Journalism by Jewish college students, for Jewish college students.
Who are we? Where do we come from? As it turns out, Jews are just Jews: our very own ethnic group. Recent studies have shown that Jews appear to be genetically different than non-Jews and, indeed, are closely related to one another. This revelation comes through Human “HapMap” Project, which examines human genome sequences; recently,…
This post is by Moriel Rothman and originally appeared on J Street U‘s site. There exists in Israel a powerful fear. It’s a legitimate fear, the traumatic societal residue of exploded buses and falling rockets, hitting Israel against the backdrop of the Iranian threat. But this fear has grown and spread, manipulated by leaders whose…
Unless we’re seeking an easy target for righteous indignation, we tend to ignore the mass of anti-Semitic crackpots on the internet. It’s another thing, though, when a respected journalist who’s been covering the Oval Office for half a century tells all the Jews to “get the hell out of Palestine,” as former Hearst columnist Helen Thomas…
Judaism and Catholicism may not seem to go together, but the Catholic Church begs to disagree. In an attempt to show that the papacy isn’t hiding any self-incriminating archives from World War II, the Vatican will open up some World War II-era private archives for public consumption within the next six years. First of all,…
The Twitterizing of the news has reached a crisis point in the Israeli-Palestinian forum. For a long time, the Jewish community in the US has viewed the conflict in black-and-white: The elders have decided that Jewish solidarity necessitates categorical defense of Israel, and they treat any deviation from the institutional line as a threat. There is no…
Let me first thank Evan Krasner for responding to my critique of his original post.  I appreciate his choice to continue the conversation beyond a simple point-counterpoint, and I’ve learned a lot already. Evan clarifies something regarding the debate at his school that I actually didn’t understand, which I’m grateful for. The debate’s original format…
Monday, I got a call from the Jewish Agency. They said, “Good news, you’ve been approved to make Aliyah!” And so that was it. Perhaps it was a decision I’d already made, but there was my stamp of approval, my final confirmation. I remembered a converation I had had with someone just the other day. Upon…
Israel was founded on an idealistic community structure. From the seeds of socialism, Jews from predominantly Russia and Poland sought a re-creation of the Jewish identity as strong pioneers on kibbutzes. Kibbutzes were places where sabras were fostered and women found equality as their physical labor gained value. But after the 1973 War, the kibbutzes…
During my five months in Israel, I had fallen in love with the harsh landscape–from every craggy hill to thorny bush, to the poppies which came after the spring rains. I embraced the terseness of the Israeli people, and I immersed myself into the culture until I experienced their uncompromising warmth and hospitality, in addition…
Thanks to everyone who read my article (“Don’t Hate the Jewish State,” April 12) and especially to those of you who took the time to respond to it, either critically or in support. My article drew so many critical comments because it addressed an idea that makes Jews uncomfortable: that Judaism and Jewish identity do…
This post is cross-posted from J Street U’s blog. Dual Israeli-American citizenship can make me feel a tad schizophrenic. At our small Passover seder this March I sat next to Gilad Shalit, or at least the chair set for him by our friends on the moshav. The empty seat seemed to lodge a big splinter…
Sam Green has done it again. His opinion piece about the dangers of Jewish student anti-Zionism, “Don’t Hate the Jewish State,” has prompted a flurry of opposition from defenders of ideological pluralism when it comes to Zionism. Jewschool‘s Ben Murane has weighed in, as well as Harpo Jaeger and a range of other Twitterers and…
In South Africa, there’s a conspiracy theory that has spread among the white population since the fall of Apartheid. It goes by many names: Uhuru, Operation Vula, Operation White Clean-up, and – in a nod to Nazi Germany – Night of the Long Knives (in Afrikaans, Die Nag van die Lang Messe). Â What it says…
I’ve been given a unique experience in Israel: to partake in a conference, organized through the Jewish Agency for Israel, that is training Shlichim to go to American camps. Shlichim are Israelis ages 18-40 (most are in their early 20’s but there is a speckle of older Israelis) who are being trained to understand American…