Journalism by Jewish college students, for Jewish college students.
“What could any of us have done to deserve conquest, genocide or war? How could you possibly try to draw lines on land? Why can’t we be everything that we are?” Mirushe Zylali reflects on a year with New Voices and the Jewish Women’s Archive.
Original version published on whoknowsoneblog.wordpress.com. With our country divided, and the finger pointing showing no sign of decreasing, we need to step back and wonder, what led to this national split? The answer goes beyond this election and ultimately lies deeply rooted in social psychology. It is antithetical to any sort of intellectual or constructive conversation to…
On February 7th, over 150 young adults of religions ranging from Jewish, Muslim, and Catholic to Sikh, Hindu, Baha’i, and humanist, gathered together at the Howard University School of Divinity for the DC Interfaith Leadership Summit. Hosted by the InterFaith Conference of Metropolitan Washington as part of World Interfaith Harmony Week, it was a celebration…
Just over a month ago, students Deah Shaddy Barakat, Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, and Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha were shot outside their home in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. “Tragedies touch everyone in a community, especially in a [small] community … like Chapel Hill,” said University of North Carolina Chapel Hill sophomore and North Carolina native Leah Johnson….
We Jews have a problem: we fetishize Muslims. Not just any Muslims, though: we choose to fetishize the “Good Muslims.” The Muslims, or the Arabs, who stand up for our cause, who toe our party lines, and who stand up to protect us. To be sure, many in our Jewish community also often quite hastily…
With the release of the University of California’s campus climate survey results, the Anti-Defamation League and the regional pro-Israel watchdog AMCHA Institute pounced on the results, which indicated that life for Jewish students on UC campuses is less than perfect. The results, announced last month, show Jewish students self-describe as some of the most uncomfortable…
To the Jewish world, the name Damian Black means very little. He was a rapper from outside of Seattle, with his own music label and growing popularity. Unfortunately, as many can attest, success can make others feel threatened and force a response. Another rapper in the community did just that. He threatened D Black, as…
I have a confession. For all my self-proclaimed desire to rise above the profane, I absolutely love South Park. While the majority of this last season has been a bit of a disappointment for me, the creators of South Park offered up a true gem recently with the episode, “Ginger Cow. “ For most, I…
The fenugreek sprinkled into the chicken coconut stew has no significance to the half-dozen diners scattered around the restaurant. But to Thoufeek Zakriya, an Indian Muslim, the plant is not just a staple in Indian cuisine — it is an artifact in the history of Cochin’s Jewry, the long tale of a small community in…
Ever since a friend made me sit down and watch Adam Curtis’ 2004 documentary film series The Power of Nightmares, I’ve been obsessed with the series’ main thesis. In the series, Curtis argues that neo-conservatism and radical Islamism share core values. The movie follows the ideological development of future Muslim Brotherhood leader Sayyid Qutb as…
Our post on the NYPD’s spying on Muslim students elicited a letter to the editor from Marion D.S. Dreyfus: I have attended MSA meetings. They are not ecumenical, they are not inclusive, they are not unharmful. They surrounded me when they saw i was taking notes. Imams came in and began spouting shariah-filled homilies that put the…
It doesn’t look like the controversy over news that the New York Police Department monitored the activities of Muslim students will be dying down anytime soon. Here at New Voices, we tracked the responses of various student presses to this disturbing report, and there have been many takes on the exact kind of prejudice this…
Amid all of the hullabaloo over the closing of the Yale Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Anti-Semitism, and its resurrection as the Yale Program for the Study of Anti-Semitism, what’s been missing from most of the coverage are student voices. In its statement on YIISA’s closing, Yale said that it had ceased funding the…
My rabbi made a bold move during his d’var Torah on the first day of Rosh Hashanah services this year. After a brief word on Park 51 earlier in the service, in which he condemned the bigoted opposition in the strongest terms I could have imagined, I wasn’t expecting too much more fire and brimstone, especially on…
I’m not sure if other people know this, but the community center/mosque that New York City just approved for construction is not a Jewish project. Given the public statements on the center from the American Jewish Committee, Anti-Defamation League and J Street–all leading Jewish American organizations–your Jew on the street could assume that this was…