In 2016, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, appointed a 55-year-old anti-Semitic hardliner and Islamic jurist, Ebrahim Raisi, as chairman of that Iranian government’s reserve for terrorism, the Astan Quds Razavi. Fast forward to August of 2020, 60-year-old Ebrahim Raisi…
Off Campus
Bennett, Bibi, & Iran
Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu was ousted as Israel’s prime minister on June 14, 2021, after Naftali Bennett and his Yamina party formed a government with other right and center-right Israeli parties. While both Bennett and Netanyahu have political differences, both…
Jewish World Series
There is a famous scene in the 1980s classic film Airplane, where an elderly woman asks the flight attendant for some “light reading.” Cleverly, the flight attendant hands her back a leaflet titled “famous Jewish sports legends.” From actors to…
COVID Aliyah
In August 2020, despite global lockdowns, travel restrictions, and the rampant spread of COVID-19, I had the unique opportunity to take a gap year and study at a yeshiva, a program for post-high school students to pursue Judaic studies in…
Abolhassan Banisadr: A Power-Hungry President
In France, 88-year-old Abolhassan Banisadr died from a long illness on Saturday, October 9, 2021. After supporting Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Banisadr became Iran’s first elected president in February of 1980 but was shortly impeached and fled to France following an…
Jews in the Civil Rights Movement
On March 21, 1965, Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. marched from Selma to Mongtomery, Alabama in order to support voting rights for African Americans. Next to him stood Rabbi Abraham Joshua Herschel, a Jewish theologian who faced Nazi perseuction…
A Coalition to End the Reign of Prime Minister Netanyahu?
Israel’s democratic fever dream has almost broken. After four elections in two years, a coalition government finally seems poised to end the 12 year reign of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The proposed coalition could give Israel a semblance of stability…
No Action Taken Against Anti-Semitism on Social Media
Social media runs our lives. From the moment we wake up to the moment we go to sleep, our phones are bombarded with notifications from various social media sites. We spend an average of over two hour a day on…
Conflict Rises Between Israel and Gaza
Violence intensified between the Israeli government and Hamas on Tuesday, May 11, after Hamas fired initial rockets. More than 83 Palestinians in Gaza and six Israelis were killed as a result of this ongoing conflict, according to “The New York…
The Mizrahi Black Panthers of Israel
When considering civil rights in Israel you would be remiss to not focus on the treatment of Palestinians, and their relationship with Israelis. But this year marks the 50th anniversary of a different civil rights movement, one that pitted Israeli…