With the advent of a new academic year, innovations are practically inevitable for an ever-evolving campus such as UCLA. One novelty at UCLA took place earlier this fall at the UCLA Alan D. Leve Center for Jewish Studies (CJS), when…
The restriction of our movements: leaning towards nondenominational Judaism
I would like to introduce you to The Box. The Box helps define, categorize and organize. It’s comfortable inside The Box. We were raised in The Box. Our families helped build The Box. Whom would we be without The Box?…
Yiscah Smith: activist, leader, hero
We are a species that categorizes. Categories permeate every facet of our lives, as categorization is a natural process for us to organize the world around us. Essentially, humans naturally dissect one another into compartments, or identifiers. Consider how others…
How Hadas Libman keeps it on par
Hadas Libman is the latest diamond in the rough in Jewish Athletes. She hails from Israel and sacrificed time away from her family to live the dream of becoming a professional women’s golfer. She won her first Israeli Open when…
James Franco’s Bar Mitzvah: holy rite of passage or Hollywood fanfare?
It seems like every now and then, another Hollywood movie star steps into the Jewish spotlight. The most recent was actor James Franco, who announced his bar mitzvah ceremony through Instagram. Born to a Jewish mother, Franco is indeed Jewish,…
American Jews and voting rights
In California, 6.6 million eligible voters are not registered — and that is truly pathetic. From Saudi Arabia to North Korea, in so many countries around the world, people do not have a say in the policies that directly affect…
California’s End of Life Option Act and the value of dignity
The End of Life Option Act was recently passed in the California legislature and signed into law by Governor Brown to great anticipation on behalf of euthanasia and assisted suicide advocates, as well as many patients with terminal illnesses. It…
A ‘shameful’ schnoz
Think you can recognize a Jew at a single glance? I doubt it. Many believe they can distinguish a Jew solely by his or her appearance. In reality, the type of Jew classified in such cases is just one particular…
Returning to Zionism’s roots: Leon Pinsker, Auto-Emancipation and the real meaning of Zionism
Few political terms have such a hazy and imprecise definition in popular discourse as “Zionism.” In part, this is due to the political agenda behind the views of both self-professed Zionists and anti-Zionists. And yet, it is critical for us,…
Keeping friends close and enemies closer: a look into the world of self-hating Jews
We are always our own greatest critics. And rightly so, for only we can truly possess the fundamental understanding of the motivations and inner machinations that drive our transgressions. No one else can judge and scrutinize with a parallel level…