Campus Watch April 11, 2024

Guest Speaker at Mandatory UCLA Med School Lecture Leads “Free Palestine” Chant

A guest speaker during a lecture for a required course for first-year UCLA Medical School students led a “Free, Free Palestine” chant on March 27.

The Washington Free Beacon reported that the guest speaker, Lisa “Tiny” Gray-Garcia, was giving a talk on “Housing (In)Justice” and had her face covered with a Palestinian keffiyeh. In addition to the “Free Palestine” chant––which purportedly featured UCLA faculty and administrators watching in silence––Gray-Garcia reportedly ordered students to kneel, touch “Mama Earth” with their fists and pray to “the ancestors.” According to the Daily Mail, Gray-Garcia has previously referred to the Oct. 7 massacre as “justice” and has compared the homeless to the Palestinians.

The David Geffen School of Medicine said in a statement to the Journal, “We take this matter seriously and are looking into the details of what transpired.”

20 Pro-Palestinian Protesters Arrested for Occupying Pomona College President’s Office

Twenty pro-Palestinian protesters, all of whom are Pomona College students, were arrested on April 5 after occupying Alexander Hall, many of whom occupied President Gabriele Starr’s office inside the building.

According to The Claremont Independent, pro-Palestinian groups on campus had built a mock apartheid wall on campus throughout the week; it was taken down by the college on April 5. These groups have also been calling for the college to divest from Israel. Eighteen protesters reportedly occupied Starr’s office and “dozens more” occupied the hallway outside her office, per The Claremont Independent. More than 100 protesters chanted anti-Israel invectives outside Alexander Hall like, “Israel bombs, Pomona pays, how many kids did you kill today?” Starr reportedly told the protesters: “Everyone in this building is immediately subject to suspension. Harassment is following me with a camera, that is now clear. If you do not leave within the next ten minutes, every student in this building is immediately suspended from this institution… If you are from elsewhere, you will immediately be banned from this campus.”

The Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter at Pomona is calling for Starr to resign, accusing her conduct of being “fascistic.”

Columbia Suspends Four Students Over ‘Resistance 101’ Event

Columbia University suspended four students for their participation in a “Resistance 101” virtual event on March 24 that reportedly featured speakers that praised terrorism.

The Columbia Daily Spectator reported that on April 2, the four students were told by the university that they had 24 hours to leave their campus housing. University President Minouche Shafik said in a statement on April 5 that “a number of students have been suspended and the investigation continues.” She also called the “Resistance 101” event “an abhorrent breach of our values.”

Columbia Professor Shai Davidai posted on X, “Remember: 94 (!) student organizations were involved in this event. Only 4 organizers were suspended.”

Pitzer College Drops Study Abroad Program With University of Haifa

Pitzer College ended its study abroad program with the University of Haifa as being a preapproved program for student enrollment.

InsiderHigherEd reported that the college’s Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of Faculty Allen Omoto said in an April 2 statement that the Faculty Executive Committeee voted to remove 11 programs––including the Haifa program––because of “lack of enrollments for at least five years, exchange imbalance, or curricular overlap.” Omoto claimed that “these programs are not closed, nor do any of these actions reflect an academic boycott. Pitzer students may still attend these programs through a petition process overseen by the Study Abroad and International Programs Committee.”

AMCHA Initiative Director Tammi Rossman-Benjamin said in a statement, “Anti-Zionist students and faculty launched aggressive efforts to implement academic BDS [Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions] at Pitzer, using the campus square and classroom to demonize, delegitimize and call for the destruction of the Jewish state, and to vilify, bully, exclude and suppress its on-campus supporters, especially Jewish students. Against the backdrop of such behavior, how could any Pitzer student feel safe attending an Israel-abroad program, taking classes or doing research about Israel, or even simply expressing support for Israel?”

Berkeley Law SJP Reportedly Shares Cartoon of Law School Dean Holding Bloody Utensils

Berkeley Law School’s SJP chapter shared, and subsequently deleted, a cartoon showing the school’s dean Erwin Chemerinsky holding bloody utensils, according to a screenshot obtained by The Washington Free Beacon.

The chapter posted the image after Chemerinsky sent out an email inviting third-year students at the school for dinner at his house. The SJP chapter called for boycotting all of Chemerinsky’s events until the law school ceases ties from companies that do business with Israel. After deleting the cartoon, the SJP chapter reposted the image without blood on the utensils.

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Bravery Stems from the Soul

Columnists / Karen Lehrman Bloch

We are living in a time that calls for an almost existential bravery. Lies need to be corrected; real history needs to be taught; our most fundamental principles — freedom, justice, equality — need to be relearned. So why is it, you may have asked yourself, that many of the most seemingly confident people — those who incessantly crave the spotlight — have been silent about these lies, or worse?

