Had my only contact with Palestine Awareness Week been the formulaic reactions offered by Tammy Rubin and USAC President Emily Resnick, I would have tread carefully across Bruinwalk the following Monday, wary of falling into the gaping wounds in our campus rent by “loud screaming matches between students” and “phrases that were very disrespectful and… [Read more…]
March 6, 2012
by Ha'Am Contributor
Proudly presents a Recital of Jewish and Jewish-themed Music Performed by members of the UCLA voice and instrumental departments, as well as members of the UCLA Chorale Concert will include works by Maurice Ravel, Lazar Weiner, Leonard Bernstein, Dmitri Shostakovich, Giuseppe Verdi, undergraduate music composition major JACK LIPSON, and more! Sunday, March 11,… [Read more…]
March 5, 2012
by Josh Friedlander
Stepping into the fray of a debate about the Middle East is always a nerve-racking experience. Tensions run high, and well-meant words can easily be misconstrued. Despite this, I would like to pass comment on two articles relating to Israel published this past week. In both cases, while the criticism they were making may have… [Read more…]
January 29, 2012
by Alan Naroditsky
The Atlanta Jewish Times is looking for a new owner. The reason? Its founder and original publisher, Andrew Adler, is facing investigation by the FBI and United States Secret Service. In a piece dated January 13th, 2012, Adler decried the endless terrorist activity of Hezbollah and Hamas, as well as the United States government’s malaise… [Read more…]
January 24, 2012
by Tessa Nath
Businessmen Steven Spira and Paul Cohen address a roomful of students at the JAM building at UCLA. (photo by Tessa Nath) Observant Judaism and the modern world are not always seen as a completely cohesive pair; people often equate the relationship to that between water and oil. However, last Wednesday evening, the Jewish Awareness… [Read more…]
January 17, 2012
by Ashton Rosin
Last month, a set of advertisements aimed at encouraging the return of Israelis living abroad, were removed from the Israeli Ministry of Immigrant Absorption’s YouTube channel. As a part of a resolution adopted by the government in 2010, these advertisements feature images like the young girl who disappoints her Israeli grandarents when she reveals her… [Read more…]
January 10, 2012
by Jacob Elijah Goldberg
On Monday, J Street U at UCLA kicked off the quarter with a discussion with Jeremy Ben-Ami — former presidential adviser and president of J Street. The presentation consisted of a summary of J Street’s policies and a Q&A session with students, staff, and faculty. Ben-Ami, who has familial ties to Israel and has lived there himself… [Read more…]
January 10, 2012
by Tessa Nath
Leon Weinstein and his daughter Natalie Gold Lumer in a loving embrace. (photo by Clifford Lester/Jewish Journal) A 101 year-old man died on December 28th, 2011 in his bedroom in the early hours of the morning. His daughter, a phone call away, expected the inevitable. This man was Leon Weinstein, the oldest survivor of the… [Read more…]
January 7, 2012
by Alan Naroditsky
Social media is quickly becoming the lifeblood of all communication, permanently altering the way people connect. Trendsetting behemoths such as Facebook and Twitter permeate every nook and cranny of our virtual and corporeal lives, saturating every fiber of human interaction with their omnipotence. We are bombarded with live and geo-tagged updates, incessant wall posts, enormous… [Read more…]
December 31, 2011
by Ha'Am Contributor
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for our blog! Click here to see the complete report. This quarter, we had readers in countries as distant as Libya, Rwanda, Kenya, Egypt, South Africa, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, India, the Philippines, Germany, Russia, France, the Netherlands, Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Argentina, Ecuador, Australia, and New… [Read more…]
December 28, 2011
by Jacob Elijah Goldberg
Rabbinical Council of America president Rabbi Schmuel Goldin issued a statement on Monday dispelling allegations that the RCA has taken a stand on reparative therapy for Jews with unwanted same-sex attraction. The RCA website has previously listed an organization called JONAH (Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing) as a therapy resource for Jews with unwanted… [Read more…]
December 25, 2011
by Jacob Elijah Goldberg
Haifa Last year, on the same day the forest fires began ravaging the Carmel region of northern Israel, the Haifa municipality erected a Christmas tree sculpture comprised of over 5,000 recycled water bottles in honor of the Christian holiday. The tree, designed by Israeli artist Hadas Itzcovitch and her father Ernest Itzcovitch, is 38 feet tall and is… [Read more…]
December 25, 2011
by Jacob Elijah Goldberg
Gaza Last week, The Guardian told the story of the Qubrsi brothers — two of approximately 1,400 Christians residing in Gaza today. Brothers Karam and Peter are currently the only members of their family still in Gaza. Their sisters Rani and Mai fled to Bethlehem in 2007 after the manager of Gaza’s Bible Society Bookstore,… [Read more…]
December 19, 2011
by Josh Friedlander
Israel needs America – financially, diplomatically, and militarily. It’s a fact. So when U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton makes an observation, even about a relatively minor point of domestic policy, Israelis tend to sit up and listen. That is not to say that the point in contention is minor to everyone. Secretary Clinton, speaking… [Read more…]
December 13, 2011
by Jacob Elijah Goldberg
Last week, over 100 Orthodox rabbis around the world added their signatures to a declaration condemning a recent event that the media identified as an “same-sex Orthodox wedding.” On November 6, Yeshiva University-ordained Rabbi Steven Greenberg, known to many as the first openly gay Orthodox rabbi, officiated at a marriage ceremony between grooms Yoni Bock and Ron… [Read more…]
December 12, 2011
by Josh Friedlander
The winds of scandal were blowing in full force across the Jewish world last week. An article printed in an online publication run by Yeshiva University students became the centre of controversy, and the school demanded that the article be removed. The ensuing debate was covered by Fox News and later even in some other news sources and… [Read more…]
December 5, 2011
by Josh Friedlander
by Joshua Friedlander “Democracy Under Attack” screamed the webpage of Ha’aretz – a popular, left-leaning Israeli broadsheet last week. The event prompting the headline was a proposed alteration to the wording of the Libel Law, submitted this month to the Knesset by three members of its ruling coalition. Having passed a first reading, the change is… [Read more…]
December 1, 2011
by Jacob Elijah Goldberg
For the past six years, villagers and international activists have convened in the village of Bil’in to protest the presence of Israel’s security barrier. The inhabitants of Bil’in, which lies just west of Ramallah and about ofur kilometers east of the Green Line, claim that the barrier separates them from sixty percent of their farmland. In 2007,… [Read more…]
Jacob Elijah Goldberg
Moshe Kahn
Moses Lapin
Joshua Yasmeh
Tessa Nath
Yoni Herskovitz
Alan Naroditsky
Ashton Rosin
Ben Steiner
Ha'Am Contributor
Sarah Elbaum
Diane Bani-Esraili
Josh Friedlander
March 7, 2012
by Jacob Elijah Goldberg
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