Out of the Shtetls and Onto the Pages Print E-mail
Written by Bari Weiss   

News Briefs
Over the past few decades, Jewish student activists like myself have manned dozens of falafel carts, plastered their campuses with posters about Israel’s trees, hosted speakers, and created dialogue groups, all in the name of inspiring debate about Jewish- and Israel-related issues. This semester, though, Jewish student leaders are going to change campuses not by protests, but by entering the marketplace of ideas.

With the help of _Azure_, an Israel-based journal for Jewish thought, students are starting journals that will explore politics, Jewish affairs, Zionism, and culture. Some will be more policy-oriented, others more philosophical. Some will address the Jewish community, others will engage the entire campus. All will spark deep debate.

It is the strength of debating powerful ideas that is going to create long-lasting change. Despite the millions of dollars that get poured into it, hasbara (Israel advocacy) is not going to save the Jewish people. And anyway, who wants to buy into a project that sustains itself on catchy slogans and sound bytes?

In a time of unprecedented freedom for American Jews, it is crucial that we remember what our contribution has been, and what we want our generation’s legacy to be. Whereas most of our ancestors were Jewish by default, Jews in multicultural America are Jews by choice. It is in this reality that we must take on the most difficult questions: Why be Jewish? Is a Jewish State justified? Where are we going?

As students, we have lofty precedents for dealing with such questions. In the first half of the twentieth century, in coffeehouses throughout Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa, young Jews gathered to debate the most contentious and critical issues of their time. It’s high time we picked up where they left off.
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Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved.


Bari Weiss
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