A Protest Before Sheikh Jarrah
An account of a day-to-day demonstration in Israel and Palestine, moments before current tensions exploded
Journalism by Jewish college students, for Jewish college students.
Article Archive
Jewish Students Buckle Down for Lingering Election
Though litigation, demonstrations, and civil unrest seem likely, many Jewish students are focused on the pursuit of democracy. “The most important thing to remember is that everything we do is political.”
This Freedom Summer
Ariel Wexler gives an on-the-ground report on the Black Lives Matter protests against police brutality in Washington D.C. throughout the historic summer of 2020.
On Shutting Down ICE as a Trans Jew
For me, being out as a trans person and standing in solidarity with others are not choices. They are ways of living that allow me to access the fullness of my own humanity and history, and that of others.
“When he goes in he stumbles upon her”: A D’var Torah for Ki Tetzei
Content warning: discussion of sexual violence. The below is an edited version of a d’var Torah that was delivered at Yale University’s student egalitarian minyan on Friday night, August 24th. Parshat Ki Teitzei begins with a particularly haunting section: י) כִּֽי־תֵצֵ֥א לַמִּלְחָמָ֖ה עַל־אֹיְבֶ֑יךָ וּנְתָנ֞וֹ ה’ אֱלֹקֶ֛יךָ בְּיָדֶ֖ךָ וְשָׁבִ֥יתָ שִׁבְיֽוֹ׃ (יא) וְרָאִיתָ֙ בַּשִּׁבְיָ֔ה אֵ֖שֶׁת יְפַת־תֹּ֑אַר וְחָשַׁקְתָּ֣…
Jews and the Muslim Ban – This Time, It’s Personal
When my great-grandfather left England around the turn of the century, in part due to anti-Semitism, his name was Harris Moses. By the time he set foot on U.S. soil, it had changed to the much more goyishe Julius Harris. Of course, he was not the only immigrant Jew to change his name to better…
UC Berkeley Students React to Violence at Milo Yiannopoulos Protest
On the night of Feb. 1, violence erupted at a UC Berkeley protest in opposition to controversial conservative speaker and Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos. Yiannopoulos, who had been invited to speak by the Berkeley College Republicans, evacuated the premises and his speaking engagement was cancelled at 5:45 p.m. According to The Daily Californian, what started as a…
Jewish Institutions, Oppose Bannon – or Millennials Will Leave You Behind
Over the past three weeks, President-elect Donald Trump’s choice of Steve Bannon for chief strategist has drawn a lot of attention. Bannon has been accused of turning conservative website Breitbart News into a home for neo-Nazis and the alt-right movement, of being a racist, a white supremacist, and even an anti-Semite. At the same time,…
Protest as an Act of Prayer
My feet are aching, but I keep walking. I’m stopping 4 a.m. traffic, clogging Pittsburgh’s throughways as I march through the streets, screaming, “Trump is not my president.” My toes start to blister as I hear the sound of 2,000 feet stomping with me. It’s been days since that “me” became a “we” – since…
U of M Students React to Campus Apartheid Wall on Rosh Hashana
At the University of Michigan, many Jewish students spent the morning of Oct. 4 attending Rosh Hashanah services. That same morning, students in Students Allied for Freedom and Equality (SAFE) were getting ready to protest. “I just saw these two huge walls,” said first-year student Juliet Wishner. She also saw signs supporting BDS. SAFE, a…
IfNotNow’s protest at the ADL ended with 17 arrests — and stronger connections to Judaism
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…
Jewish People’s Assembly demands accountability from Federations
This Sunday, thousands of people will arrive in Washington, D.C. for the General Assembly of the Jewish Federations of North America. Just outside the GA, they’ll be joined by the Jewish People’s Assembly, a protest that its organizers from Open Hillel expect to draw around 100 attendees. The protest, according to its website, has three…
Distance Running With Praying Feet
“I felt my feet were praying.” – Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel on his experience in the third Selma to Montgomery march for civil rights. I was marching through a display of Christmas trees with a group of Jews screaming for the rights of people of color when I was first struck by the question of…
Continuing a Tradition of Activism at The People’s Climate March
Last weekend, I drove down from Burlington, Vermont with nine other activists from school to participate in the People’s Climate March. It’s hard to really explain how inspiring the march was. Maybe because it was the march finally showed a side of the environmental movement that we haven’t seen much of yet—a diverse group of…
What Does it Mean to Be a Zionist on a College Campus?
I have alluded before to (what I see as) the somewhat sorry state of Israel education and advocacy today, especially on college campuses. I spoke about the fact that simply greeting people who claim that Israel is an apartheid state with some falafel and a blue-and-white cupcake is not an effective tool for advocacy in…