It’s a question I have grappled with in the 10 years I have been writing about antisemitism. And I’ve finally come to a somewhat obvious conclusion: Bravery has very little to do with self-idolatry, whether in the form of boasting, selfies, or narcissism. Bravery stems from the quiet confidence of a well-nourished soul.

I recently attended a bat mitzvah that well confirmed this point. Despite the crass world that surrounds her, both online and off, the young woman on the bimah was preternaturally poised. She seemed to be listening to an inner voice that gave her the strength to rise above, to understand what it means to be part of an ancient people.

And then with quiet dignity, she gave one of the most powerful speeches about Israel. She spoke from her soul, and as a result she was able to touch the souls of many, to inspire their bravery as well.

Could all of this be happening to the Jewish people right now, most especially the antisemitic response to Oct. 7, because so many have given in to the idolization of self-idolatry? The question nagged at me the rest of the evening. But I was also heartened. Nourishing the soul is something tangible that can be done. I have been thinking about this since my son was bar mitzvahed at a very unsoulful synagogue — yes, many synagogues are part of the problem — and I now have to renourish his soul.

Some initial thoughts:

1. Surround yourself with souls of beauty. People who have no need to be the center of attention. They are the quiet ones, the ones who do mitzvahs both large and small with no desire to take credit. Their dignity and serenity inspire both in those around them. Ridding ourselves of the toxic and narcissistic also allows us the space to renourish our own souls. To be the force that’s needed right now, for whatever comes next.

2. Nourish your own soul with nature, creativity, artistic beauty. It’s not a coincidence that these dark times have been accompanied by a dearth of artistic brilliance. Creativity also stems from the soul, and one literally can’t create if one is too busy thinking about how many “likes” it will get on social media.

3. Don’t get caught up in the toxicity of self-idolatry. This is a mistake that I have made in recent years. Rather than turning away from the ugliness, I have tried to understand it: Why would a man zoom in on his wife’s or daughter’s breasts and then display those photos on social media? The explanations run from today’s amoral culture to his personal insecurities — but they don’t matter. I can’t fix that — no matter how much it is hurting his family.

What I can do is continually try to nourish the souls of those who want to be nourished. That’s what I did when I first started on social media—post soulful art, poetry, design, etc. But this time it will be Israeli art and design, helping to “normalize” the country in a way that should never have been necessary. But that is the task that G-d is giving each of us, and we need to be up for that challenge.

It’s not a coincidence that our greatest heroes have also been the most soulful, from Abraham, Moses and David to George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln. Great leaders are rarely narcissists. In many ways, they’re mutually exclusive.

It’s not a coincidence that our greatest heroes have also been the most soulful, from Abraham, Moses and David to George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln. Great leaders are rarely narcissists. In many ways, they’re mutually exclusive.

But how can quiet confidence be heard in a world inundated with shock, porn and degradation? Many of us have been told that our lack of desire to compete with the loudest and ugliest on social media is a weakness. But as Rabbi Jonathan Sacks put it in discussing Moses’ lack of oratory skills: “What we think of as our greatest weakness can become, if we wrestle with it, our greatest strength.”

Because it is precisely the quiet, soulful ones who have the ability to tell the truth in a way that will be heard — who are able to “tell people what they do not want to hear, but what they must hear if they are to save themselves from catastrophe,” wrote Sacks. I believe many left that bat mitzvah thinking about Israel — and the larger problem that Hamas and Hezbollah represent — in a different way. Perhaps they will now understand that today silence is not an option.

And it will all be because the quiet dignity of a 13-year-old was able to touch their souls.

Karen Lehrman Bloch is editor in chief of White Rose Magazine

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New Haggadah Highlights Human Rights Issues Found in Classic Text

Community / Kylie Ora Lobell

The Haggadah famously states, “All who are hungry, let them come and eat.” But what does this really mean? Are all people entitled to basic necessities such as food, and is this statement a proclamation of human rights? Or are human rights first and foremost only political and religious freedoms? And when it says, “Pharoah worked the children of Israel with backbreaking labor,” this brings up the question, “Are workers’ rights absolute, such that everyone doing the same job should be entitled to the same safety standards and pay no matter where they are?”

A new Haggadah called “The Human Rights Haggadah” poses these questions and grapples with other human rights issues that are found in this classic text. Author Shlomo Levin covers topics including access to food, the right to work, religious freedom, refugees, slavery and war crimes, incorporating modern events and commentary from Jewish scholars along with the Haggadah text in Hebrew and English.

