Journalism by Jewish college students, for Jewish college students.
“As an American in Israel, I can talk to English-speaking immigrants to Israel, and use a shared vocabulary to explain why I believe the annexation would lead to the creation of an apartheid state. And unlike my Israeli friends, I can stand up for Palestinian rights without fear of societal backlash.”
By unequivocally condemning SJP’s statement while claiming to “advocate for Jewish students,” Hillel director Brawer makes very clear which Jewish students are welcome and which are not.
With the release of the Trump peace plan, it’s been made even clearer that the two-state solution is no more than a platitude — and international activism for Palestinian human and civil rights is more important than ever. However, as a prelude to this politically expedient deal, President Trump announced an executive order which risks…
I rediscovered the power of art and creativity from the other New Voices fellows; when I write the next niggun, I will send it to them first.
“The reason that I went was that everything was paid for,” she said, adding, “It was so clear that there was an agenda, but I didn’t ask who funded it. I didn’t really want to look a gift horse in the mouth.”
The next day, atop Masada, I chose my Hebrew name and began my Jewish life. I was Rivkah, Matriarch; I was done taking shit from any human, institution, or supreme being. The Judaism I found gave me space to be newly brazen, and radically myself.
I remember telling my mother on the first night of Hanukkah sometime in high school that I didn’t want to sing “Hanukkah O Hanukkah” or anything else in English while we lit the candles. However, I also didn’t want or know how to sing the Hebrew prayers, wrapped as they were in religiosity, complicated words, and foreign melodies.
We cannot defeat anti-Semitism in isolation. In fact, it is the same ideology that puts all of us – Jews, Muslims, Palestinians, and people of color – at risk of violence.
That was all the time it took to make it clear that there is no “both sides” when it comes to the brutalizers of Yitzhar and the nearby Palestinian villagers who are brutalized by them.
My first encounter with a hyper-masculine Israeli man was on my Birthright trip in the summer of 2017. He was a soldier – stout, muscular, uniformed – paired with my group as a part of mifgash for the whole 10 days we were there, and a few days into the trip he decided he would sit in the empty seat beside me on the bus.
Though JOOOT-affiliated independent groups lack the financial resources and name recognition of Hillel International, they offer students a powerful invitation: create the Judaism you want to be a part of. Kahn believes that JOOOT’s impact will extend far beyond the campus. “We’re giving people a taste of what the potential of radically inclusive Judaism can be,” he says.
Two and a half years ago, I read a piece that changed my life. NPR’s Leah Donnella penned a deeply personal essay about being both Jewish and Black…I felt like she was speaking directly to my own experiences.
Lift your head from the haggadah. Where is Pharaoh’s army today? This inquiry motivated Rabbi Arthur Waskow to create the first Freedom Seder. After Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s April 1968 assassination, Waskow saw the police occupation of black neighborhoods in DC and other cities nationwide as an uncanny parallel to the Passover story. The…
This is part 2 in a 3-part series about politics, identity and Jewish community on college campuses. Click here to view part 1, and here to view part 3. When Lindsey Bressler got the first text, it was Nov. 8, 2016 — Election Day. She was watching the news with her peers at Northeastern University,…