Journalism by Jewish college students, for Jewish college students.
When Khadra Hasan Ali Salami goes to work every morning, she has to pass through Israeli military checkpoints, an often dangerous prospect for someone driving a car with Palestinian license plates. Salami, an oncologist, is one of about 700 doctors from Palestine that have permission to cross into Israel every day for work. On Jan….
I haven’t always been scared for Israel. When the news of soldiers going into Gaza flooded our TV airwaves last year, I shrugged and then went on with my routine life, largely unaffected and unfazed. This year, when the horrific attacks and stabbings began to happen, I was immediately enraged and consumed with dread. These…
Every morning for the last two weeks, like many other people, I’ve woken up hoping that the wave of violence between Israelis and Palestinians has ended overnight. Every morning for the last two weeks, I’ve been upset, frustrated, and saddened to realize that, no, the violence hasn’t ended. It often seems that I and…
Although my favorite holiday, Tu B’Shevat, passed in February, Jewish tree lovers like me can still find joy in another holiday celebrating the beauty of earth’s many bountiful blessings: Earth Day and the week-long Broccoli City Festival. Starting in Washington, D.C. on April 25 and finishing up in Los Angeles May 3, the Broccoli City Festival…
As I sit across from her over a plate of chocolate chip cookies and a cup of dark coffee in the newly renovated faculty cafeteria, I think to myself: “I have so much respect for her.” Truth be told, I have so much respect for all of my colleagues because they’ve been doing this…
Though I don’t agree with them on everything (no one should agree with anything on everything), I ordinarily like Haaretz. I also normally find writing in to complain a bit gauche. Whether it’s about food, internet service, or editorial positions, I usually either don’t think it’s worth the bother (“My internet’s being slow? Good, I…
I think all of my friends are amazing people. But every now and then, some friends do such incredible work that you just want to shout about it from the highest mountaintop. But absent a mountaintop, profiling them in your magazine is the next best thing. Joseph Shamash and Andrew Lustig are two of those…
So my last article– discussing the historical parallels between Israel today and White South Africa pre-1994 – went mildly viral. It was something I was not prepared for: I had expected the typical (warm, exciting, and fairly big, but nevertheless decidedly niche) response a New Voices article garners: a few dozen Facebook “likes,” no more…
In an interview with New Voices last week, Jewish educator David Harris-Gershon expressed his support for Swarthmore’s Hillel brave declaration, and recounted his own experiences of being banned from speaking at the UC Santa Barbara Hillel chapter for his political views. In the interview, Harris-Gershon recognized students’ “right to a space free of anti-Israel activity,”…
I am very openly willing to criticize the Israeli government. Two of my recent blog posts for New Voices have been criticisms of Israel’s Housing Ministry for announcing the constructions of new settlements at a crucial point in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations and Israel’s Prime Minister in condemning the announcement of negotiations between the United States and…
The 7th Annual Other Israel Film Festival, ending today at the JCC of Manhattan, presents films focused on the stories of the other 20% of Israel’s population such as Palestinians and other Arabs and Druze. The message of these films is powerful: There’s a whole other Israel out there than the one you see on…
The first ever scientific study of whether Palestinian textbooks actually vilify Israelis as badly as a long-standing pro-Israel narrative claims they do — and vice versa — has poked a big hole in both sides’ version of the argument. In case you were worried anyone might react unpredictably to this news: Palestinian Authority Prime Minister…
There is still at least another hour before the moon blankets the surrounding rice fields and the gargantuan boulders here in the south Indian town of Hampi. But at Dudu Falafel it may as well be midnight. An Israeli tourist stands in the main window serenading passing strangers with the lyrics of an Israeli pop song as it blasts over the speakers. In the kitchen, Dudu Falafel owner Chandru Singh supervises his staff as they prepare falafel, shakshuka, and moussaka for Israeli backpackers and other foreign tourists. Dudu is one of several local restaurants offering Israeli comfort food – but it stands out from the rest, boasting that it imports its zaatar, paprika and even the instant coffee that many Israelis can’t live without.
Scanning the headlines from Barack Obama’s speech about the Middle East, it is compelling the way different newspapers and online sources decided to interpret his words. You don’t need to read the Arabic to see Arab papers are putting words in Barack Obama’s mouth. Thus far, there is no wide division in the analysis. Barack…
Even though I love Israel (and surprise, surprise, Israelis) and can’t imagine living anywhere else in the world, there is one thing I would change about Israeli society in a heartbeat, if I could. To be sure, there are actually several things I would change, but none as urgently as the Israeli mentality of “magee’a…