“I wrote the Haggadah because I believe human rights values are critical to helping build a better world, and the Passover story is a good way to make them accessible to the Jewish community,” Levin said. “The story of the Exodus includes both oppression and the struggle to be free, so the full gamut of human rights issues appear.”

For instance, in a passage about going from worshipping idols to worshipping God, Levin – who was ordained by the Israeli Chief Rabbinate and Yeshivat HaMivtar and received his Master’s in International Law and Human Rights from the United Nations University for Peace – includes information from Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It states, “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.”

Alongside the verse “We were slaves to Pharoah in Egypt” is a quote from Maimonides’ Law of Hiring, which says, “Even if a worker already began to work but changes his mind in the middle of the day he can quit, as it says (Leviticus 25:55) ‘The children of Israel are slaves unto me (God).’ This means they are slaves to God only, but not to other humans.”

The Haggadah includes statistics on modern slavery – as of 2022, there were 27.6 million people around the world doing forced labor – and steps the International Labor Organization on Ending Modern Slavery recommends. Extending basic income security to all workers, stopping fraudulent recruitment and expanding government labor inspections are some of the crucial steps that appear on the list.

When discussing how Jacob went to Egypt to temporarily dwell there and escape the famine in Canaan, Levin talks about refugees. “Was Jacob a migrant or refugee?” he asks, stating how famine, natural disasters, gang violence and warfare are not included in the 1951 Refugee Convention as entitling people to international protection.

“Was Egypt required to accept Jacob’s family?” Levin asks. “What should be done when whole populations flee violence or natural disasters, looking for new places to settle?”

With his Haggadah, Levin said, “We’re able to see the timeless nature of these issues, how they’ve been addressed by both Jewish and secular sources, and in what ways Jewish and secular approaches may be similar or how they may be different.”

With his Haggadah, Levin said, “We’re able to see the timeless nature of these issues, how they’ve been addressed by both Jewish and secular sources, and in what ways Jewish and secular approaches may be similar or how they may be different.”

By stating facts, quotes and wisdom from Jewish texts, Levin is letting the reader come to their own conclusions and sparking conversations at the seder table. “I want us to understand that human rights are a system of values that often conflict, and a commitment to human rights does not necessarily lead to particular political or social action positions,” he said. “In fact, people who are committed to human rights may well disagree about specific issues because they prioritize or weigh things differently. That’s why the Haggadah gives sources and questions, but not answers. I hope the Haggadah will help people formulate their own views in a more sensitive and nuanced way.”

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Tal Heinrich, Spokesperson for Israel, on Fighting Back Against the World’s Lies

Community / Kylie Ora Lobell

Before Oct. 7, Tal Heinrich was busy working as a journalist and news anchor for Israel’s Channel 14 and Trinity Broadcasting Network in the United States. But when she saw that Israel had suffered from a terrorist attack that day, she got on the first available flight and went back home. She had a new assignment: to be a spokesperson for the Prime Minister’s office.

For the first 40 days of the war, Heinrich worked from Israel day and night, giving interviews in multiple languages to news stations around the world. Since Oct. 7, she’s done more than 200 interviews, and is splitting her time between New York and Israel.

“We present Israel’s justified case to the world,” Heinrich, who works with other spokespeople like Mark Regev and Ofir Gendelman, said. “We have to keep reminding the world how we got to where we are now. Unfortunately, people tend to forget how we got to a war situation and Gaza and about the atrocities of Oct. 7.”

Heinrich sees her role as “buying time for the soldiers to operate on the ground,” and showing people why Israel must defeat Hamas. “We have to remind everyone that time is running out for our stolen people, the hostages.”

The spokesperson has worked in Israeli and worldwide media for two decades; she was a broadcaster on Sport5 — The Sports Channel in Israel for 11 years, and then took on the role of field and news desk producer for CNN’s Jerusalem bureau during the 2014 Israel-Gaza war. She was also an anchor for i24NEWS, where she worked out of the Israeli station’s New York headquarters in Times Square. She is fluent in Hebrew, English, Arabic and German, and gives lectures on the Middle East through FIDF and AIPAC.

With her current assignment, Heinrich is constantly battling the double standards the world sets up for Israel. “It’s something each and every one of us knows,” she said. “We grew up feeling it, seeing it, witnessing it. At the U.N., before Oct. 7 and since then, there is a significant double standard when it comes to Israel.”

When Boko Haram kidnapped almost 300 schoolgirls in 2014, the world rallied, and celebrities from Michelle Obama to Selma Hayek held up “Bring Back Our Girls” signs. “The world united to try to get all of them released,” said Heinrich. “Now, you see people in the streets of major cities in the Western world taking down posters of our hostages. The more I try to analyze this double standard, the more I realize it boils down to thousands-year-old antisemitism.”

