McCain chooses to use UF President's influence

This past week, University of Florida President Bernie Machen publicly endorsed Senator John McCain's bid for the United States Presidency in 2008.

On Jan. 21, McCain's campaign announced Machen's endorsement and, in a sentiment that has since been echoed in a slew of columns and letters-to-the-editor throughout Gainesville, Fla. warned that his public support should not be misconstrued as an official approval from the university itself.

The Independent Florida Alligator, UF's daily - albeit officially disassociated - newspaper, ran a front-page article on Jan. 24 that quoted various other UF officials. The common thread running through the words of each of these officials was that Machen’s public support, though unusual, does not actually reflect the university.

Heroism at Sapir Hillel in Sderot

Dear friends,

All through the fall semester, Hillel Israel centers have been struggling heroically to attract students to programs in spite of a prolonged professors' strike that was responsible for the rescheduling of a full semester of classes. Just this weekend, the strike was finally settled, and each university is re-scheduling the courses that did not take place during the fall. Hillel is eager to continue all of our programming for students across the country. We're looking forward to welcoming larger numbers of participants to all of our activities.

Another kind of heroism was shown last week in Sapir Hillel in Sderot, when 60 students braved the danger of incessant kassam attacks to attend the opening session of a film-midrash series.

Last Tuesday, Sapir Hillel held the first meeting of a film series called "Midrash Kolnoa" ­a look at popular films as they relate to the Ten Commandments. Although all Sderot residents are used to the daily barrage of kassam rockets, and valiantly try to pursue their regular activities in spite of the danger, there is constant fear and anxiety at each tzeva adom (red alert). The attacks last Tuesday were exceptionally frequent, and the Hillel staff, together with their partners at the Cinematheque, had to decide whether to proceed with the plans for the evening's program, or to cancel the event because people were afraid to leave their homes.

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Reflections on the ICC 'Sixty At 60' mission

If the purpose of my first two trips to Israel, in the winter of 2004 and summer of 2005, was to paint me a marvelous picture of the country, and to enable me to affirm my support for the Jewish state, then the purpose of the Israel on Campus Coalition (ICC) "Israel at 60" mission was to give that picture a frame.

That frame, of course, came in the form of meetings with scholars, visits to controversial locations on the ground, and talks with people who in some way represent the "other side," with points of view that are suitable for only the most mature, open-minded audiences.

Every one of the 41 students on the trip - Jewish campus leaders who represented 25 colleges and universities from the United States, as well as 32 ICC member organizations which span the political spectrum from Americans for Peace Now to the Zionist Organization of America - share the common bond of a love for Israel and support of the right of the Jewish state to exist in peace and security.

Jews who abuse: dating violence on campus

Sometimes nice Jewish boys aren't so nice. Just ask Shira D. Epstein.
 
As a college freshman, Epstein joined Hillel to connect with her Jewish peers on campus. One of those peers turned into a boyfriend who spent an entire semester abusing her both emotionally and sexually.

"You wouldn't think that a guy who was pre-med, well-dressed and going to Hillel on Friday nights was bad in any way," says Epstein who is now an assistant professor at the Jewish Theological Seminary. Epstein designed the self-esteem building curriculum "Strong Girls, Healthy Relationships" for Jewish Women International (JWI).

The curriculum is one of several educational programs offered through JWI in response to a staggering statistic: 1 in 5 college students admits being abused by a current partner. (source, Jewish Women International)

Jews who abuse: dating violence on campus

"I loved to sing. He didn't like me singing in the car. So I stopped," says April. The reason? "I didn't want to give up the dream of marrying a Jewish doctor."

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Center Stage at the 2007 UJC GA

Taube Schwartz, a junior theater major at Northwestern University, was one of 325 Hillel students from around the United States and Canada who attended this year's United Jewish Communities General Assembly (UJC GA) which was held in Nashville, Tenn. from Nov. 22-13. The GA is the largest gathering of Jewish leadership in the world and is the most prestigious annual event on the Jewish communal calendar. Schwartz spoke to Jerusalem Online about her experiences at the event. Here is what she had to say:

It was really exciting to be at the UJC GA because it was a unique opportunity in the Jewish year to bring together people from different generations and backgrounds. As a university delegate it was such an opportunity not only to meet with other university students and learn what they are doing on their college campuses and what I could take back to mine, but also to meet people who are 20, 30, 40, 50 years older than I am and to see their life in the Jewish community and how they got to be where they are today. 

No emphatic ear at Hillel

My experience with Hillel was at UCLA, particularly when I returned from a year at the Hebrew University. Hillel was then run by a man who in addition to having rabbinical credentials, anointed himself Jewish leader on campus. After living in Israel, I found Hillel a stuffy place and I did not connect much with its students, or its program. Nevertheless, feeling myself Jewish from time to time I kept going there and looking for common ground. What I found at Hillel was antipathy and exclusion from the top down.

In 1988 UCLA's newspapers, especially the African-American one denigrated Israel on a periodical basis: with each chance they got. In addition to the newspapers I was privy to harsher judgment in private where people could not be held accountable, nor where I could prove infamy or abuse. At one fraternity I was told "get this darky off of me." A date showed up to scream at me "I don't want to have anything to do with you because you are Israeli;" no doubt, a Jew. At a graduate school interview I was angrily interrogated about the relevance of my year in Israel to medical studies, and then hurriedly asked to leave. In one lecture I was taunted by a hundred people for mentioning Israel; consequently I left the class.  At college I also learned what the word 'kike' meant. I came by all of this and more honestly, that is, I was unprepared for it until it found me. More-so, I did not find an empathic Jewish ear, particularly at Hillel nor was I permitted to file a complaint.

Hillel's Bar Mitzvah in the FSU

This journey was nothing short of miraculous for me. It seems like only yesterday that I was a young Jewish student activist, rallying my campus on behalf of "Soviet Jewry," which seems such a quaint phrase today.

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