On November 11, former speaker of the Israeli Knesset Avraham Burg was supposed to give a talk on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at the Harvard Hillel house. Instead, Hillel barred him from speaking at the Hillel house, and he ended up giving his talk in an undergraduate dormitory on campus. The reason he was barred? His [...]
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Dear YU, In light of the recent allegations against at least two former members of the Yeshiva University faculty, we believe that it is critical for our university to take preemptive measures to protect its students from potential future abusers. As two current students at Yeshiva University, we would like to suggest two possible steps [...]
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Want to know what type of Orthodox Jew you are? We found this intersting test online (click here) that helps determine a person’s Orthodox identity by selecting a list of telling answer choices. It provides a sophisticated list of answer choices to each topic in question, and the results are shockingly accurate. So take a look [...]
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Well, not yet. According to The Beacon’s sources, a student at Stern claims that her financial scholarship was terminated after she circulated a survey about sex in Yeshiva. The survey, which for the time being can be accessed here, was allegedly created by the student to help give her ideas for writing. While news in this [...]
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Despite the very many attempts on the pro-Israel right to undermine John Kerry’s initiative for peace in the middle east, there seems to be a growing number of American Jews willing to embrace peace. For instance, even the notoriously hawkish AIPAC has come to Kerry’s defense, in a message they published supporting the reopening of [...]
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When the Egyptian people stormed Tahrir Square back in 2011, many of us looked on with hope as an Arab country appeared to call for democracy. The farcical election in Iran a little bit earlier had demonstrated just how difficult such an event was in the Middle East, and many people looked at the action [...]
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As a precondition for reopening peace talks with the Palestinians, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu unsuccessfully called on the U.S. to release Jonathan Pollard, the American convicted of spying on behalf of Israel in the 80’s. The fight to free Pollard from a life long prison sentence has gone on for decades, with many well [...]
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Is Israel advocacy a partisan issue? Well, after the appointment of Ron Dermer, a neo conservative former supporter of Mitt Romney, as the new ambassador of Israel to America, many of us might think so. When we look at the voting records of Republicans and Democrats in this country, being pro-Israel wouldn’t seem to be [...]
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In light of the recently uncovered sexual abuse case out of Yeshiva University, a website has been created to help abuse victims of that institution. Yeshiva University Survivor was created by Moredechai I. Twersky and several other victims of abuse, who are using the website to create a confidential community of YU survivors, where victims [...]
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You know the saying, “The best defense is a good offense?” With defending belief in God, I find a very different tactic to be worthwhile. Instead of attacking the opposition’s premises, the more prudent route would be to permit, even to encourage, those who raise objections against belief in God to explain themselves. Like a [...]
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