Archive
If you are a Jewish student on Facebook, then your exposure to infographics probably stands at around 500% of normal due to the storm of social media hasbarah meant to buoy Israel’s Gaza operation, called Pillar of Defense. Most people don’t think twice about re-posting these images, confident in their “contribution” to Israel’s safety or happy […]
Good music calms your brainwaves and massages your emotions. But great music does something else too: It tickles your mind and makes you think. This winning combination of heart and intellect are what world band Epichorus inspires within curious listeners. Initially, you should expect to get lost in the exotic, meditative beats and richly layered sounds on debut album “One […]
Gaza, I wanted to be unbiased about Israel. I really did. I went to a Zionist school as a child, and grew up in a Zionist home. My whole life I’d been taught that Israel was right and our haters were ignorant, cruel, and just plain wrong. It was easy enough to believe, and I […]
A bus just exploded in Tel Aviv, less than four miles away from where I sit right now, typing this article. Up until now, the current situation has felt more than a bit surreal. Sure, I’ve heard the “tzeva adom” sirens go off, and I’ve spent time sitting in our apartment’s “safe room,” but at […]
Aside from Israel, there is no question that Jews are a minority in most of world. Whether you are the only person at your office taking time off for the High Holidays or the only house on the block not decorated with Christmas lights in December, most Jews have felt small at some point or […]
I recently came across an absurd music video produced by the Office of the President of Israel. The video, released last May, features poppy synth dance loops with President Shimon Peres repeating the refrain “Be my friend for peace – I want to hear your voice.” The (music) video is truly bizarre; I couldn’t believe […]
“Beep… beep… beep… beep.” It is 9.00 am on a Sunday morning, and apparently my week is about to start the same way that any other week starts – with a mad dash to get out the door and to campus on time for my first class of the week at IDC Herzliya. Forty minutes […]
Last week, it became painfully clear to the Harvard College Progressive Jewish Alliance (PJA) that Hillel is moving farther and farther from being “the foundation of Jewish campus life” that it claims to be. As an affiliated group of Harvard Hillel, PJA tries to promote dialogue and discussion between Jews and Palestinians on campus and […]
Sitting in the opening plenary of the 2012 Jewish Federations of North America’s General Assembly, I was struck by one thing. American Jews are really into college students. Speaker after speaker emphasized the vision they have for the future of American Judaism, and time and time again they spoke of the importance of our “leaders […]
In college, or at least my college, we learn about gender and sexuality. A lot. We learn of its performative nature, its implications in the underlying structures that we live in, and its complex ties to governance, capitalism, and production. We learn how it is oppressive and offensive and limiting. We learn how the role […]