Written by Daniel Levine, third-year cognitive science major and gabbai of UCLA’s Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus Throughout the Exodus story, we are presented with multiple interactions between Moses and Pharaoh. On their surface, these meetings seem to comprise Moses…
Racism anywhere is racism everywhere
In an eye-opening lecture at Hillel this week, Paul Von Blum spoke to students about his life of social activism and unshaken secular Jewish identity. A second-generation Holocaust survivor, he claims his experience in civil rights began before his birth…
Thought Lounge: resuscitating a tradition of dialogue
One of our richest cultural inheritances is the Talmud. Its roughly 6,200 pages consists of rabbinic folklore, customs, history, ethics, philosophy and law, oftentimes moving between these topics in the span of a sentence. Since I went to private Jewish…
A “not so special relationship,” but a surprising impartiality
As murmurs in Hebrew permeated the room and the predominantly sprightly, older crowd found their seats, it became quickly evident that this event would exude a vibrant energy. Hosted by the UCLA Nazarian Center for Israel Studies and entitled “Not…
Taste of Torah: You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar
Written by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan, Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus. Heralded as a leader and revered in history as a paradigmatic hero, it’s hard to imagine that there was a time in Moses’ life marked with desperation. In this week’s…
Charlie Hebdo and the past, present and future of French Jewry
This past Monday night, UCLA students held a vigil for the victims of the Charlie Hebdo and Hyper Cacher grocery store shootings, as well as for the policewoman who was killed in a related shooting. 8:30 p.m. found about 70…
A “frank and open” conversation with Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel, Rabbi Lau
This past Sunday afternoon, current students and alumni of UCLA, USC, CSUN, and SMC gathered to ask questions about American Jewry and the State of Israel to Rabbi David Baruch Lau, the Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Israel, during his first…
Debate Table: Is Israel a Jewish State?
Is Israel a Jewish State? No. But it can be. by Ha’Am Contributor Groups like Bruins for Israel love to tout the idea that Jews, like all other national groups, deserve a state. That would be a good argument if…
Anti-Israel media bias around the world and around campus
An American woman and her husband tried for three years to have a child before their daughter, Chaya Zissel Braun, came into the world four months ago. To show their gratitude to G-d for this precious gift, they traveled to…
