Politics & Society
‘The next Haman’ beauty pageant!
|
“And isn’t that the problem and lesson of Purim as crafted by the rabbis? The evil and the good in our real world, (…) aren’t they bewilderingly transactional and sometimes interchangeable?”
Politics & Society
"A cloud hangs over our neighborhood": Jewish residents of the Upper West Side respond to Israel-related censorship
|
Please see the ad below, signed by a wide range of Jewish community leaders and members on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, in response to Israel-related censorship.
Politics & Society
Calling for a Matriot Revolution
|
Frances Payne Adler calls for us to be matriots, not patriots. What is a matriot, you might ask? “A matriot is one who perceives national defense as health, education, and shelter, for all of the people in his or her country, and the world.”
General News
How to Respond to the Opioid Crisis: Re-conceptualizing Shooting Galleries
|
Nadja Eisenberg-Guyot argues that, although shooting galleries have been misrepresented in public imagination as spaces that facilitate syringe sharing and drug trafficking, in reality they function as underground supervised injection facilities and help keep people safe.
War & Peace
Gun Violence as State Sponsored Domestic Terrorism
|
Henry Giroux tries to make sense of a world in which guns in schools have been normalized: “Instead of confronting the roots of violence in America, [Trump] followed the NRA line of addressing the issue […] with a call to arm more people, putting more guns into play.”
Politics & Society
How the Wars-for-our-Freedoms Narrative Stifles Debate and Undermines Democracy
|
“It’s extremely difficult to have a serious discussion about the pros and cons of war when the supporters of said war can use the freedom narrative like a cudgel to verbally bludgeon critics.”
Politics & Society
Teaching Racism and the Law at UCLA and Masaryk University
|
Paul Von Blum reflects on his experience teaching a course on racism and the law at universities in the United States and the Czech Republic––a class both necessary and timely because “[a]ny discussion about American racism requires an analysis of its institutional foundations.”
General News
Thoughts and Prayers? What the Prophet Isaiah Said
|
17 more dead. “Our thoughts and prayers are with you.” Sackcloth, ashes, bowing your head… Actually, on the night 17 people were killed in Florida, I thought to myself that maybe my husband and I should fast. We didn’t.
Culture
Belonging Cuts Like A Knife
|
I’ve heard it said that belonging sounds kind of soft, but to me, it’s a knife that cuts straight to the heart of our collective challenge. How do we cultivate a society that embodies the right to belong, that offers full cultural citizenship: justice and love, equity and compassion, the right to feel at home in one’s community, to feel safe in one’s school? To belong. It’s not clear whether school shooter Nikolas Cruz actually trained with the white nationalist militia Republic of Florida (the group’s leader claimed Cruz, then said he’d mistaken him for someone else. But Cruz had been aligned for years with white supremacist views, according to a high school classmate and others: “He would always talk about how he felt whites were a bit higher than everyone,” Charo said.
Politics & Society
Patriarchy: A major obstacle to world peace
|
In this article, Dr. Adis Duderija contends that the biggest obstacle to world peace is patriarchy: it “can only create exploitation, suffering and grief to human civilization at large and to our individual selves.”