Journalism by Jewish college students, for Jewish college students.
“I used to feel so ostracized, so stigmatized and isolated because of my leftist beliefs…but I don’t feel like a pariah anymore. The network of support I’ve found with other young Persian Jews is small, but it’s really made an immediate difference in our lives. It feels like there’s been a shift in the ground I’m standing on.”
If we are serious about racial and economic justice, we must center the voices of small local nonprofits, people of color, and the broader communities in which we are situated, and we must do so inside of our endowment meetings.
As my cursor hovers over the “submit” button at the bottom of my graduate school applications, I stop to consider the environment I am going to inhabit at the cost of countless dollars and hours. I am understandably wary. In the time it took to raise me to the age of 18 with aspirations of…
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…
This past June, Boston University junior Raphael Fils decided he was fed up with the stances Jewish organizations take on the conflict in the Middle East. Whether Hillel, Jewish Voice for Peace, or J Street, all organizations seemed to have a bias. To change that, Fils launched Justice and Unity in Mideast Policy, or JUMP…
If nothing else, the over-discussed Pew Report from almost a year ago (almost a year ago — and here we are, still quoting it like it’s the Bible itself!) heralded the death of the American-Jewish religious middle. This summer’s Operation Protective Edge seems to have heralded the death of the American-Jewish political middle, as…
When I was in high school, I had this fantasy where I told myself that I would come out of the closet as soon as I got that one text from a friend asking if they could tell me something, and then they would tell me that they are gay. That fantasy was never realized….
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…
There’s a bit of a dilemma brewing in my brain. Let me unpack it for you. I’m an avid reader: a non-fiction guy. Philosophy, pragmatic thought and ethics. Religion, mysticism, law and queer Torah studies. Politics and liberal theory. History (the American Civil War). Economics, finance and banking. On average, I read anywhere from 25…
Orthodox rabbi “comes out” as LGBT ally [Jewish Journal] In this compelling piece from the Jewish Journal, Orthodox rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz expresses his feelings on the “LGBT issue,” hitting some key points about the debate on sexuality and religion. Yanklowitz writes: “I began to wonder if I was failing at making myself accessible enough to students…
To the extent that the subway-riding population is representative of the citizenry of New York, I feel privileged to live in a diverse metropolis. The subway’s signs and ads, in turn, reflect this diversity: I’ve learned more Spanish during my commute to and from work than I did during the week I spent in Mexico…