Hillel, Reject Naftali Bennett’s Exclusionary Grant

By Lara Haft November 7, 2016

One of my favorite professors recently told me a story about her second-grade son. Asher* and his classmate were carpooling to school when the other eight-year-old began to lecture him about “correct” religious observance. My professor, who has raised Asher in a deeply Jewish, mixed-denomination home, was proud to hear her son reply with the…

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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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Why Should we Care About Bibi’s Speech to Congress?

By Amram Altzman February 2, 2015

I’ve written before about my how my hesitance to involve myself in the Israeli political process stems from a larger phenomenon I’ve noticed of the increasing separation between Israeli Judaism (and Israeli-Jewish culture) and American Judaism. Yet, the controversy over Prime Minister Netanyahu’s planned congressional speech and the upcoming Israeli elections are extremely important to…

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Improving Israel Comes at a Cost: $5

By Derek M. Kwait January 29, 2015

Are you a Jewish student? Are you fed up with the state of American Zionism? Have $5? Good. Click here before April 30, pay the $5, then vote to change things. I can’t explain the process, the necessity, or the candidates better than J.J.Goldberg did in two articles in the Forward, so I won’t try….

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Is Naftali Bennett Gollum?

By Jonathan Katz January 8, 2015

“We’re done apologizing; we love Israel; we’re joining Jewish Home!” So goes the smart-alecky, unavoidable, possibly un-Jewish, and certainly controversial video released by Naftali Bennett’s Jewish Home (HaBeit HaYehudi) party in preparation for the upcoming Israeli elections. The party – and Bennett, of course – advocates a right-wing, ultra-nationalist agenda: annexing 60% of the West…

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Yoav Schaefer Turns Tragedy into Empowerment at Avi Schaefer Fund Symposium

By Derek M. Kwait February 13, 2014

An all-star panel of influential Jewish thinkers, writers, and community leaders addressed the questions of Jews and power Sunday at the Inaugural North American Symposium in Memory of Avi Schaefer at Columbia/Barnard Hillel, sponsored by The Avi Schaefer Fund and Mechon Hadar. The event was organized in large part by the Avi Schaefer Fund’s executive…

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I Violate Hillel’s Israel Guidelines: A Non-Apology

By Anonymous January 13, 2014

In a rebuttal to last month’s New York Times article profiling college students who question Hillel guidelines on Israel, Hillel International President and CEO Eric Fingerhut wrote that an “unwavering line” existed on cosponsoring events or welcoming students who “delegitimize, demonize or apply a double standard to Israel; support boycotts, divestment or sanctions against Israel;…

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Boycotts, Reform Rabbis, and Abortions – New Vices

By Derek M. Kwait January 10, 2014

MLA Hosts Panel on Boycotting Israel at Annual Conference The Modern Language Association will hold a panel called “Academic Boycotts: A Discussion of Israel and Palestine,” described as a discussion of “the political movement Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions against Israel, seen by its defenders as a viable means to end the Palestinian occupation,” according to…

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What are Israel’s Priorities?

By greback April 21, 2011

Netanyahu Looking Like a Wreck This has dragged out too long. Just shut down the settlement expansion. I have to admit, I am a Religious Zionist. Not all RZs support settlements, but most do . . . and but I do. The settlements actualize the imperative to settle the country. If the land is bought…

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