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The week is notorious for heavy-handed tactics like “apartheid walls” and mock checkpoints at universities all over the world. It is surrounded by passionate arguments from the pro-Palestinian side and equally charged counterpoints from pro-Israel groups. And though it is often a week of heated politics on college campuses, this year’s Israeli Apartheid Week, held Feb. 28-March 3, seemed quieter than usual.
While reactions came in different forms from different pro-Israel groups, they were almost unanimous in their embrace of a new strategy this year: Avoid a direct attack on pro-Palestinian groups in response to Israeli Apartheid Week. As Brandeis University marked its first ever Israeli Apartheid Week, fighting was absent on campus as pro-Israel groups celebrated Israeli life and culture in place of the usual conflict between pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian groups.
“From what I have seen, not many people have been interested,” said Daniel Hammerman, a freshman at American University who is involved with AU Students for Israel.
For many American Persian Jews, self-identification can be complicated. Whether they were born in Iran or they are first-generation Americans, the culture and patriotism of their parents’ homeland can clash with their lives in America. This inner conflict has been exacerbated by the ongoing political tensions between Iran and the United States. Mix in some public musings on the possibility of war with Iran from Israel, and Persian American Jews (or are they Jewish Persian Americans? American Persian Jews?) are effectively being pulled in three directions.
The Persian Jewish community in American remains quite insular, concentrated in a few close-knit enclaves, including one on Long Island. And while the western label Orthodox doesn’t quite apply, Persian Jewish religious practice certainly has more in common with contemporary Orthodox Judaism than it does with any of the liberal streams. Because of all of these factors, Yeshiva University, the Modern Orthodox university with its various schools scattered around the city of New York, has a particularly high concentration of Persian Jews.
“I feel an internal conflict,” admitted Sarit Bassal, a student at Stern College for Women at Yeshiva University.
Too often, Israeli Apartheid Week degenerates into an argument over its own name.
It’s all rhetoric. If you believe that the situation in Israel and the Occupied Territories today is analogous to apartheid, so be it. And if you believe that it’s a poor analogy, that’s fine too. Either way, it’s all rhetoric. And either way, choosing your place within the intense campus debate (by which we mean shouting match) about Israel-Palestine based solely upon your beliefs about the use of a single word is irresponsible, simplistic and narrow-minded. No real debate can come from wordplay.
How do you tell the Purim story to kids? [Forward] Jewish tales often feature a lot of (ahem) adult content. The Torah/Tanakh is ripe with plenty of sex, violence, prejudice, and more. Sometimes the Torah warns us about the dangers of these things. Other times, like in the story of the Megillah, violence in particular […]
Yeah, remember when I said Occupy AIPAC was going to be across the street from AIPAC Policy Conference? Well…they crossed the street. Liza Behrendt, a recent graduate of Brandeis University and a current member of the Avodah service corps in New York, interrupted a session with the help of CODEPINK organizer Alli McCracken, shouting that she […]
The first reaction I had upon reading that students were repaying their loans late at higher rates than ever was cynical, and entirely justified. To all the banks losing money because college students haven’t paid their loans back: are you really surprised? Most top colleges in this country cost upwards of $50,000. That’s more than a good […]
Suspended by Skin Color? [NY Times] New data from the Department of Education has shown that although African Americans comprise less than a fourth of the nation’s public school systems, their share of suspensions and other disciplinary action is disproportionately high, suggesting that they may face harsher disciplinary action in school. “Education is the civil […]
Legendary fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg’s mother was in Auschwitz 18 months before she was born. Born Diane Simone Michelle Halfin on December 31, 1946 in Belgium, her parents, Leon and Liliane Halfin, were both Jewish. Her mother’s greatest gift to her was the conviction that “fear is not an option,” Von Furstenberg said at an United […]
I can’t figure out how to embed the podcast, though that would have been ideal: In this week’s podcast, host Josh Nathan-Kazis [a former editor of New Voices] talks with Forward Washington correspondent Nathan Guttman about the odd collection of groups that make up the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. Then, with […]
Two op-eds caught my eye over the weekend. They got me wondering where the middle ground is between belligerently attacking anti-Israel sentiments and ignoring them while spewing lovely factoids about Israel. In one op-ed, the founders of the David Project take issue with their organization’s new direction, arguing — as summed up in the headline […]