As someone who speaks to the media, Heinrich is disappointed in how the war has been covered – often with anti-Israel bias. “I see a lot of lies circulating,” she said. “It’s really unfortunate that some of these major media outlets take Hamas’ claims at face value and use them to pressure Israel. Do they not see they are falling right into the terrorists’ trap? Whenever someone puts pressure on Israel instead of Hamas, they’re playing right into Hamas’ hands.”

“When it gets tough, and I need to keep my composure, I use a trick that Mark Regev taught me, which is to hold onto my chair or press my nails into my fist.”

But what happens if a news anchor is obviously lying? How does Heinrich keep her cool? “When it gets tough, and I need to keep my composure, I use a trick that Mark Regev taught me, which is to hold onto my chair or press my nails into my fist,” she said. “It takes your energy to a different place, and you can concentrate. Unfortunately, [the journalists] are only asking the Israeli side the tough questions.”

What keeps Heinrich going, even when she’s under scrutiny, is the fact that she loves her home country. When she heard about the terror attacks on Oct. 7 from her place in New York, she couldn’t sleep and found it hard to breathe.

“Gradually, as I got closer to landing in Israel, the air started filling my lungs again,” she said. “When I arrived, I saw the whole country was mobilizing in one way or another. Everyone was helping each other. It was remarkable.”

When she returned to New York, she spoke at a United Nations event where victims of sexual assault on Oct. 7 spoke up. She told the U.N., “Today, we will scream their story – for there cannot be silence in the face of such atrocities.” This event, Heinrich said, “raised awareness of the sexual assaults that took place. It changed the rhythm of the news cycle, and it happened two months into the war. It was so outrageously overlooked.”

Heinrich is up against so many lies, so many nefarious parties who are trying to take Israel down. So, how does she stay strong in the face of such hateful distortions? “When you truly know that you speak for what is right, and you speak the truth, it’s not easy for people to own you in an interview,” she said. “Moral clarity and people of good moral conscience are on your side. Interviews can get complicated and difficult, but when you have all those elements on your side, you win.”

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Surviving Terror: Dor Kapah’s Harrowing Escape from Hamas Attacks

Community / Ayala Or-El

Dor Kapah, 30, stood before a group of students at Florida University, recounting a harrowing tale that seemed straight out of a war movie. But it wasn’t fiction; it was a gripping account of his escape from Hamas terrorists, relentlessly pursuing him no matter where he fled. His narrative unfolded with scenes of shooting, bombing and the tragic kidnapping and murder of his friends. The students listened in stunned silence as Kapah detailed the events of Oct. 7, a day etched in his memory and scarred with terror.

It’s one thing to hear about the targeting of 3,000 partygoers at the Nova music festival by Hamas terrorists, but it’s an entirely different experience to hear it firsthand from a survivor.

Kapah is among a group of Nova survivors who embarked on a “Survived to Tell” Tour in the United States — an initiative spearheaded by Israel, in collaboration with the Seed the Dream Foundation. The campaign, in partnership with the Building Israel Connections Engagement Project (BICEP), is touring across seven states and a dozen college campuses from March 28 to April 19. It’s especially important to bring the voices of victims to U.S. campuses because of the rise in antisemitism.

According to ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt, since Oct. 7 “the ADL has documented over 5,500 antisemitic incidents — a staggering 331% increase compared to the previous year … College and university campuses recorded 746 antisemitic incidents during this period, reflecting a remarkable 757% surge from less than 100 incidents reported one year prior.”

Kapah, a massage therapist, had worked at numerous Nova music festivals, but this particular one changed his life forever. “I arrived at the party on Oct. 6 at around 8:30-9 p.m. I was there with my friend Gilad Karplus, also a masseuse,” Kapah told the Journal. “The next day at 6:26 a.m., as we were massaging two partygoers, we noticed rockets above us. I immediately knew this wasn’t an ordinary attack due to the sheer volume of rockets. My first instinct was to pack up all our equipment and [load it into] my Jeep. We were waiting with other vendors, including Moran Stela Yanai, who was kidnapped and released back to Israel after 58 days.”

Gilad in IDF uniform, a few weeks after Nova Festival. Photo courtesy of Dor Kapah

Initially, many attendees were uncertain what to do. Unaware of the invasion by thousands of Hamas terrorists, they assumed staying put until the rockets ceased and the IDF intervened would suffice. But this time, it didn’t. Kapah vividly recalled receiving phone calls alerting him to friends being shot. “I knew this wasn’t an ordinary attack, and we needed to flee,” he said. “Indeed, at 8:13 a.m., the terrorists arrived at the festival area and opened fire. We heard the gunfire in the distance and initially thought it was Israeli cops engaging the terrorists.”

