Israeli security detain Harvard students… wait, what? [The Harvard Crimson]
55 Harvard students were detained Tuesday by Israeli border security during a trip to the West Bank. The students were visiting a Palestinian town. Afterwards, the trip’s guide was apparently arrested. And for what? That’s all a bit unclear. The Harvard Crimson reports:
“‘There was very little communication from the security officials, and [the students] didn’t know where they were going,’ he said. ‘The students and organizers were peaceful and cooperative—they didn’t break any laws, but they were treated in this way.’
An English website of the Palestinian News Network reported about an hour after the incident that the 55 students had been arrested. In fact, the students were redirected to a nearby Israeli checkpoint with at least two armored vehicles escorting them but were not charged.
However, rumors circulated online that trip participants were under arrest. Upon learning about those rumors, one participant told The Crimson by text message, ‘This isn’t true. Our tour guide got arrested and our bus was redirected after it was boarded by Israeli soldiers.'”
“Between Genders”: a Shehecheyanu moment [Zeek]
In this piece from Zeek, Joy Ladin explains the reason why there’s no better prayer than the Shehechyanu (“Blessed are you oh Lord our God…who has kept us, preserved us, and brought us to this time”) than when taking Progesterone and watching the body change to reflect the identity. Moreover, Joy explains how these changes are re-awakening a capacity to experience life more fully, even more Jewishly:
“This transformation is more than physical. As my body learns to metabolize and distribute fat according to female rather than male patterns, I am learning to live and to be alive. The sophistications accumulated over four and a half decades, the blasé attitudes, the taken-for-granted mechanics of daily life have all fallen away. Consumed by the ravenous insecurities of adolescence, I am shy, awkward, always verging on the inappropriate, a maelstrom of feeling and need, fear and excitement. The first times such identity-forming growth spurts happened, I was an infant, then an adolescent, too young and too caught up in the painful processes of becoming to register them as miracles. I have watched these processes as a parent, but I never expected — I had given up hope and was perhaps too foolish to fear — that one day I would be watching myself learn to walk and talk again, to say hello to grown-ups, to order in restaurants, to shop for clothes, to make friends. All this has become new again. Going to work, riding a subway, making a business call — each experience has become an adventure, uncomfortable, unpredictable, brimming with emotion and discovery.”
Is sharing a story about leaving the Orthodox world a bad idea? [Forward]
In this blog from the Jewish Daily Forward, Gavriella Lerner argues that individuals who publish stories about their flight from the Orthodox way of life… well, shouldn’t do that. And why? Lerner writes:
“I know plenty of people along the entire spectrum of Orthodoxy who have decided to leave. Some left simply because they don’t like the restrictions placed on their time, food and dress; others left because their belief systems changed; others still left because some genuinely negative experiences within their families, schools and communities soured them to Orthodoxy. What they all have in common is that they made their choice and have moved on with their lives. Not even the ones with chips on their shoulders have gone to the media. Therapy, yes; support groups, sure. But they don’t seek out attention or mock the faith publicly.”
Do communities strangle inter-faith relationships? [Haaretz]
While inter-faith relationships are becoming more common in some parts of the globe, these relationships are fit with the unique challenges of housing multiple, diverse cultures under one roof, and consolidating that diversity into a cohesive family unit. In this article from Haaretz, Josh Mintz explores the “real reason” inter-faith marriages can be so fraught with stress:
“The funny thing is that we have to assume the people engaging in the interfaith relationship aren’t particularly concerned about being in an interfaith relationship. This makes it pretty likely that they don’t place too high of a value on their faiths, so compromise on religious issues shouldn’t be too hard to find. If that’s the case, we have to look elsewhere for the problem. Don’t worry, it’s not a long journey.
Families and communities are, in my experience, the ones to blame here. The guilt, scorn, rejection and contempt that they place on interfaith couples can, and often does, easily drive them apart. When your spouse’s family and friends all disapprove of you, you have some real obstacles to overcome.”
