera online producer Malika Bilal, Stanford University Student Body President Michael Cruz and Occupy AIPAC organizer Sasha Gelzin for a discussion on AIPAC and college Jews with a focus…
Whew. That was quite a week. Now that it’s over, check out Dafna Fine’s terrific piece of news analysis on this year’s Israeli Apartheid Week: While reactions came in different forms from different pro-Israel groups, they were almost unanimous in their embrace of a new strategy this year: Avoid a direct attack on pro-Palestinian groups…
Too often, Israeli Apartheid Week degenerates into an argument over its own name.
It’s all rhetoric. If you believe that the situation in Israel and the Occupied Territories today is analogous to apartheid, so be it. And if you believe that it’s a poor analogy, that’s fine too. Either way, it’s all rhetoric. And either way, choosing your place within the intense campus debate (by which we mean shouting match) about Israel-Palestine based solely upon your beliefs about the use of a single word is irresponsible, simplistic and narrow-minded. No real debate can come from wordplay.