Welcome to Queens College, Where Jews and Muslims Dialogue

Sam Kestenbaum for The Jewish Daily Forward    

On a recent afternoon in Queens, Secretary of State John Kerry sat with Israeli and Palestinian representatives, chatting amiably. “It’s great to see you two side by side,” Kerry said to the delegates. “Now, have we agreed about these land swaps?”

The Israeli and Palestinian smiled and nodded — a historic agreement had been reached; it seemed there might be an end to the crippling decades long stalemated conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.

But then the class period ended.

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On Gabriel Knight and what anti-Semitism really means

Winston Shi, Senior Staff Writer the Stanford Daily

“‘Jews controlling the media, economy, government and other societal institutions’ [is] a fixture of anti-Semitism that we [inaudible] theoretically shouldn’t challenge. I think that that’s kind of irresponsibly foraying into another politically contentious conversation. Questioning these potential power dynamics, I think, is not anti-Semitism. I think it’s a very valid discussion.”
– ASSU Senator Gabriel Knight ’17

Stanford students sometimes seem to think that their intelligence is a bubble protecting them from idiocy. But as we learned again at the ASSU Senate meeting on Tuesday night, anti-Semitism, though stupid, is not the sole provenance of stupid people.

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Scottish Pro-Israel Student Bounced From Council Meeting for Blasting BDS

The Jewish Daily Forward   

A Scottish college student was accused of violating “safe space” rules and told she risked being expelled from a meeting after she spoke out against the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel movement.

Imogen Wilson, 22, the vice president for academic affairs at Edinburgh University Students’ Association, told Britain’s Telegraph she was accused of making “inappropriate hand gestures” when she disagreed with claims made about her at a student council meeting on BDS last week.

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6 Jewish Students Reveal How Israel Debate Colors Campus Life

By The Forward Staff

When the Forward put out a call for students to tell us about a college experience that had shaped their Jewish identity in some way — good, bad or otherwise — we expected to receive a diversity of responses. And in a way, we did: Students wrote about moments in Mumbai and Johannesburg and Ithaca, and their political views spanned the gamut from left to right. But every student interpreted the question as being about Israel and the BDS movement. That in itself is telling. The Israel debate has reached a fever pitch on campus, and whatever view you take of it, its ramifications are now impossible to ignore.

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Passover will be here soon, check out our Passover Holiday Spotlight Kit