With his equipment stowed in the Jeep, Kapah and his girlfriend, Liel, along with Gilad, embarked on a frantic escape, unsure of their destination but determined to put as much distance as possible between themselves and the terrorists. However, their efforts seemed futile as Hamas militants appeared to surround them at every turn.

“I attempted to head toward the exit, but encountered a traffic jam as people tried to escape,” he said. “Suddenly, 50-100 terrorists on foot approached, firing shots. I made a U-turn and opted for an alternate route — an open area.”

On the way out of the festival grounds, Kapah picked up two more friends, Ohad and Alex Lubnov, whom Gilad knew from his hometown in Ashkelon.

Drawing on his instincts and training from his service in an elite IDF unit, Kapah steered away from the festival grounds. Along the way, fleeing individuals knocked on the Jeep’s windows, pleading for refuge.

“I instructed them to hold onto the Jeep’s side until we reached a safe area to unload the equipment and accommodate them,” Kapah recounted, “but they continued running.”

Liel documented their perilous escape with her phone, capturing the moment they stumbled upon an abandoned army vehicle.

“With no soldiers in sight, I noticed an M16 and took it. Suddenly, we heard Arabic screams. I swiftly returned to the Jeep, and we drove until we reached a secluded area outside Kibbutz Be’eri.”

Stopping by a water tower, unaware of the presence of hundreds of terrorists at the kibbutz, the group momentarily paused. Alex stepped out of the vehicle to speak with his frantic wife, while Ohad went to relieve himself. Within seconds, Kapah discerned the ominous chant of “Allah hu Akbar” and swiftly accelerated. “Alex and Ohad ran to a nearby grove. I attempted to contact Alex, but he informed me of a motorcyclist hunting for them before abruptly disconnecting.”

Later on Kapah found out that Alex was captured by Hamas and taken to Gaza, where he is still being held. Meanwhile, his wife, pregnant at the time, gave birth to their second son. Ohad narrowly evaded capture, managing to flee.

At one juncture, Kapah reached out to the police, inundated with pleas from desperate partygoers seeking assistance. “They said they couldn’t help,” Kapah said.

Undeterred, the trio relentlessly sought an exit route, only to find themselves besieged by terrorists at every turn. “We navigated toward Kibbutz Be’eri, besieged by numerous terrorists,” he said. “Observing a large tree, two pickup trucks and five motorcycles, unmistakably not Israeli, I knew we couldn’t linger. We veered onto an old road towards Gaza. Moments before reaching an intersection, we saw three Hamas motorcycles. I urgently signaled to my friends to lower their heads,” Kapah recounted.

“One of the terrorists was looking me right in the eyes holding a Kalashnikov. He was about five feet away from me. I motioned to him with my head that all is good and he motioned back.”

For a second, Kapah thought he was going to get away. That day, he was wearing an orange headband; many of the Hamas terrorists were wearing green headbands. On the rearview mirror, Kapah hung a Muslim prayer bead to warn off people in Arab neighborhoods he was visiting from breaking in his car. It was clear that the Hamas terrorist thought he was one of them. However, he realized his mistake when he noticed Liel’s head peeking up, and the terrorist aimed his weapon toward Kapah. “I hit his motorcycle on the side as he was chasing us, but then another motorcycle came from my left,” he said. “I hit him too, and then [I hit] another motorcycle. The friends started reciting the “Shema,” praying to God that this nightmare would end soon. Death never seemed so close. Gilad was struck in the back of his head by another group of terrorists they encountered.

Two weeks after a bullet grazed his head and he received medical treatment, he joined his unit and fought Hamas for three months. Kapah said that during their escape, they witnessed the tragic aftermath of Hamas attack — burnt cars, bullet-riddled vehicles and the lifeless bodies of young Israelis strewn along the way. “It felt like a scene from ‘The Pianist,’” he said. “It was a horrendous sight.” At 7:15 a.m. the next day, he returned home with his Jeep, now riddled with bullets. He was safe, but inside he was broken completely and is still dealing with the events of that day. As Kapah recounted his story, he kept his composure. Only after he was finished with it and talked about the friends who died did he start to sob. “[I lost 50 friends], and 10 of them were very close friends,” he said. “That first week, I had to go to funerals on a daily basis and then to the shivah. Sometimes I couldn’t go because the funerals were at the same time and sometimes it was just too much to handle,” he said, choking on tears. Six months later, and he still can’t go back to work. “[Hamas] didn’t take away my love for music, but they took away my work and my trust in humans,” he said. “I can’t trust people and I can’t work anymore. It helps me telling my story, I feel it’s my mission and duty, so people will know and will never forget what happened.”

