Journalism by Jewish college students, for Jewish college students.
Originally published in the OC Hillel blog. Around 18,000 pro-Israel people in one room singing Hatikvah together, admiring Israeli innovation, hearing empowering stories about Israel, and giving endless standing ovations for countless speakers. It is easy to get carried away in this incredibly pro-Israel environment. This was my fifth consecutive year attending the AIPAC Policy…
Last summer, I had the opportunity, along with 30 other British Jewish students, to visit the Palestinian Village of Umm al Kheir. It was a hard day. We walked around the village in the heat, seeing with our own eyes what it’s like living in a village where someone’s home could be demolished. The Bedouin…
A green text bubble flashed across my phone. “You should write about the Farrakhan, Women’s March, anti-Semitism, intersectionality thing.” I turned my screen dark. I’d been avoiding this. I know. I’m a Jewish feminist writer. I drink my morning coffee out of an Emma Goldman mug and my phone auto-predicts the term “intersectional feminism.” I…
Statistics show that one in five women on American college campuses will be the victim of sexual assault. That’s why I work every day to educate my campus on Title IX issues, as a student at Pace University and the executive director of PaceUEndRape. Having watched my friends experience helplessness after assaults and debate if…
Originally published in Scribe. “You don’t need to be white to be White™.” So said the comment on a contentious Facebook post in Columbia University’s premier meme sharing platform, columbia buy sell memes. The comment was in reference was to a ‘starter pack’ meme that ridiculed the generic wealthy lifestyle of those at Columbia who support…
Originally published in Ha’am. There are a surprising number of labels that a Jewish person can use to describe their Jewish identity. It can range anywhere from the typical “Orthodox,” “Conservative,” and “Reform” denominations, to “Jewish Science” observances. The practice of affixing labels to Jews has become so pervasive that the concept of separating those…
On Dec. 3, 2017, an unspeakable act occurred in Jerusalem. Yonatan Razel, an ultra-Orthodox Jewish musician, saw that women at his concert wanted to dance. Faced with the conflict between these women’s wants and the laws of modesty (which state that men shouldn’t look at dancing women), he took extreme action against his female audience….
As my cursor hovers over the “submit” button at the bottom of my graduate school applications, I stop to consider the environment I am going to inhabit at the cost of countless dollars and hours. I am understandably wary. In the time it took to raise me to the age of 18 with aspirations of…
After Jewish summer camp, USY, and a Talmud Torah education, my friend told me he was disillusioned with Zionism. “I’ve always found the idea of Diaspora to be super meaningful,” he said. “The majority of Judaism is based on Diasporic tradition and the allegory of Diaspora. Modern Zionism sort of spits at this.” He explained…
“Oh Allah, liberate the Al Aqsa Mosque from the filth of the Jews… Oh Allah, count them one by one and annihilate them down to the very last one.” In July, Imam Ammar Shahin said these words in a sermon to his congregation at the Islamic Center of Davis. The sermon was delivered shortly after…
In Houston, Texas, Laverne Cox looked out on an auditorium of eager listeners at the 2014 National Conference on LGBTQ Equality. In her keynote speech, she made a statement that stood out to me. “The scarcity model is a myth,” she said. Cox was talking specifically about trans women of color working together instead of…
I grew up hungry for Jewishness. As a young American Jew eager to explore my family’s culture, I tried countless times to find a rabbi or a Hillel staffer who could connect me to our rich history. Everyone gave me the same answer: go on Birthright. Early in college, I considered it. I felt no…
I know, I didn’t think I’d be writing that headline today either. But a Jews for Jesus study may have actually made an interesting insight about Jewish millennials. What am I talking about? Jews for Jesus recently commissioned a study surveying 599 Jews born from 1984 to 1999, using a legit, often religion-focused polling firm…
This is how I imagine the Israeli government making the decision to collect the contact information for 350,000 American Jewish college students: I imagine that Naftali Bennett and Bibi met in a dark basement under the Ministry for Diaspora Affairs and, in the light of a single candle, recommitted themselves to their a secret plan…
Throughout the 20th century, American Jews – particularly young Jews – were agents of social change. The pre-war generation stood for worker’s rights, while the generation after the Holocaust marched at the forefront of the Civil Rights Movement. Why then are there so few Jews active in the contemporary resurgence of progressive student activism? Some…