In their cautious dialogue with American Muslims, national Jewish groups have long steered clear of the Muslim Students Association, one of the biggest Muslim groups in the country and one that many Jewish communal officials see as extremist. But that red line is increasingly being ignored by Jewish students at colleges across the country, where…
Jewish federation officials in Chicago have fired the head of the University of Chicago’s Hillel and the Hillel’s entire board in a bitter governance dispute that could result in two umbrella Jewish student groups dueling it out on campus. The dismissed Hillel leadership wanted independence from the Chicago federation, which controls all Hillels in Illinois…
The problem facing Jews in their 20s and early 30s is not assimilation. It is the fact that we can’t find a meaningful Jewish community once we graduate from college. For Russian-speaking Jews, this problem can be especially hard since many of us were brought up culturally Jewish. As an undergrad, I did everything Jewish…
Growing up, I rarely contemplated my Jewish identity. I was part of a Council for Unity chapter at Edward R. Murrow High School, where I was busy working on projects that would unite individuals from a wide range of backgrounds. Somewhere along the way I realized that it was important to understand where I came…
Students at the University of California, Berkeley, have stood at the forefront of progressive movements throughout history, from free speech, to civil rights, to the recent protests against tuition fee hikes. Student activists at our school, many of them Jewish, have displayed great political courage, following in the footsteps of other Jewish leaders who have…
I spent most of freshman year at Harvard threatening to transfer. I quickly realized college wasn’t going to be a delightful blur of Solo cups, but rather, a lot of solitary lunches. I was tired of the awkward icebreakers, and all I desired was the comfort and familiarity I had enjoyed at home. Luckily, I…
With the Palestinians poised to make their bid for statehood at the United Nations, another diplomatic effort was taking place on Columbia University’s manicured campus five miles uptown. Hillel, the national Jewish student organization, erected an open-air tent on September 21 with the words “Talk Israel: Join the Conversation” on a blue banner on Columbia’s…
What do fantasy writer J.R.R. Tolkien, Yugoslavian dictator Josip Broz Tito, Brazilian soccer star Pelé and financier George Soros have in common? They all share an interest in Esperanto, an invented language whose goal is to unite humankind. “Nekredebla,” you might be thinking (that’s Esperanto for “incredible”). But not so quick — other well known…
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