“I knew right then that I had received a message and that I was going back home.” – Dor Kapah

There was a moment during his hair-raising escape when he knew deep down that he was going to get out of there alive. It was when he and his friends were hiding from Hamas, and he noticed something shining on the ground. “I picked it up, and it was a ring engraved with the words: ‘Shema Israel, God is our Lord, God is one,’” he said. “I knew right then that I had received a message and that I was going back home.”

Surviving Terror: Dor Kapah’s Harrowing Escape from Hamas Attacks Read More »

Delicious Entrees for Your Passover Seder

Food / Debra L. Eckerling

Does your family have a favorite seder meal? Or is it time to try something new?

Beth Lee of OMGYummy.com loves her recipe for brisket and tzimmes because it’s a side dish and main course all in one! “The sweet from the dried fruit, carrots and yams combined with the sour/tang of the vinegar is a great spin on a typical sweet and sour Jewish brisket recipe,” Lee told the Journal. “Not a bite is ever left when I serve this at any Jewish holiday gathering.”

Braised Beef Brisket with Tzimmes

(Adapted from a Gourmet magazine recipe by Karen Stabiner, April 2005.)

12 servings

6-7 lbs first-cut brisket
2 medium onions, sliced thin (no need to chop)
2 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp black pepper
3 Tbsp olive oil
½ cup red wine
3 ½ cups beef stock
¾ cup Sherry vinegar – an interesting ingredient that adds richness and a little tang to the resulting gravy
2 lbs carrots peeled and cut crosswise into 1-inch-long pieces
4 medium sweet potatoes or yams peeled and cut into 2-inch pieces
2 ¾ cups dried pitted prunes dried apricots, and dried cherries (or whatever dried fruit you like or have in the house)

Put the oven rack in the middle position and preheat the oven to 350°F.
Add oil to your large roasting pan, straddled across two burners; over medium heat. Add onions and brown them; move them around to get a little color all over (about 3 to 5 minutes).
While onions are cooking, rub brisket all over with 1 teaspoon salt and ½ teaspoon pepper. Push the onions to the edges of your pan, turn heat up to medium to medium-high and place the brisket fat side down into the pan. Brown on both sides, about 5 minutes per side.
While the brisket is browning, combine the wine, stock and vinegar to become the braising liquid.
Remove the pan from heat, then pour the braising liquid over the brisket and onions. Cover the pan tightly with heavy-duty foil and braise brisket in the oven for 2 hours. Then, remove the pan from the oven carefully and place on a protected counter.
Next, remove the meat to a cutting board and slice it across the grain. Add the sliced meat back into the pan along with the dried fruit, carrots and potatoes. Sprinkle the rest of the salt and pepper over the meat and vegetables. Cook for about 1 more hour, covered. Check and if meat and vegetables feel fork tender, it’s done. If not, cook in half-hour increments until it is.
If you are not eating it immediately, refrigerate (covered) for up to two days or freeze.
To reheat, put the oven rack in the middle position and preheat the oven to 350°F. Discard as much fat as possible from the surface of vegetables and sauce. Then cover with foil, place in the oven until heated through, about 40 minutes. Check the sauce for seasoning and add any salt and pepper as needed once it is warm.
If the oven is not available and your meat is in a pan that is stove-top safe, you can reheat on medium low on the stove-top.

Debbie Kornberg makes her delicious crispy orange chicken dish year round, but it’s a particular favorite for Passover.

“The orange, ginger and honey play well together and the crispy coating around the chicken ensures it stays moist while waiting to be served to your guests as you conduct the Seder,” Kornberg, chef, owner of SPICE + LEAF and cooking teacher, told the Journal. “If you are having a big crowd, you will want to double or triple the recipe as needed.”

Passover Crispy Orange Chicken with Ginger and Honey
By Debbie Kornberg

Serves 4

4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
1 cup matzah meal (can also use almond flour to prepare gluten-free)
1 Tbsp potato starch (can also use corn starch)
2 Tbsp heaping, onion powder
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
1/4 tsp ground cumin
Pinch of salt
3 eggs
1 cup grapeseed oil
2 small baby carrots – trust me on this
1/8 cup olive oil
1/2 cup orange juice
1/4 cup honey
1 Tbsp ground ginger
1 orange, (1/2 for zesting and the other half cut into slices)

