Kiyaaa! – Joaquin Phoenix and girlfriend attend Jewish-Muslim karate workshop

by Jared Sichel for JewishJournal.com

About a dozen Jewish and Muslim high school students participating in a martial arts workshop in Los Angeles got a pleasant surprise Sunday – Golden Globe winner and Oscar nominated actor Joaquin Phoenix showed up to watch with his girlfriend and renowned DJ, Allie Teilz.

Only two days earlier, Deadline.com reported that Phoenix will be starring in Woody Allen’s newest film, details of which are being kept under wraps. According to Variety.com, actress Emma Stone will star alongside Phoenix. Shooting is expected to begin in July.

Although Phoenix politely declined an interview, he and Teilz stayed for the duration of the workshop, over two hours, and he even walked around handing out bottled water to the small group of participants and observers, introducing himself and chatting with the people sitting next to him and Teilz.

In recent months, the Daily Mail has chronicled Phoenix’s karate habit, snapping photos of him leaving practice adorned in traditional martial arts garb. Sunday, he was dressed down, sporting a black hat, white shirt, and black jeans. The event was held at the Traditional Karate Academy on West Pico Boulevard, which doubles as “The Happy Minyan” synagogue on Shabbat and holidays.

The idea of bringing together Jewish and Muslim students around karate was endorsed by the United Nations Sport for Development and Peace, which aims to bridge cultural, religious, and ethnic groups through sports. UN official and conflict resolution veteran Gay Rosenblum-Kumaropened even kicked off the event via Skype, thanking the students for participating in the workshop.

The River Phoenix Center for Peacebuilding supported the workshop as well.

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My Shabbat Dinner with Muslims

by Audra Gamble for newvoices.org

My grandmother tells this story about how a relative of hers who lived in Israel asked her, quite intensely, whether she was an American or a Jew. She didn’t know what to say; why couldn’t she be both?

For many American Jews, including me, this question is ridiculous. I have no problems with the intersecting parts of my identity. I can identify as Jewish, as American, as a college student, as a Cleveland Indians fan, and a whole host of other things without any problem.

But for those who fight for their identities and the validation of them, it is not so easy. When your life is full of uncertainty and fear, it makes sense to desperately cling to the identifying factor that you are fighting for. That thing begins to define every aspect of you.

So, the question posed to my grandmother by a man who lived in a place rife with conflict was not so preposterous for him.

It is impossible for Jews anywhere in the world to ignore events in Israel, and it is foolish to turn a blind eye on the violence – from both sides – of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. There is a deep and rich history of conflict, and thus hatred, between Muslims and Jews.

But that hatred is not inherent. Each and every Muslim and Jew has the ability to love rather than hate. Each and every Muslim and Jew has the ability to hug rather than hit. Each and every Muslim and Jew has the ability to chat and laugh rather than yell and fume.

And the decision to love and laugh is exactly what happened at Grand Valley State University. On March 14, the GVSU Hillel hosted its second annual Shabbat dinner welcoming the Muslim Student Association (MSA) in honor of Avi Schaefer, a young advocate for peace between Israel and Palestine who was killed by a drunk driver in 2010. Though West Michigan might not be known for its religious diversity, the GVSU students decided to put aside any differences, perceived or real, for an evening to come together for conversation and a meal.

The evening began like any other Shabbat dinner, with Shabbat prayers recited by those who knew them. We all shared some grape juice and challah, and then we grabbed plates of Mediterranean food and sat down at the same table.

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The Closing of the Academic Mind

By William Kristol for The Weekly Standard

From Brandeis on the Atlantic to Azusa on the Pacific, an iron curtain has descended across academia. Behind that line lie all the classrooms of the ancient schools of America. Wesleyan, Brown, Princeton, Vassar, Bryn Mawr, Berkeley, Bowdoin, and Stanford, all these famous colleges and the populations within them lie in what we must call the Liberal sphere, and all are subject in one form or another, not only to influence but to a very high and, in many cases, increasing measure of control from the commissars of Liberal Orthodoxy. .  .  .

