Culture
Arrivals Gate
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Sitting in the Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, nearing the anniversary of Shavuot, author Rae Abileah considers the commandment “love thy neighbor” in regards to the Israel-Palestine conflict.
Culture
Young Muslims Choosing to Wear the Hijab Despite Rising Tide of Islamophobia
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Outward displays of one’s faith can be controversial, especially if that faith has anything to do with Islam. Young adults discuss the physical demonstrations that keep them connected to their spirituality, and maintaining these displays in the face of discrimination.
art
Yuri Kochiyama and Amiri Baraka play 2-on-2 in Heaven
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I had this crazy dream last night. Yuri Kochiyama and Amiri Baraka were up in heaven…playing Ronald Reagan and Strom Thurmond in a game of 2-on-2 basketball. The stakes? Dismantling the segregated institutions of heaven. Why all the clouds gotta be white?
Culture
Jews in America: Our Conflicted Heritage
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The good news is that even as many young Jews reject Judaism, they nevertheless have inherited a memory of the values that Judaism sought to inspire, and so many have joined in a wide variety of prophetic enterprises to reclaim Jewish spirituality and/or rebuild a Jewish social justice consciousness.
Atheism
Supreme Court Ruling on Public Prayer Re-enforces Christian Supremacy
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While a strict separation of synagogue and state, mosque and state, Hindu and Buddhist temple and state, and separation of atheists and state and virtually all the other approximately 5000 religions and state has been enacted, on the other hand, church – predominantly Protestant denominations, but also Catholic – and state, have connected virtually seamlessly to the affairs and policies of what we call the United States of America, from the first invasion of Europeans in the 15th century on the Christian Julian to the Christian Gregorian Calendars up to 2014 Anno Domini (short for Anno Domini Nostri Iesu Christi – “In the year of our Lord Jesus Christ”).
Culture
Israeli Arabs and Jews in Dialogue and Coalition
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Today, Muslim Arab residents comprise 20% of the total Israeli population. According to Kav Mashve’s informational videos, though the Israeli government has instituted an affirmative action policy of employing Arabs in government jobs, has provided financial incentives to prospective employers, and funds and staffs employment guidance centers in Arab towns throughout Israel, the employment rates, however, of Arab Israeli college and university graduates within their respective fields persists one-fifth lower than their Jewish counterparts.
Culture
Hirsi Ali, Islam, and Cultural Relativism: The Brandeis Controversy
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In an age of identity politics can we criticize the formerly colonized or semi-colonized “Two-Thirds World” (in the faculty letter’s terminology)? How to address female genital mutilation in Somalia, slavery in Mauritania and the lynching of gays in Kenya? Especially when such occurrences are clothed with the authority of religion, how do we respond?
Inter-Culturalism
Jews as Racialized Other as Reflected in the Kansas Murders
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Why did a self-described “white supremacist” target apparent white people at Jewish community centers? The answer is quite simple: Though Jewish people are members of every so-called “race,” even Jews of European heritage (Ashkenazim) have been and still continue to be “racially” othered by dominant Christian European-heritage communities in some quarters.
Culture
Ultra-Orthodox Jews Draw the Line
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A recent law obligating military service on religious Yeshiva students reveals the inherent flaw in Israel’s claim to be Jewish.
Culture
Is There Finally Hope for Challenging Orientalism in Hollywood?
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Last week the world of American Muslim social media (if there is such a thing) was rocked by an unexpected victory. A proposed ABCFamily show provocatively entitled Alice in Arabia was cancelled after a protest by American Muslims. The reason: this tale of an American girl kidnapped by Saudi relatives and held, veiled against her will in Saudi Arabia was all too familiar as stereotypical orientalism. The question then becomes, with films and television shows preceding it rife with the racist prejudices of our American consciousness, why was Alice in Arabia different?