In the Medieval Ages, Christians developed the myth of the Wandering a Jew, a Judean who refused to help a soon-to-be-crucified Jesus and was cursed to wander the Earth for eternity. Historians agree that’s awfully silly but the epithet endures (sometimes reclaimed by Jews themselves). Nevertheless, it’s time to face the facts: Jews live and have lived all over the world and the Jewish experience is international. Students are no exception.
That’s why I’m excited to announce the publication of the Global Jewish Voice, a daily blog featuring snippets of the international Jewish student conversation. The blog is staffed by 10 writers reporting on their lives on campus, in the workplace and at home. They are writing in from every corner of the globe, including Israel, the US, Chile, Spain, China, Canada, the UK and–no joke–Serbia. It is edited by me, Gabriel T. Erbs, in Portland, Ore.
We began publishing earlier this week. Here is some of what our contributors have written about so far:
Reporting from the West Bank, Liran Shamriz describes the constant dilemma of being an army soldier and same-time sociology student:
This could quickly turn to riots – we need to get the hell out of here. We don’t even have bulletproof vests – any jerk in the street can knife me and disappear. I started to walk toward the trucks and my phone blinks again, this time from a Facebook message: “Shlomo gave us grades! I got a 91! I think he is good after all, he probably didn’t even check that well… how much did you get?”
Meanwhile in Chile, sometimes the struggle is more symbolic of living Jewishly in a non-Jewish world. University student Maxamilliano Grass is on the vanguard of Jewish student activism and pro-Israel work in a country with 75,000 Jews—and over 400,000 Palestinians:
Our mission is to empower Jewish students so they can feel entitled to be a part of national debates and during that process, feel confident in being openly recognized as Jews. In the end, showing that we can care for our country and love Israel at the same time is necessary. There is no contradiction.
Being a Jewish student abroad can mean a lot of things: eating vegetarian in pork-hungry Seville, hearing Yiddish in the Tube station in Golders Green or getting used to a roommate that reminds you a little too much of your mother. (“Put on a sweater!”) Either way you slice it, the international Jewish student has a unique, global experience to be found only in the posts of the Global Jewish Voice.
The Global Jewish Voice is an initiative of New Voices Magazine in partnership with AJC: Access and the World Union of Jewish Students.
