Journalism by Jewish college students, for Jewish college students.
Before coming to Israel, everyone I spoke to raved about Tel Aviv. Oh, you’ll love it there, It’s such a hip city, and so on and so forth. All this was music to my ears, except when I remembered that I’d actually be living about 100 kilometers east in the very austere and very un-hip…
Earlier this week, the world celebrated the twentieth anniversary of Nelson Mandela’s release from South African prison. Though Apartheid wouldn’t officially end for another four years, Mandela’s release – more than anything else – heralded the racist institution’s imminent demise. As Umkhonto weSizwe leader Kebby Maphatsoe would later remark, “on that day we knew that…
Today is the 1,324th day of Gilad Shalit’s captivity. In fact, as I write this, it’s been 1,324 days, 14 hours, 19 minutes, and roughly 31 seconds since Shalit walked free. I know this not because of any particular concern on my part, but because everyone in Israel knows this. It’s impossible not to. Along…
Welcome everyone to my sparkly new MASA blog. To give you a better idea of where all this is coming from, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Sam Melamed, I’m 22 years old, and I graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison last May, having studied history and philosophy. Besides studying abroad in Cape…