Journalism by Jewish college students, for Jewish college students.
Statistics show that one in five women on American college campuses will be the victim of sexual assault. That’s why I work every day to educate my campus on Title IX issues, as a student at Pace University and the executive director of PaceUEndRape. Having watched my friends experience helplessness after assaults and debate if…
Since this article was published, Hillel International released the following statement. Hillel International recently landed itself in a controversy among its constituents by endorsing President Trump’s civil rights nominee for the Department of Education, Kenneth Marcus. A little background: Marcus is the founder and president of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under…
This just in, Jewish millennials. Young Jews increasingly feel distanced from Israel due to a perceived conflict of values, warned the CEO and director-general of the Jewish Agency Alan Hoffman last week. He concluded that Israel is losing young American Jews in an “extremely worrisome” trend, requiring a new approach. “I think it’s very important that…
The first time I encountered a progressive view about Israel was when I went on my first college tour at the age of 16. On UC Berkley’s campus, across the Bay from my house, I noticed small black flags planted in the grass. A sign informed passersby that these flags represented the movement for justice…
Dear freshmen, Last month, I helped facilitate an info session at Wesleyan University for 70 rising seniors from the Solomon Schechter School of Westchester, where I attended elementary school. These students sat before me in the admissions office, looking slightly perplexed about why their Jewish day school had taken them to visit a liberal, off-the-beaten…
A few weeks before the election, the Wesleyan Jewish Community, a proud Open Hillel, gathered in our sukkah to discuss the meaning of Jewish values. Students from Cardinals for Israel, J Street U, and Jewish Voice for Peace talked about the complexities that led us to develop our particular beliefs about politics and justice. Inside…
One of my favorite professors recently told me a story about her second-grade son. Asher* and his classmate were carpooling to school when the other eight-year-old began to lecture him about “correct” religious observance. My professor, who has raised Asher in a deeply Jewish, mixed-denomination home, was proud to hear her son reply with the…
On May 11, more than 70 students from Brown University came together to commemorate the Nakba by watching three films produced by the Israeli NGO Zochrot. Nakba is the term for the 1948 expulsion and displacement of over 700,000 Palestinians, and Nakba Day is observed on May 15, the day after Israeli Independence Day. “Within…
Yesterday, despite its official cancellation, a group of Brown University students gathered at the Brown RISD Hillel building to watch three short films about the Nakba. According to a statement from Sophie Kasakove, one of the event’s three organizers and a member-at-large of Open Hillel’s steering committee, the event had been in the works for…
In the last few years, robotic technology has made tremendous strides. We can now use the technology to open doors or even move cars. As of this year, we can also use robots to attend campus events. On March 3, pro-Israel advocacy organization StandWithUs partnered with the technology company Tele-Buddy to send a robot to…
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…
This Sunday, thousands of people will arrive in Washington, D.C. for the General Assembly of the Jewish Federations of North America. Just outside the GA, they’ll be joined by the Jewish People’s Assembly, a protest that its organizers from Open Hillel expect to draw around 100 attendees. The protest, according to its website, has three…
At 8:17 a.m. on a rainy Thursday morning, a group of nine Jewish students at Guilford College decided to make a change. Rather than continuing to label themselves as a Hillel, the students decided to dub themselves Guilford Chavurah, meaning “group of friends” in Hebrew. “I want it to be a very flexible club,” said…
I came to the J Street Conference earlier this week with a question in mind for students: How do you advocate for Israel and for peace on campus after last week’s elections? In true Jewish fashion, their answers went beyond the question to address other important points about Israel advocacy and Jewish life on campus….