Journalism by Jewish college students, for Jewish college students.
Last week, I wrote a news piece about a Stanford student who argued that the old anti-Semitic canard that Jews control the media isn’t necessarily anti-Semitism. Gabriel Knight, a student senator in Stanford’s Undergraduate Senate, was discussing the language of a resolution to support the Stanford Jewish community against anti-Semitism. Knight was referring to a clause that…
Today, the Forward published six students — five studying at American universities, one in South Africa — who answered a call to write about an experience at college that had shaped their Jewish identity in ways good, bad, or other. It’s an interesting read. The preface states that “every student interpreted the question as being about…
In 1996, I moved to Brussels. In 2000, I left. In 2007 and 2011, I went back again, both times for only a few short days. I have no Belgian ancestry or citizenship, but I’ve always felt a little bit Belgian — it’s hard not to, when it played such an important role in my…
This article originally appeared in The Queen’s Journal on March 11, 2016. While it’s essential for institutions to practice freedom of expression, there’s no place for intolerance at a university. This is especially true in student government, where neutrality should be upheld. On Feb. 22, over 900 students gathered for the Students’ Society of McGill University…
Three weeks ago, I attended a small lunch event at Hunter College’s Roosevelt House featuring spokespeople from the New Israel Fund and Breaking the Silence, as well as the Israeli human rights lawyer Michael Sfard. Given the recent tension at my alma mater between student supporters of Israel and members of Students for Justice in…
Read the first part in our series of Jewish perspectives on Syrian refugees, “Finding commonality in Jewish history.“ For the last few months, I’ve seen the comparison of today’s Syrian refugees to the plight of European Jews during the Holocaust trending on social media. This is an ignorant comparison with no real critical analysis behind it….
February is Jewish Disabilities Awareness and Inclusion Month. Since kindergarten, due to my learning disabilities, social anxiety, and battle with anorexia, I’ve had to have a lot of chutzpah. With anxiety, one needs to be a fighter. I’ve had the most amazing coach in my corner, worthy of Joe DiMaggio. My mother, a guardian angel:…
When my Rabbi first told me about Kitty Genovese, it was my sophomore year of high school. After that, he would often invoke the story of how she was murdered while witnesses stood by. He would use Kitty to make a point about personal responsibility, or accent a story about not standing idly by, or…
On January 14th, I woke up to a slew of notifications on my phone. Two friends had re-shared on Facebook an old picture a few of us had taken with Alan Rickman at the stage door after seeing him perform in Seminar in January 2012. Another couple of friends had messaged me condolences, saying they…
We, the American Jewish community, have an Israel problem, and we need to talk about it. It’s not the fact that Israel exists. It’s not the fact that it’s a politically fraught topic to discuss — although that’s certainly part of it. It’s the mere fact that Israel and Zionism as abstract concepts are…
In 1939, the United States denied entry to the MS St. Louis, a ship filled with Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi persecution. Half of the passengers subsequently perished in the Holocaust. In 2015, the now iconic image of a drowned Syrian child illustrated the human cost of the Syrian Civil War and the consequences of closed…
When I first heard about the National LGBTQ Task Force’s decision to cancel A Wider Bridge’s event at the Creating Change conference this past weekend, I was sad. I know what it’s like as a religious person to feel alienated from queer spaces because of my decision to remain religious despite coming out of the…
I was hoping that in 2016, the Jewish community would find better ways to reach out to millennials. I guess they have, if co-opting social justice, intersectionality, and related ideas counts as outreach. It started with an op by David Bernstein, the current CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, published Jan. 4 in…
Haredi Rabbi Yosef Mizrachi is a renowned worldwide Torah lecturer, claiming to be devoted to bringing Jews closer to Judaism. But it’s clear in light of recent remarks that his devotion to kiruv — Orthodox outreach — is anything but unificatory. It’s time that the Jewish community, regardless of affiliation, takes a stand against the…
In 1954, the American Jewish Committee supported the NAACP during the historic Brown v. Board of Education case. In 1965, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel marched to Selma with Dr. Martin Luther King. And a month ago, I heard a college-aged white Jew equate his family’s historical experience in Europe to the struggle that people of…