HaaretzQ addresses some questions; raises more

By Chloe Sobel December 16, 2015

Perhaps nothing characterizes the divisions I see in American and world Jewry better than the list of opening and closing keynote speakers at HaaretzQ, a conference on Israel hosted by Haaretz and the New Israel Fund in New York Sunday. The day kicked off with speeches from Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, MK Tzipi Livni of…

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How to Make Your Campus Jewish Club More Accessible

By Ethan Ulanow February 24, 2015

You walk across the quad to your next class, take the stairs up to a second level and sit down in a standard school-sized seat. Sounds typical, right? You don’t even think about things like walking, climbing steps, and sitting comfortably down among others. February is Jewish Disabilities Awareness Month. The purpose is to recognize…

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Fallacies and Follies of Open Hillel

By Holly Bicerano January 14, 2015

John Adams famously remarked that “facts are stubborn things.” Maybe that is why Open Hillel leaders have closed their eyes to them. Open Hillel is an organization committed to abolishing Hillel International’s Standards of Partnership. These standards preclude Hillel branches from partnering with groups supporting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel. Besides…

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Challenging “The J Street Challenge” (or, Why I Didn’t Go To AIPAC This Year)

By Amram Altzman March 17, 2014

I am an American. I am neither an Israeli, nor am I a Palestinian. However, I am a Jew, and a pro-Israel American, who lives in a country which has strong, positive relations with Israel. As a Zionist, I see it as my job to defend Israel as a Jewish State, and that means protecting…

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Fighting B.D.S. on Campus is a Waste of Time for Jewish Advocates

By Zev Hurwitz February 27, 2014

Scores (if not hundreds) of Jewish and Pro-Israel students spent Tuesday night in a crowded ballroom at UCLA to advocate against the student government’s proposed passage of a divestment resolution. I, on the other hand, sat at my computer 125 miles away, wearing sweatpants and drinking Coke Zero with lemon watching the USAC divestment meeting…

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Dear de Blasio: AIPAC Doesn’t Speak for Me, Either

By Amram Altzman February 10, 2014

Last week it was discovered that New York’s new mayor, Bill de Blasio, held an off-the-record meeting with AIPAC. This caused the Jewish political left in New York to draft a letter to Mayor de Blasio expressing their disappointment over his decision to ally himself with AIPAC, as opposed to taking a harder look at…

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Boycotts, Reform Rabbis, and Abortions – New Vices

By Derek M. Kwait January 10, 2014

MLA Hosts Panel on Boycotting Israel at Annual Conference The Modern Language Association will hold a panel called “Academic Boycotts: A Discussion of Israel and Palestine,” described as a discussion of “the political movement Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions against Israel, seen by its defenders as a viable means to end the Palestinian occupation,” according to…

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Selfish Tikkun Olam

By Dani Plung November 13, 2013

Tikkun Olam, it seems, is all the rage. Having grown up in a very Jewish area , physical acts of tikkun olam, or “healing the world” have been a part of my Jewish life since preschool. Street cleanups, community gardening, food bank packing, helping animal shelters, the list goes on. Despite all these opportunities to…

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Fifty Shades of J Street

By Derek M. Kwait October 21, 2013

It used to be, said a speaker at J Street U’s plenary session during the national J Street Conference, that students were expected to listen to learn from others. Now, he said, with the success of the fights for civil rights, marriage equality, unionizing, and women’s rights—all of which were led by student movements—the world…

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Let’s Talk About Here!

By Jonathan Katz September 25, 2013

Publications aimed for a queer Jewish audience, like any niche-aimed work, tend to concentrate on certain themes. There are your coming out to your community publications, there are your famous-queer-Jews publications, there are your “my story” publications. And then there is another trend: a deep, heavy, nearly-overwhelming concentration on Israel. Israel is everywhere in the…

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Campus Dialogue ?

By lcuen May 8, 2011

“There’s a lot of dialogue and but it’s the silent minority. The loud majority doesn’t want dialogue,” said Gila Hashkes, Israel Fellow at UC Berkley Hillel. “We (at Berkeley) had a whole week during apartheid week, we had a big tent with a sign that said: “Let’s Talk.” And it was really interesting.” The tent…

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KOACH Kallah and the Mahar Coalition

By ahowie February 28, 2011

This past weekend, I joined over 70 other Conservative Jewish college students at the KOACH Kallah, hosten by Northwestern University this year.  The Kallah is a convention to bring together Conservative Jewish leaders from coast to coast for an enthusiastic, meaningful weekend of Jewish learning, connections, and Shabbat.  This annual event brings together Jewish leaders…

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