This week’s Torah portion introduces the well-known Judaic concept of “Love your fellow, as yourself.” It is interesting to note that in contrast to most of the other fundamental commandments, the instruction to “Love your fellow, as yourself” does not…
UCLA Professor Judea Pearl on Jewishness, Israel, and BDS
Judea Pearl is an Israeli-American professor of Computer Science and statistics at UCLA, the director of UCLA’s Cognitive Systems Laboratory, and a Turing Award recipient recognized for his contributions to the field of artificial intelligence by his invention of Bayesian…
Submission: The Jewish community’s vote must be earned
I want to take you back to the UCLA I was admitted to three years ago, in the spring of 2015. A close friend of mine, Ariel Rafalian, was running for Transfer Student Representative in a hard fought student government…
Taste of Torah: On Tzara’at and Intellectual Honesty
In this week’s parsha, Tazria, we are quickly confronted with laws and procedures dealing with tzara’at. The initial verse regarding this phenomenon is as follows: אָדָם כִּי־יִהְיֶה בְעוֹר־בְּשָׂרוֹ שְׂאֵת אוֹ־סַפַּחַת אוֹ בַהֶרֶת וְהָיָה בְעוֹר־בְּשָׂרוֹ לְנֶגַע צָרָעַת וְהוּבָא אֶל־אַהֲרֹן הַכֹּהֵן אוֹ אֶל־אַחַד מִבָּנָיו…
One Issue ≠ Endorsement
The Jewish Community must do a better job of picking and choosing our battles. An old adage suggests that “two Jews, [have] three opinions.” This appears to suggest reference to the indecisiveness and appreciate for debate which Jews are renown.…
A Response to Mr. Robert Gardner
Reading Mr. Robert Gardner’s submission in the Daily Bruin, I was bewildered and angered. It is one thing to criticize the policies of the Israeli government, as I do frequently. It is another to presumptuously define another’s identity and fallaciously mask bigoted…
Interview with Holocaust Survivor Harry Davids
I had the privilege of sitting down with Harry Davids, a Holocaust survivor. In our conversation, we discussed his life story, his worldview and his relentless optimism. Responses have been edited mildly for clarity. Can you tell me a little…
Ha’Am Launches UCLA Jewish Community Survey
Ask three Jewish organizations what Jewish life on campus looks like and you’ll likely get three (or more) answers. Ask Jewish students, however, and you might get a more realistic picture of what the Jewish campus experience is actually like.…
Jewish Student Advocates Must Own Issues of “The Other”
Jewish students at University of California campuses have always been good at organizing for issues pertaining to the collegiate Jewish experience. For instance, in 2014, UC administrators announced that the system would be shortening the 2014-15 academic year’s winter break…
I Wrote This On Shabbat
Even as a child, lighting candles on Shabbat with my grandmother and mother as a ritual held a meaningful place in my heart. While my family never strictly adhered to every single rule of Shabbat, we observed it through the…