How can one resist the chance to echo Churchill’s Iron Curtain speech? Okay, it’s not a precise analogy. It’s true that liberalism isn’t communism. It’s true that today’s liberals deploy the wet blanket of conformity rather than the clenched fist of suppression. It’s true that communism crushed minds, while today’s liberalism is merely engaged in closing them. And it’s true that most of the denizens of our universities, unlike the peoples of Central and Eastern Europe, embrace their commissars. But commissars they are.

On April 8, the admirable human rights campaigner Ayaan Hirsi Ali had an honorary degree from Brandeis University revoked because some of her criticisms of Islamism—and yes, even (God forbid!) of Islam itself—were judged by that university’s president “inconsistent with Brandeis University’s core values.” Apparently two of Brandeis’s core values are cowardice in the face of Islamists and timidity in the face of intolerance. Less than two weeks later, on April 21, an appearance by the formidable social scientist Charles Murray at Azusa Pacific University was canceled by its president, two days before Murray was to have appeared. The administration was afraid Murray’s presence on campus might hurt the feelings of some Asuza students and faculty. The same day, at Eastern Connecticut State University, a professor told his creative writing class that Republicans are “racist, misogynist, money-grubbing people” who “want things to go back—not to 1955, but to 1855,” and that “colleges will start closing up” if the GOP takes control of the Senate this November. If only!

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NYU Students Get Mock Eviction Notices

Students for Justice in Palestine delivered the flyers to campus dorm rooms

By Stephanie Butnick for Tablet Magazine

Mock eviction notices were delivered to students living in New York University dorm rooms this morning. “We regret to inform you that your suite is scheduled for demolition in three days,” the notices, which were delivered by the campus chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, read. “If you do not vacate the premises by midnight on 25 April, 2014 we reserve the right to destroy all remaining belongings.”

The New York Post and the Times of Israel report that Jewish students were targeted with the flyers, which are intended to resemble eviction notices delivered to Palestinian homes in parts of Israel. Students for Justice in Palestine denied the claim on their website, saying they distributed more than 2,000 flyers throughout two dormitories.

The eviction notices are a tactic frequently employed by the student group; its Northeastern University chapter was suspended last month for distributing similar flyers. The group was reinstated on probation earlier today.

NYU spokesman John Beckman commented on the flyers, telling the Post, “NYU encourages free speech and the free exchange of ideas, but our hope is that the discourse – including debate on controversial issues – will be conducted in a fashion that is mature and that is meant to elicit thoughtful discussion rather than simply provoke.”

That college campuses should be places dedicated to fostering and upholding constructive dialogue—even, or perhaps especially, when it comes to contentious issues—happens to be a criticism recently leveled at NYU. Responding to the university’s American Studies department sponsoring a less-than-balanced conference on Israel last month, which organizers tried to keep private and out of the press, Liel Leibovitz wrote that a university “is—or should be—open to all ideas, to myriad points of view, to discussion, to dissent.”

There will certainly be no shortage of discussion about the eviction notices across campus in the coming days. Whether that conversation rises to the level of productive discourse is, ultimately, up to the university and its students.

‘Go Down, Moses’: Engaging With My Complex Musical Heritage at Passover

As a black classical singer, I avoided singing negro spirituals—until Yiddish music helped me hear them in a new way as a Jew

By Anthony Russell for Tablet Magazine

The first time I heard a live rendition of “Go Down, Moses” was at the first Passover Seder I ever attended. Somewhere around the third cup of wine, a room full of Jews sang the classic negro spiritual in lively fashion, followed almost immediately by “O Freedom,” another classic negro spiritual.

A feeling of bewilderment and paranoia began to steal over me: Why are they singing these songs? Are they looking at me? Do they expect me to know these songs?

That was six years ago, before I converted. Now that I’ve formally been a Jew for a couple of years, being the only black man in Jewish spaces has lost some of its initial awkwardness. Still, when a black man decides that he is going to attend shul regularly, he doesn’t have to look for awkwardness—it will find him. There was the time I unwittingly stood on the wrong side of the mechitzah while visiting the Carlebach Shul; it was the only section with any room, so I thoughtlessly went there. Oftentimes other Jews, well-meaning and otherwise, are the source of awkwardness, like the time a synagogue greeter stopped me to request that I wear a kippah before entering the sanctuary with a stern statement: “This is the custom of our people.” I was somewhat embarrassed to have to show the greeter that I already had a kippah on my head—my own kippah, in fact.

