Journalism by Jewish college students, for Jewish college students.
Millennials, we get a bad rap for a lot of things – many of them undeserved. We know the stereotypes: We’re self-obsessed, we’ve ruined the English language with our lol-worthy emojis and text speech, and we demand intellectual baby blankets in the form of political correctness. Basically, if there’s a venerated institution out there, someone…
Most Jews have at least heard of the World Zionist Congress. They know that it had something to do with Theodore Herzl and played a critical role in creating the State of Israel. What many don’t know is that the World Zionist Congress still makes very important decisions affecting Israel and the Jewish community around…
I came to the J Street Conference earlier this week with a question in mind for students: How do you advocate for Israel and for peace on campus after last week’s elections? In true Jewish fashion, their answers went beyond the question to address other important points about Israel advocacy and Jewish life on campus….
It is no great surprise that Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu was reelected last week. He is a skillful politician and an astute campaigner. What did surprise some, however, including many American Jews and American Jewish communal institutions, were the various statements Netanyahu made during the last days and hours of his campaign. The day…
Israel advocacy started out for me as the “unconditional” support for the State of Israel and its policies because they, broadly, were in agreement with my Western, liberal values. For the most part, the Israeli government—in lip service, if not at all in action—supported the idea of a two-state solution, of a government that would…
I am done with Bibi. I’m also done with Purim, which means that I’m even more done with the various editorials analyzing Bibi’s references to the Purim story in Congress. At its root, however, my frustration lies not with Bibi himself, but with the answer that we have given to the question: How should we,…
I’ve written before about my how my hesitance to involve myself in the Israeli political process stems from a larger phenomenon I’ve noticed of the increasing separation between Israeli Judaism (and Israeli-Jewish culture) and American Judaism. Yet, the controversy over Prime Minister Netanyahu’s planned congressional speech and the upcoming Israeli elections are extremely important to…
“We’re done apologizing; we love Israel; we’re joining Jewish Home!” So goes the smart-alecky, unavoidable, possibly un-Jewish, and certainly controversial video released by Naftali Bennett’s Jewish Home (HaBeit HaYehudi) party in preparation for the upcoming Israeli elections. The party – and Bennett, of course – advocates a right-wing, ultra-nationalist agenda: annexing 60% of the West…
Merav Michaeli, the Israeli journalist and women’s rights activist-turned-Knesset member for the Labor Party, is a sign of hope for a progressive future in Israel. Last Tuesday, she tried to convince an exclusive crowd of worried Jewish leftists gathered in an apartment on Manhattan’s Upper West Side that there was hope for the upcoming elections…
Women of the Wall (WoW) was founded 25 years ago as a women’s minyan at the Western Wall to meet on the first of every Jewish month. A few years ago, some of WoW’s leaders started getting arrested for wearing non-“feminine” (read: colorful) talitot and tefillin in violation of a 2003 Israeli Supreme Court ruling….
I have a quick question to ask our readers in the wake of recent elections in both the USA and Israel. What is Barack Obama’s middle name? My guess is that you, like much of our electorate, know that his middle name is “Hussein.” My guess is that you know this not because you were…
As Obama signaled a more liberal second term during his second inaugural speech, I braced for the Israeli election. International media predicted a “right-wing doomsday,” decrying the end of once dominant “secular liberalism” in Israeli politics. One article from Israel/Palestine-based +972 Magazine projected that Prime Minister Netanyahu was losing ground—to the extreme right. In other words,…
A local Jewish politician campaigns for the goyishe vote – in Uganda: At one time, Rabbi Gershom Sizomu, who spent five years at the seminary of the American Jewish University in Los Angeles and a year in Israel, was planning to run for Parliament in Uganda – perhaps one day to run for President. […] With…
Despite multiple calls to the National Jewish Democratic Coalition and the Republican Jewish Coalition yesterday and Monday, I couldn’t find stats, or any information, on young Jewish voter enthusiasm this election cycle. Here and above, however, is a cool anecdotal study on why students at the Iowa State University got to the ballot box. [HuffPo]…
As Republicans prepare to paint the town red on Election Day in a few weeks, Jewblogs gear up to cover the Hebrew side of the races. JTA’s political blog, Capital J, introduces a feature called “Political Points,” with relevant Jewish tidbits about the elections. [JTA Capital J] While Tablet has an amusing rundown of the…