A “Die-In” at Bard College

By Misha Schaffner-Kargman December 28, 2023

“As the war continues, students search for an outlet for their grief, and ways to do something that feels meaningful. But constraints like social anxiety, institutional pressure, and blacklisting have made activism difficult.”

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Opinion: Demonizing Each Other Hurts Us All

By Rebecca Raush December 7, 2023

“I am choosing to allow for my discomfort because dialogue is important to me, and I believe that peace will always begin with a commitment towards understanding.”

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Poem in which I am not the sister that kills herself 

By Rebecca Raush November 22, 2023

When she calls us to tell us she’s in the hospital / She being my sister / Or She being my homeland / We drive to the hospital / It’s Shabbat / We drive to the hospital 

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Students share how the Israel-Gaza war is affecting life on campus

By New Voices October 23, 2023

“To ignore my emotions would be to ignore the empathy I have for Israelis and Palestinians who are being driven from their homes and who are being killed as collateral damage.”

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The Wisdom of Tohu V’vohu

By Mx. Mones October 18, 2023

“Formless and void, tohu v’vohu is the swirling celestial wilderness, before divinity started forming creation. It feels cosmically significant that we have been brought here, now.”

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Image of a black painted fist in a circle on a white diamond on a stone wall.

The Mizrahi Black Panthers Dreamed of a Different Future

By Maia Golzar Anderson August 20, 2023

“At this moment of heightened conflict, we must remember, and draw inspiration from the Mizrahi legacy of intersectional activism through the Mizrahi Black Panther Party in Israel.”

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I Was Arrested for Protesting Deaths in Gaza

By Josie Slovut April 13, 2018

I was arrested on Tuesday. My crime was participating in an act of civil disobedience outside the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas in solidarity with Palestinians being killed in Gaza. I could have had it worse. When Palestinians peacefully protest for their own rights, which they continually and bravely do, they…

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“Jerusalem, Drawn and Quartered” Drew Me in as a Young Jew

By Lev Gringauz April 10, 2018

Jerusalem has long been the center of the world in Jewish life, but not since the time of King David has the city felt so personal and laid bare as it is in Sarah Tuttle-Singer’s new book “Jerusalem, Drawn and Quartered.” Interwoven with the fighting, love, loss, and the longing of a mother, it speaks…

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Israeli and Palestinian Doctors Build Bridges Through Healthcare

By Nicole Zelniker January 25, 2018

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….

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It’s No Surprise Birthright Silenced Israeli Arabs

By Elaine Cleary November 14, 2017

I grew up hungry for Jewishness. As a young American Jew eager to explore my family’s culture, I tried countless times to find a rabbi or a Hillel staffer who could connect me to our rich history. Everyone gave me the same answer: go on Birthright. Early in college, I considered it. I felt no…

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Brown students hope to continue events like the one that broke Hillel’s Standards of Partnership

By Nicole Zelniker May 13, 2016

On May 11, more than 70 students from Brown University came together to commemorate the Nakba by watching three films produced by the Israeli NGO Zochrot. Nakba is the term for the 1948 expulsion and displacement of over 700,000 Palestinians, and Nakba Day is observed on May 15, the day after Israeli Independence Day. “Within…

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IfNotNow’s protest at the ADL ended with 17 arrests — and stronger connections to Judaism

By Chloe Sobel April 22, 2016

IfNotNow’s “Liberation Seder” in New York on Wednesday began with a march from Bryant Park to the lobby of the Anti-Defamation League’s office building, and ended with the arrests of 17 protesters. The New York action was one of five that took place from April 19-21 held by the Jewish anti-occupation group. IfNotNow was founded…

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Leftists need to be louder

By Amram Altzman October 19, 2015

  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…

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Let’s All Be Traitors

By Jonathan Katz June 4, 2015

Treason has been on my mind a lot the past few weeks. In the Jewish world, the website Canary Mission – which seeks to create a “blacklist” of pro-Palestinian activists – has caused a controversy. Many of those profiled on the site are Jewish – including New Voices contributor Tom Pessah; those of our brethren…

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Let’s Make Yom HaAtzmaut About the People

By Amram Altzman April 27, 2015

Every year, even if I celebrate it differently and even as my perceptions of Zionism and the Jewish State become evermore complicated, Yom HaAtzmaut always evokes in me a certain special nostalgia. It was only once I was no longer forced to celebrate the holiday like I did in elementary and high school—with Israeli dancing,…

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