JVOICES.COM

I’ve been wanting to write about the current war in Gaza for a while now, but it’s been hard to find the words for what I wanted to say. But today I started writing a letter to a friend, and found that in addressing a single person I was able to find words. So this [...]

all of the journalistic words have been, are being, said already.

[...]

to me, there’s only one thing worth saying on the journalistic side:
24 israelis have been killed by rocket or mortar attacks from gaza, ever.
more than 300 palestinians have been killed by the israeli blitzkrieg in gaza in the past 2 days.
more than 3,300 palestinians have been killed by the israeli military in gaza since 2000.
and it needs to be said over and over and over again.

beyond the journalistic. words aren’t worth much, or are everything.

[...]

On August 1st, I participated in a small tour through Canada Park lead by Eitan Bronstein, the Director of Zochrot [Remembering], an organization of Israeli citizens working to raise awareness of the Nakba, the Palestinian catastrophe of 1948. Canada Park is run by the Jewish National Fund (JNF) and lies thirty minutes outside of Tel [...]

I’ve been living in Jerusalem for a year now, and spending most of my time in a progressive Jewish community which also prays three times a day and always recites the blessing after meals. One of the central moments in each of these moments of prayer times is the prayer to build Jerusalem: “boneh yerushalayim,” [...]

L’Shana Tova & Shabbat Shalom

In recent years there’s been increasing awareness of Israel’s frequently inexplicable practice of the Law of Return, and the ways in which the Ultra-Orthodox have co-opted this to fan the flames of the “who is a Jew?” argument. Despite the strict methods they have for enforcing this policy, many immigrants from the former Soviet Union, [...]

I recently sat around with friends in my newly relocated life in the bay area, talking about presidential candidates. Wouldn’t you know, at that time, they all brushed me off when I said I was worried Giuliani might win. Now, they’re paying more attention. Giuliani is the front running GOP presidential candidate.
The past few [...]