Ocasio-Cortez did not simply put a bully in his place; she demonstrated to a generation of young women that they don’t need to accept such abuse either.
As a Hillel director for the last seven years, I have come to love this time of year. Graduation is the moment to celebrate not just academic learning, but the personal growth and discovery students experience during their university years.
Meet 22-year-old Jeremy Moskowitz, the poster child for what Hillel hopes will be a revolution in campus Jewish life. The catch: He didn’t spend much time at Hillel during his four years at Duke University.
The personal papers and other materials of Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, a founder of the Jewish Renewal movement, have been given to the University of Colorado. The material, including audio-visual material, have become part of the Colorado University-Boulder Library Archives, according to the Boulder Jewish News, after being in the care of Naropa University, which was working with the Reb Zalman Legacy Project of the Yesod Foundation to preserve, develop and circulate the rabbi\’s writings and teachings. The Jewish Renewal movement has infused modern Judaism with mystical teachings and contemplative practices influenced by Hasidism. The movement is run by ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal in Philadelphia.
Indiana University reportedly has fired an employee who was identified as a suspect in one attack in a series on Jewish targets. Mark Zacharias, the scholarship coordinator of IU’s Hutton Honors College Scholarship, was let go after working at the university for seven years, The Herald-Times in Bloomington reported Tuesday. He has been charged with felony institutional criminal mischief. Zacharias had turned himself in on Dec. 17 and was released after posting a $500 bond.
The Wall Street Journal recently published a column about ultra-Orthodox (Charedi) Jews in Israel who do not work for a living. Sixty-five percent of ultra-Orthodox men ages 35-54 do not go to work. Instead, they study Torah while demanding increasing amounts of money from the taxes paid by Israelis who work for a living. The author of the column, Evan R. Goldstein, wrote: “Voluntary unemployment has become the dominant lifestyle choice for [Charedi] men. And even if there was a desire to work, [Charedi] schools leave students unprepared to function in a modern economy.”
The desecration of holy texts was among three new attacks on Jewish targets at Indiana University that come in the wake of two earlier incidents. A rock was thrown Tuesday morning through the window of an apartment above the Chabad Jewish student center, located just off the university campus, nearly hitting a student and putting a hole in the opposite wall. Four non-Jewish students live in the Chabad apartment. Less than an hour later, a rock was thrown at the staff directory glass display case for the Robert A. and Sandra B. Borns Jewish Studies Program, causing damage.
I hate to admit it, but after decades of writing about Jewish-themed movies, I had only the vaguest notion of the National Center for Jewish Film (NCJF), but executive director Rivo filled me in.
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