Preheat the oven to 350°F. In a bowl combine matzah meal, potato starch, onion powder, turmeric, cumin and salt. Mix well.
In a separate bowl, crack eggs and whisk well.
In a large frying pan, place grapeseed oil and put on high heat. Place baby carrots in oil. You will know the oil is hot when the carrot starts to sizzle plus the baby carrot will help prevent the chicken from burning.
Dip chicken breast in egg and have it well coated and then dip into matzah meal blend, so it is well coated. When the oil is hot, place coated chicken into the hot frying pan and cook until it is a deep golden brown on both sides. Once chicken is cooked, place directly into a baking dish.
In a different bowl, whisk together the olive oil, orange juice, honey and ground ginger. Using a zester, zest the skin of half of an orange into the sauce and mix again.
Carefully pour orange-ginger sauce around the chicken. Best not to pour on top of chicken as it will make the chicken less crispy. Cut the remaining 1/2 orange into half slices and place around the chicken. Place in the oven and cook for approximately 30 minutes. Place on a serving dish and it’s ready.

Faith Kramer often offers a vegetarian main course at holidays.

“I find all my guests appreciate it whether it is the center of their plates or a hearty side,” Kramer, author of “52 Shabbats: Friday Night Dinners Inspired by a Global Jewish Kitchen,” told the Journal. “This mashed potato casserole is a twist on the traditional Askenazi kugel, adding some Sephardic flavors that help make the parve dish into a meal.”

Mashed Potato Kugel with Eggplant and Mushrooms

Eggplant and Mushroom filling:
2 Tbsp olive oil
1½ cups chopped onion
¼ tsp salt
1½ tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp dried oregano
½ tsp dried mint
¼ tsp ground black pepper
¼ tsp cayenne
3 cups eggplant, chopped
3 cups brown mushrooms, chopped
14.5-oz. can diced tomatoes with liquid
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
¼ cup chopped fresh mint

Potato Kugel:
2 lbs Yukon Gold potatoes
½ tsp salt, divided
3 Tbsp olive oil, divided, plus extra for casserole
1½ cups chopped onion
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1/4 tsp cayenne
2 Tbsp minced garlic
3 large eggs, beaten
2 Tbsp matzah meal
¼ tsp paprika
2 Tbsp. chopped parsley

Prepare eggplant and mushroom filling:
Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add chopped onion and sauté 5 minutes. Add salt, cinnamon, oregano, mint, black pepper and cayenne. Then add eggplant and more oil, if needed. Sauté 5 minutes.
Add brown mushrooms. Sauté 5 minutes. Add diced tomatoes and sauté until liquid evaporates. Stir in lemon juice and fresh mint. Adjust salt. Refrigerate, if made in advance. Return to room temperature before using.
Kugel:
Quarter potatoes. Place in a pot and cover with water. Add ¼ tsp. salt. Bring to a simmer. Cover, adjust heat and simmer until soft. Drain, reserving liquid. Remove peels if desired.
Heat 2 tablespoons. oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add onions. Sauté until browned, 12 to 15 minutes. Stir in ¼ teaspoon salt, black pepper and cayenne. Add garlic. Sauté 1-2 minutes until golden. Stir into potatoes with ¼ cup reserved liquid. Mash, adding liquid if needed. Adjust salt. Stir in eggs. Mix in matzah meal.
Heat oven to 350°F. Grease 2-quart casserole. Press half of the potatoes in the bottom. Cover with vegetable filling. Top with potatoes. Brush top with 1 Tbs. oil. Sprinkle it with paprika.
Bake for 45 to 55 minutes until crusty and golden. Let stand for 20 minutes. Sprinkle with parsley and serve.

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A Passover Story — Of Meat Pies and Chicken Tagine

Leave a Comment / Food / Sharon Gomperts and Rachel Emquies Sheff

There is no time in the Jewish calendar that proves the unity of the Jewish people more than Passover. Every household undergoes a spring cleaning. Everyone has the opportunity to attend a seder, be they in Beverlywood or Bondi Beach, Jerusalem or New Jersey, Marrakesh or Mumbai. It might be a lavish Passover program or a Chabad seder, but every Jew will be reading from the same Haggadah and making the same blessings.

There is nothing that tells the story of the Jewish people better than Passover. The hardships of slavery, the redemption of the people, the giving of the Torah and our birth as a Nation.

There is nothing that tells the story of our Exile and Diaspora better than the differences in the foods that Ashkenazim and Sephardim eat at Passover.

The seder plate, called “ke’arah,” features the symbolic foods around which the seder is conducted. The matzah represents the bread of affliction and its lack of leaven (chametz) the haste with which we left Egypt. Most families eat those mass manufactured boxes of Manischewitz or Yehuda matzah, but there is also matzah sh’mura, a hand-baked round matzah that is extra-thin and extra cardboard in flavor. The Syrian and Iraqi Jews traditionally ate a hand-baked matzah that was thin and soft.

