From Campus to Kibbutz: Vivian Silver’s legacy as a Jewish student leader | New Voices

For over a month, 74-year-old Vivian Silver was presumed to have been among those held hostage in Gaza. 

Last week, it was discovered that Vivian was killed in the Hamas attack on October 7th, at Kibbutz Beeri. 

A lifelong peace activist, Vivian began her activism as a founding leader of the Jewish Student Press Service – the organization now known as New Voices Magazine.

In revisiting the origins of her work as a key leader in the Jewish student movement of the 1970s, we honor her legacy – both in Israel-Palestine, and across US college campuses.
— Read on newvoices.org/2023/11/21/from-campus-to-kibbutz-vivian-silvers-legacy-as-a-jewish-student-leader/

Faith and doubt, Lubavitch style

Science says the Rebbe has been dead nearly 30 years. Faith, however….

In this essay, a Chabad educator talks about Gimmel Tammuz, the date of the Rebbe’s “death.”

https://collive.com/can-we-talk-about-our-gimmel-tammuz-reality/

Key paragraph:

“Every talmid [student] must know that we have a Rebbe that is with us today and that they can personally connect with the Rebbe today. They can write to the Rebbe today, via the Ohel and Igros Kodesh, and receive direct answers from the Rebbe to their individual challenges.”

The structure of the argument will be familiar to those of us who have followed the faith vs science debates in Orthodox and Conservative Jewish circles.

Some thoughts on Bibi’s judicial “reform”

As @ruthbenghiat has (I believe) noted, one common authoritarian trick is to rope ideological supporters into getting dragged into the authoritarian's corruption.

Whatever the good intentions of Moshe Koppel and the leadership of American Orthodox Zionism, the fact is the first priority of the Bibi/Smotrich government is preserving the careers of corrupt politicians with the blood of innocent believers on their hands. (Cf. Meron).

One would like to imagine that that Rav Kook or Rav Hirsch would have protested that. But Actually Existing Orthodoxy, like Actually Existing Communism, is actually, and irredeemably, corrupt.

It turns out that their is no exemption from Lord Acton's dictate for those who put on tefilin every morning. Sad.

Anyway, something to reflect on the next time you see the @OUKosher symbol on a can of tuna fish.

Originally tweeted by Larry Yudelson (@yudel) on March 13, 2023.

China’s Balloon May Have Taught Pentagon More Than Beijing Learned From It, General Says – Defense One

You always have to balance [the act of shooting down] with the intel-gain opportunity,” he said. “And so there was a potential opportunity for us to collect intel where we had gaps on prior balloons. And so I would defer to the intel community, but this gave us the opportunity to assess what [the Chinese] were actually doing, what kind of capabilities existed on the balloon, what kind of transmission capabilities exist on it and I think you’ll see in the future that that timeframe was well worth its value to collect.”
— Read on www.defenseone.com/technology/2023/02/chinas-balloon-may-have-taught-pentagon-more-beijing-learned-it-general-says/382642/

Update on lawsuit against Yeshiva University alleging negligence in responding to rape

Bottom line: Plaintiff seeks permission to amend complaint, which will include (under seal, so confidentially) reports of on-campus rapes that YU failed to report as required by federal law. Looking forward to YU claiming that reporting requirements violate the halachic principles of self-incrimination.

And YU’s response.