Can We Stop Calling Campus a War Zone?

By Sara Weissman July 25, 2017

“Where do you go to school?” “UC Berkeley.” “UC Berkeley? Wow, the front line. You students are fighting an important battle over there. Keep it up!” I can’t tell you how many times I had this conversation – at shuls, Shabbat tables, even half a world away in Jewish communities abroad. The language always struck…

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‘End Jewish Privilege’ – Left or Alt-Right Rhetoric?

By Sara Weissman March 27, 2017

In an oddball crossbreed between leftist language and retro anti-Semitic tropes, posters that read ‘End Jewish Privilege’ appeared on University of Illinois at Chicago’s campus earlier this month. The posters proclaimed, “Ending white privilege starts with ending Jewish privilege,” followed by an image of a pyramid with Jews at the top and “goyim not drawn to scale” at the bottom. Eva…

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Do We Need to “Defund Islamophobia”?

By Marc Daalder March 23, 2017

The Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to groups deemed anti-Muslim by the Southern Poverty Law Center and Center for American Progress, alleges a new report from Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) Chicago. In a world where Muslims and Jews alike are threatened by rising hatred, there is no room for…

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The Middle Ground on Israel Went Missing

By Charles Dunst February 23, 2017

The American political sphere is more polarized than ever – and the discourse around Israel is no exception. The issue has recently become a popular talking point on both the far-left and the far-right, while centrists of both parties are pushed to the sidelines. While the far-left cries of a non-existent, Israeli-committed genocide (see Aljazeera’s…

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Tu B’Shvat Thoughts: Bringing Mysticism Back

By Hannah Weintraub February 16, 2017

When Tu B’shvat comes around, I roll up my sleeves and prepare myself for the ritual tree planting, garden weeding, and litter collecting that has marked my Tu B’shvats of the past. My less observant, modern Jewish community taught me the holiday’s message of social justice in concrete terms: We plant trees, trees grow, trees…

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Jewish Schools, Stop the Statements on Policy

By Jackson Richman February 10, 2017

Although President Donald Trump’s temporary immigration ban has been halted by a federal court in Washington state, Jewish educational institutions shouldn’t be publicly sitting in judgment on issues that do not pertain to the Jewish community or Israel. At the expense of possibly furthering division in the Jewish community, it is best for such institutions…

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Jews and the Muslim Ban – This Time, It’s Personal

By Marc Daalder February 9, 2017

When my great-grandfather left England around the turn of the century, in part due to anti-Semitism, his name was Harris Moses. By the time he set foot on U.S. soil, it had changed to the much more goyishe Julius Harris. Of course, he was not the only immigrant Jew to change his name to better…

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This Jewish “Well-Behaved Woman” Marches

By Hannah Caspar-Johnson February 8, 2017

“Well-behaved women seldom make history.” So read my sign, after several hours of dorm room crafting, not to mention the days of agonizing over what to write for the Women’s March on Washington. My roommate was the first to comment on the irony of my chosen slogan, pointing out that I’m actually a fairly well-behaved…

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In Trump’s America, Open Campus Communities Matter More Than Ever

By Anna Fox January 26, 2017

A few weeks before the election, the Wesleyan Jewish Community, a proud Open Hillel, gathered in our sukkah to discuss the meaning of Jewish values. Students from Cardinals for Israel, J Street U, and Jewish Voice for Peace talked about the complexities that led us to develop our particular beliefs about politics and justice. Inside…

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Media Misrepresents Jewish Students

By Sara Weissman January 25, 2017

Everyone has their morning rituals. I roll over, sleepily grab my phone, and look at my Google Alerts for “Jewish students,” which supplies me with all the day’s news featuring campus Jews. As the editor of New Voices and a nerdy recent grad, this is what one does before coffee. Here’s what this week’s list…

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This Professor Gets the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act All Wrong

By Jackson Richman January 16, 2017

In The Wall Street Journal a couple weeks ago, former Harvard Professor Ruth Wisse wrote about how we need to fight anti-Semitism through the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act, which requires the Department of Education to take the broad State Department definition of anti-Semitism into account when determining if an act can be deemed anti-Semitic in accordance with Title…

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This Is a Safe Space – Unless You’re Conservative

By Zev Hurwitz January 5, 2017

People who disagree with me are not worthy of my attention or my respect. At least that’s the message my fellow progressives are sending conservative students on campus. Here’s how the argument goes: Because of my superior morals and politics, I made the correct choice at the ballot box this year. I have earned admission…

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“Shema Yisrael” – Listen to Syrian Voices

By Hannah Weintraub January 4, 2017

When trying to make sense of the suffering and violence taking place in Aleppo and Syria at large, I have recently turned to Jewish prayers to provide me with the necessary structure to process the tragedy and aid those who are suffering. I grew up unable to conceptualize how prayer could be a source of…

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David Friedman Would Be a Disaster as Ambassador

By Marc Daalder December 28, 2016

The advertisement is deceptively simple – a darkened image of Donald Trump smiling next to David Friedman, overlaid with four block-lettered words, the last in red: “He Called You Kapos.” This is J Street’s latest ad campaign, a stark reminder of the abuse that Trump’s pick for U.S. ambassador to Israel has showered on liberal…

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Give Ambassador David Friedman a Chance

By Jackson Richman December 28, 2016

Last week, President-elect Donald Trump nominated campaign adviser and bankruptcy lawyer David Friedman as U.S. ambassador to Israel. The appointment was understandably controversial in the Jewish community; Friedman’s stances on pertinent Israel issues are abhorrent to the Jewish left and increasingly left-leaning Jewish youth. Regardless, he must be given a chance to succeed. First, Friedman…

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