Journalism by Jewish college students, for Jewish college students.
Sometime between Friday night and Saturday morning at Brandeis University, someone drew a swastika in condensation on the window of a house where the college’s AEPi chapter was hosting a party. Brandeis’ student population is 47 percent Jewish, according to Hillel International, and it was founded in 1948 as a non-sectarian, Jewish-sponsored university. “That a…
What exactly is going on at CUNY? The public university has recently come under fire from the Zionist Organization of America for alleged anti-Semitic incidents on some of its campuses, which ZOA is blaming on chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine. ZOA is so convinced of SJP’s responsibility that it has explicitly called for…
The University at Buffalo has been added to the list of university campuses that have seen anti-Semitic graffiti this year. According to The Spectrum, the anti-Semitic slurs were found on March 23 in a men’s bathroom in Capen Hall, the university’s main administration building. The University Police Department believes it to have been an isolated incident, but…
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…
“Is _________ good for the Jews?” This question seems to be asked any time a major political development is revealed, especially in the Diaspora. One might ask, for example, if Canada’s new Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is good for the Jews; many asked if Obama’s election in 2008 was good for the Jews; and there…
The University of California’s governing board has signed off on the “Statement of Principles Against Intolerance,” which condemns anti-Semitism and anti-Semitic forms of anti-Zionism. The original statement, which has since been revised, stated that “anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism and other forms of discrimination have no place at the University of California.” The University of California Academic Council objected to the original language…
This article originally appeared in Zionish on March 2, 2016. Israel Apartheid Week strikes a significant chord with the Jewish community everywhere. As the cardboard, graffiti-covered walls and faux-checkpoints go up around university campuses, so do the leaflets, tweets and Facebook posts about Jewish-Arab coexistence, Palestinian terrorism, “the real Israel/apartheid/take your pick”. On both sides the…
On the night of March 17, the Brown University undergrad residence that houses Jewish fraternity Beta Rho Pi and co-ed fraternity Zeta Delta Xi was defaced with anti-Semitic and homophobic graffiti. According to an email provided to New Voices, written by the interim assistant vice presidents of Brown Campus Life & Student Services, Mary Grace Almandrez and…
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…
Welcome back to our weekly news round-up, where we try our long-winded best to summarize the Jewish news of the week. If you read something here that you want to say something about, get in touch: editor@newvoices.org. Jay Sanderson, president and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, told Haaretz that Israeli government officials need…
Welcome back to our weekly news round-up, where we try our long-winded best to summarize the Jewish news of the week. If you read something here that you want to say something about, get in touch: editor@newvoices.org. Yesterday, the Vassar Student Association voted to pass a resolution that called for it to politically support the BDS…
Welcome to the revival of our weekly news round-up, where we try our long-winded best to summarize the Jewish news of the week, with bonus pop culture stars at the end. If you read something here that you want to say something about, get in touch: editor@newvoices.org. Students at McGill University in Montreal voted against…
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….
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…