In recent months, several young Jews have walked off of or have been asked to leave their Birthright trips as part of an initiative by the anti-occupation group IfNotNow called Birthright: Not Just A Free Trip. I was a participant on the same bus as the three recent participants who allege they were kicked off…
Like most American Jews, I live with the tension between Israel the dream and Israel the reality. I remember the hope of Prime Minister Rabin approaching peace with his lifelong enemies paired with the dismay at his assassination, I believe that every person living under Israeli sovereignty should receive equal treatment, though I know that…
After a series of highly publicized walkouts on Taglit-Birthright trips this summer, the organization has included a ban on “hijakck(ing) a discussion” in the contract participants are required to sign to be accepted on its free 10-day trips to Israel. A new clause included in the contract appears aimed at preventing a recurrence of such…
The Anti-Defamation League has a disease. It suffers from an acute — and potentially fatal — form of moral schizophrenia. The ADL was founded 105 years ago during the anti-Semitic conviction and later lynching of Atlanta business owner Leo Frank with a dual purpose. It was created “to stop…the defamation of the Jewish people” but…
The first thing I noticed were the slogans painted in colorful letters on the walls and columns of the convention center. “Silence is Not Golden,” said one. “Keep the dialogue going,” said another one. “Don’t leave anything unsaid,” said a third. The Jewish Federations of North America’s General Assembly in Tel Aviv was plastered with…
For most of my life, I vacillated between feeling either way too Jewish or not Jewish enough. In my Catholic suburb of Boston, I downplayed my Jewish identity. But in Jewish institutions like Brandeis and Hillel, I felt like an outsider. One moment in particular sticks out from all the rest. In 2007, I was…
Despite several highly publicized walkouts on its program, Birthright does not intend to introduce a vetting procedure that would weed out potential troublemakers from the free trips it offers to Israel. In recent weeks, Jewish-American participants have filmed themselves walking out of three separate Birthright trips to protest the occupation and the absence of discussion…
As a young-ish British Jewish anti-occupation activist, I’m sadly all too familiar with straw-man attacks. I and others like me are so viciously attacked online following any meagre expression of opinion that if you were to believe even just half of the things written about us on the internet, you may be excused for thinking…
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