At that first Seder, I was my own source of awkwardness. I wouldn’t say I’d been actively running away from negro spirituals, but I’d spent 15 years as an African-American classical singer scrupulously avoiding singing them. That Seder was indeed a “night of questions,” implicated as I was by the question of the Wicked Child: What does all this mean to you?

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Why the Jewish College Student Survey Matters to You

newvoices.com

For all its hype, the Pew report missed a lot of college-aged Jews, and therefore might have missed a lot about us. Two professors from Trinity College in Connecticut, Barry Kosmin and Ariela Keysar, hope to get the true picture of who we are and what we want by creating an online survey accessible here that they hope will reach as many Jewish students as possible.

New Voices editor Derek M. Kwait interviewed Professors Kosmin and Keysar via email about their goals for the survey and what it means for us.

Please define “college student.” Is a 22 year-old Jew who never went to college ineligible to participate in the survey? Is a middle-aged Jew just starting college now eligible?

The survey is primarily aimed at current American college students since it is a comparative study with our 2013 national student survey and a 2012 U.K Jewish Student survey.

Older students are eligible, although we expect most of the students to be 18-22.

Similarly, how are you defining Jews?

The respondents decide if they are Jewish or not. This is the wording of the introduction:

We would like you to complete this survey if you consider yourself to be Jewish in any way, such as by religion, culture, ethnicity, parentage or ancestry.

We wish to cast the net wide in order to capture a full spectrum.

As in our previous studies, we prefer to let the respondent self-identify, to empower him/herself to be part of the Jewish community. As we know from other studies, Jews do not like to be told how to be Jewish. And the issue of “who is a Jew” is very sensitive.

Why is it important for young Jews to participate in this survey?

Young adults are under-represented in most surveys of Jews, which are directed to households reached by landline telephones. Ours is geared to the younger generation because it is online – the medium is the message.

It is important for many young Jews to participate. It increases the chances that diverse opinions will be expressed and that the survey will better represent the diversity of young people today.

The powers that be will listen to young people if they are willing to give their views and communicate their opinions. So we need lots of students to participate – there is power in numbers.

Please encourage your readers to participate in the survey by following this link
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Hillel Guide to Passover-Download

Passover is the most celebrated Jewish holiday throughout the world, commemorating the Israelites’ exodus from a life of slavery in Egypt to freedom. On the first two nights of Passover, many Jews hold a seder (literally 'order'), consisting of a series of readings and rituals, and we retell the Passover story. The seder is an annual Jewish ritual in which groups of people—families, friends, communities, and even groups of strangers—gather for a time of reflective conversation about freedom.

A Freedom Themed Passover in Israel
Hillel Israel celebrated Passover with the children of migrant workers to highlight the values of freedom and liberty. Israeli students joined with the Kibbutzim Seminary’s student union at a unique event that combined elements of the traditional seder with material relevant to the children’s lives, emphasizing the themes of freedom and liberty. The children shared their families' personal story of the journey to freedom with their Israeli hosts.

"This event cast Passover in contemporary terms, making it relevant to young Israelis and underscoring Hillel Israel's desire to promote Jewish renewal and communal responsibility among our students,” said David Ya’ari, then CEO of Hillel Israel.

Asking Big Questions:

If you’re hosting your own seder, check out our Passover guide!

Our award-winning Ask Big Questions initiative gives students the opportunity to have conversations about topics that matter to everyone, in order to understand each other, understand ourselves, and make the world a better place.

With that in mind, we created the “Are we free?” Passover guide to inspire conversation and create understanding among Jewish students – and all seder participants – about the big questions concerning freedom’s meaning, for what they are thankful and for whom they are responsible. The guide can help make the Passover ritual one that will deepen students’ connection to Judaism, our people and our practice. Download it now

For more Passover news, check out our    page.