Journalism by Jewish college students, for Jewish college students.
“It is the epitome of intellectual dishonesty to use a well-established term to define a group (pro-Israel) when that group and its members such as yourself admit that the meaning of the well-established term does not in fact apply.” This was one of the many responses I received after my op-ed last month, “Hillel Student…
Activists often term Israel’s Occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, and sometimes Israel itself, as constituting an “apartheid state.” So too do political figures concerned with ending the awful situation – be they Omar Barghouti, John Kerry, or Tzipi Livni. Indeed, it is a convenient, short, and powerful way to term the brutality of…
A few weeks ago, I had the honor of hearing Rabbi Rick Jacobs, the President of the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ), speak at the J Street U Student Town Hall in Baltimore. As a J Street U leader at Clark University in Worcester, MA, I was very excited to hear him speak passionately about…
Sheldon Adelson Makes Gov. Chris Christie Apologize for Living in Reality The Daily Show Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Indecision Political Humor,The Daily Show on Facebook Whether they know it or not, Jon Stewart and Samantha Bee are having the same conversation all Jewish communities are having now, and, like all good satire, the…
“Failure will kill the political constituency of the two-state solution,” warned American Task Force on Palestine Director Ghaith Al-Omari at an event co-sponsored by J Street U Brown and Brown RISD Hillel last week. These chilling words reminded me of why it is so essential to demonstrate support for Secretary of State John Kerry’s current…
I am an American. I am neither an Israeli, nor am I a Palestinian. However, I am a Jew, and a pro-Israel American, who lives in a country which has strong, positive relations with Israel. As a Zionist, I see it as my job to defend Israel as a Jewish State, and that means protecting…
Feeling caught up in the pressure to align themselves with either the liberal Open Hillel movement or the nascent reactionary Safe Hillel movement, Jewish students at West Virginia International University met and decided to start a new movement in response: Ambiguous Hillel. “We really had no other option,” explained WVIU Hillel president Jason Scheingross. “Our…
Let me be direct: the men in Birthright ads are hot. As in, “let’s do something not tzanua together” hot. This queer man, despite his dovish tendencies, distaste for right-wing “anti-assimilation” efforts, and critiques of Israel, is not completely displeased when a Birthright ad featuring smiling, shirtless, muscular Jewish men surfaces on Facebook. The Jewish…
You may have noticed a lack of coverage of Israeli Apartheid Week in New Voices this year. This was, in part, intentional. For those who don’t know, I.A.W. is a international campaign, sponsored in part by Students for Justice in Palestine, to hold rallies, speakers, and performances on campuses worldwide to spread awareness of the…
I think my education started early. I remember sitting in the car with my mother at the age of 10, en route from my Hebrew school to … somewhere. It was the spring of 2002, height of the Second Intifada,and the rhetoric that went alongside it. I was narrating all of the things we had…
Zach Cohen’s New Voices article was not exactly the most adulatory of Costa Rica. His piece prompted responses: one from Q Costa Rica and two from the Costa Rica Star – an initial piece and a follow-up. These pieces took a largely self-defensive, mocking, and somewhat anti-Semitic tone. Yet at the same time, the pieces…
In a rebuttal to last month’s New York Times article profiling college students who question Hillel guidelines on Israel, Hillel International President and CEO Eric Fingerhut wrote that an “unwavering line” existed on cosponsoring events or welcoming students who “delegitimize, demonize or apply a double standard to Israel; support boycotts, divestment or sanctions against Israel;…
I am very openly willing to criticize the Israeli government. Two of my recent blog posts for New Voices have been criticisms of Israel’s Housing Ministry for announcing the constructions of new settlements at a crucial point in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations and Israel’s Prime Minister in condemning the announcement of negotiations between the United States and…
by The Swarthmore Hillel Board On November 11, former speaker of the Israeli Knesset Avraham Burg was supposed to give a talk on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at the Harvard Hillel house. Instead, Hillel barred him from speaking at the Hillel house, and he ended up giving his talk in an undergraduate dormitory on campus. The…
In his response to my op-ed, Harpo Jaeger touches on the issue of Israel’s treatment of Judea and Samaria – better known today as “the disputed territories.” Jaeger alleges that “millions of Palestinians…live under occupation” and that their lives are “endangered by checkpoints, raids and searches.” I take issue with the allegation that millions of…