British Board Backs Prof in Spat With 'Zionist' Student Over 62 Grade

Grad Student Complained After Pro-Israel Thesis Was Panned

By JTA

An English review board has rejected bias complaints by an Israeli student against the University of Warwick but recommended the university apologize for being “insufficiently flexible.”

“The complaint is partly justified,” the Office of the Independent Adjudicator, England’s body for reviewing student complaints, wrote in its recommendation last month on how to handle the 2012 complaint by Smadar Bakovic, an Israeli master’s student, against her former thesis supervisor, Nicola Pratt.

The Office recommended the university apologize to Bakovic and compensate her $1,600 for not providing her with a new supervisor as she requested. Bakovic, a master’s student in international relations, cited Pratt’s outspoken views “against Israel, and with the people of Gaza and the West Bank,” as stated in a petition cosigned by Pratt in 2009, in arguing that Pratt was biased.

The Office rejected Bakovic’s claims that Pratt had displayed bias in grading Bakovic’s thesis.

“We are not persuaded that there is sufficient evidence to establish that Professor [Pratt] was biased because of the views that she held,” the Office wrote.

Pratt gave Bakovic a grade of 62 points out of 100 and wrote that Bakovic tended to “adopt Israeli/Zionist narratives as though they were uncontested facts.”

When Bakovic requested a blind regrade, a second marker graded her thesis “only slightly higher” than the grade given by Pratt, the Office said in its recommendation.

Holy Days And Women’s Empowerment

by Ruth Messinger, president of American Jewish World Service, for The Jewish Week

Each year when I sit in synagogue during Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur, I’m struck by the complex stories we read about biblical women and by the wisdom these stories offer about ensuring the dignity of women and girls today.

The past year was one of paradoxes. At a time when Sheryl Sandberg, Malala Yousafzai, Wendy Davis and countless others reinvigorated conversations about women’s leadership, health and safety, rape and sexual violence continued to escalate all over the world. As I try to grasp these contradictions, I’m reflecting more deeply on what our High Holy Days readings illuminate about the condition of women and girls over the millennia.

To start, consider Sarah, Hagar and Hannah, female protagonists we meet in the Rosh HaShanah liturgy. In the eyes of the biblical narrator, the significance and self-worth of these women are defined solely by their ability to have children — in particular, sons. Yet each of these women exercises agency in different, albeit complicated, ways.

Initially, Sarah is unable to birth a child. Frustrated that God has not fulfilled the promise of giving her and her husband, Abraham, “as many offspring as there are stars,” as it says in the Bible, Sarah takes matters into her own hands. She chooses her handmaid, Hagar, as a surrogate mother and instructs Abraham to impregnate Hagar, so that Sarah can have the son she desperately wants.

Sarah eventually is able to have a biological child of her own, Isaac.

Hannah, also struggles to bear children but handles her infertility in a different way: She prays. Hannah pours out her heart to God and, ultimately, God answers her prayers by giving her a child.

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American Apparel’s Ongoing Love Affair with Hasidic Jews

The store’s Tumblr page has a fresh new face

By Romy Zipken - for Jewcy

American Apparel, famous for its sticky, sparkly onesies, is bordering obsessive in regard to Yiddish culture (see: American Apparel’s Black Nail Polish Color is Called ‘Hassid’). The store’s Tumblr page, typically adorned with heroin-chic models sportin’ side ponytails and see-through blouses, has a new face —a face with payos.

Meet Yoel Weisshaus. Yoel, a Chasidish Jew who grew up in a Yiddish speaking home in Brooklyn, attended Yeshiva at an early age. Yoel is a peasant with chutzpa known for suing the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey over its controversial toll hikes, at prices that exceed twofold what one earns per hour under the minimum wage. Yoel is talented and drafts his own pleadings because he cannot afford an attorney, his case is still ongoing. He freelances in sales of American made braidings and ribbons for local garments and hat manufactures. Yoel has an accent because English is not his first language, but he is still striving to learn English writing.

Props and daps to Weisshaus for a job well done in the garment industry. Maybe “Peasant with Chutzpa” will be the company’s next look—shtreimels and Deep V Tee’s.

The Israeli-American Music Mogul

Remember the Israeli keffiyeh controversy? Semitic Swag, the LA "lifestyle brand" behind it, is headed by Erez Safar, a DJ/producer who is perhaps better known for his non-sartorial endeavors. And he's just made another musical splash.
Safar, who performs under the moniker Diwon, has just dropped his first solo album. Called "New Game," the album fuses samples of Middle Eastern folk music with urban American hip-hop beats, creating a sound that would feel at home both in the Arab shuk and in a bouncin' Baltimore club.
These days Safar is probably best known as the founder of Bancs, a music and video production company, the founder of the Sephardic Music Festival, and the CEO of Shemspeed, which doesn't just sell kosher keffiyehs—it's also one of the only independent record labels specializing in Jewish music.
"New Game," which features a bevy of underground rappers sharing the mic over Safar's beats, is a notable addition to Safar's already bursting-at-the-seams musical resume. We're pretty psyched.
- Elie Lichtschein for Jewniverse

Ten Days of Apologies

By Heshy Friedman for JewishMag.com

The ten days beginning with Rosh Hashanah and concluding with Yom Kippur are known as the “Ten Days of Penitence.” Maimonides, codifier of Jewish law, describes how one should do teshuva (penitence). The individual must admit his/her sin, be ashamed of the transgression, and resolve never to do it again. If one has hurt another person physically or financially, paying the victim is necessary but not sufficient. The perpetrator must ask the victim for forgiveness and show sincere remorse. Apologies are an important part of these holy days.

Let us examine what is arguably the worst apology ever. It was on an episode of the classic television show, the Honeymooners. Ralph Kramden is apologizing to his wife, Alice, for calling her mother a blabbermouth:

Hello, Alice. This is me, Ralph. Alice, I'm sorry. I'm miserable without you. Please come back to me, Alice. I apologize for everything I said. I even apologize to your mother. I know she doesn't mean the things she says, Alice. It's just her nature. She doesn't mean to be mean. She's just born that way. When she says things about your old boyfriends and about the furniture in the apartment, I know that she doesn't mean to get me mad. She's just naturally mean, that's all. When she spilled the beans about the end of the play, I shouldn't have got mad at that. I should've expected it from her. I know how she is. She's never gonna be any different, Alice! She's gonna be the same old way, Alice! SHE'S A BLABBERMOUTH, ALICE! A BLABBERMOUTH!

Before apologizing, it might be a good idea to view this video clip so that you know what not to do. That is clearly not the way to show remorse. Neither is telling someone, “I am sorry you feel that way,” or stating that “If anyone has been hurt by my actions, I am sorry.” The fictional television character, Sheldon Cooper’s apology to Dr. Gablehauser, his boss, in the “The Big Bang Theory” is not much better than Ralph Kramden’s: “We may have gotten off on the wrong foot when I called you an idiot. I was wrong... to point it out.”

Remorse is about wishing the past mistake had not occurred and making sure it never happens again. Some use the acronym of the “Five R’s as a way to remember what needs to be done: Recognition, Remorse, Repentance, Restitution, and Request for forgiveness. According to researchers in the area, the main reason that people do not apologize is because they are afraid the apology will be seen as a sign of weakness and/or guilt. In reality, an apology indicates great strength as it is a munificent act that restores and rehabilitates the self-concept of the offended party.

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