“This Is What I Was Scared Of”: First Thoughts After a Massacre

By Sarah Asch October 29, 2018

When I saw the news I tried to think if I know anyone who lives in Pittsburgh. If any of my Jewish friends have family there. If any of the first years we’ve welcomed to Hillel over the last few months grew up there. I couldn’t think. I called my friend and cried on the…

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Hillels and Israel: How Campus Jewish Communities Are Grappling with Polarizing Politics

By Hannah Bernstein October 25, 2018

This is part 1 in a 3-part series about politics, identity, and Jewish community on college campuses. Click here to view part 2, and here to view part 3. On the eve of Rosh Hashanah in 2015, a new wave of violence arose in Israel. Often referred to as the “stabbing intifada,” it led to…

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How Jewish Student Organizing Shaped My Family’s Story

By Leora Eisenberg October 18, 2018

My parents are too young to be historical artifacts. But they’ve seen and lived through a lot. My mother came to America in 1993 under the Jackson-Vanik amendment, a provision that put pressure on the Soviet Union to allow freedom of emigration to Jews and other groups trying to flee. My father, born in Los…

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Reconciling My Swiss and Jewish Heritage

By Julia Métraux October 10, 2018

When I was a little girl, my family took a trip to Switzerland every year. My dad is from Switzerland, so we (my dad, my Jewish American mother, my twin brother, and I) would go every single summer until my grandparents passed away. I always enjoyed these trips – my Disney Princess-loving self was always…

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Murder of Gay, Jewish Student Raises Questions About Hate Crime Prosecution

By Jay Wells October 3, 2018

On January 9th, 2018, Blaze Bernstein’s corpse was discovered in a shallow grave in Lake Forest, California. Bernstein’s murder came in the wake of the year that had, according to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), the largest single-year increase of anti-Semitic incidents on record. Bernstein was a 19-year-old gay, Jewish man. His alleged killer is 21-year-old…

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