The “Zero’ah” is a lamb shank or chicken bone that represents the strong hand of the Almighty that defeated the mighty Pharoah and took us out of Egypt.

The “Beizah” is a hard-boiled egg that symbolizes the “chagigah korban,” the pre-holiday sacrifice that was given in the days of the Holy Temple.

“Maror” are the bitter herbs. Sephardim eat Romaine lettuce because the leaves are green and pleasant, but the stem is hard and bitter: just as the work in Egypt began voluntarily and the Jews received recompense, but it then devolved into slavery. For Ashkenazi Jews, the bitter herbs are represented by horseradish because greens were less available in Europe. Nowadays, Ashkenazi Jews do use romaine lettuce for chazeret, an additional bitter herb alongside the Haroset and matzah in the Hillel sandwich.

“Karpas” is the vegetable that is dipped into the salty water that represents the salty tears of the slaves. For Ashkenazim, the karpas is either a boiled potato or parsley. For Sephardim, it’s celery dipped in vinegar (Rachel‘s family) or lemon juice (Sharon‘s family).

“Haroset” represents the mortar used in building the pyramids. For Ashkenazim it’s a mixture of grated apples, nuts and wine. But for the Sephardim there are numerous recipes for haroset, all involving dates and nuts. For Neil’s Rhodesli family, it’s a paste made with cooked apples and dates, toasted ground almonds and wine. Rachel still makes her mother’s Moroccan truffle recipe of mashed dates, ground walnuts, raisins and sweet wine. And for the Iraqi Jews it’s Silan (date honey) mixed with ground walnuts.

—Rachel and Sharon

The Passover meal is always a big deal for my family and I make a lot of food knowing there’ll be yummy leftovers. Instead of gefilte fish, I serve my mother’s Moroccan fish balls cooked in a deep red tomato sauce. I make a lamb tagine spiced with cinnamon, cumin, saffron and turmeric and sweetened with raisins, apricots and prunes. I fry up tons of keftes di prasa, leek patties made with a mixture of cooked leeks, mashed potatoes, matzah meal and eggs. I have to make a ton because they are my kids absolute favorite.

When I married Neil, my mother told me that if it’s the tradition of my husband’s family to eat rice on Passover, I should also eat rice. Eventually, my parents also joined the club and began eating rice. But I never serve rice at my seder meal.

Perhaps you’ve heard of mina, also known as megina, found in the Sephardic cuisines of the Mediterranean, from Turkey and Greece to Egypt and Syria. Mina is a layered matzah pie, kind of like a modern-day lasagna. Squares of matzah are softened with water until pliable, then placed in a baking dish in alternate layers with savory fillings, then baked. There are minas made with ground beef, lamb, spinach, or eggplant or cheese. But for Neil’s family their mina is a quajado de carne. No seder meal is complete without this delicious pie made with a mixture of ground beef, sautéed onions, parsley, eggs and soaked pieces of matzah that is then baked.

Serve this as a main dish or as an appetizer.

Like my husband, you’ll enjoy eating the leftovers for lunch all week long.

—Rachel

For me, this Passover will be special because my immediate family unit will be reunited after eight long months apart. Alexandra will be home from Israel and Gabriella from New York. This Passover will be difficult because we’ll miss my father and our hearts will ache for the bereaved families in Israel.

Nothing tells the story of the Jewish people more than our unity and love for our brethren wherever they are in the world.

Nothing tells the story of the Jewish people more than our unity and love for our brethren wherever they are in the world.

At a time when we need comfort more than ever, this Passover I’ll be making homemade matzah ball soup, shepherd’s pie, okra and butternut squash stew with rice, ajja (my grandmothers Iraqi-style herb frittata) and a fabulous Moroccan inspired tagine chicken. This tagine recipe is perfect for making ahead and reheating — the chicken bones will melt a little more and the deep, sweet caramelized flavors will intensify. This recipe calls for prunes and apricots, but dates and raisins will also work. I used fennel, carrots and parsnip, but you can also add potatoes. I will serve it with a side of rice but you can serve it with quinoa.

We hope your Passover menu tells a happy story and creates beautiful memories for your friends and family.

—Sharon

Chicken Tagine

Marinade:
½ cup olive oil
2 tsp salt
2 Tbsp sweet paprika
2 Tbsp turmeric
1 Tbsp grated fresh ginger, grated
8 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 cup chopped cilantro

Tagine:
1 whole chicken, cut in pieces
¼ cup olive oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
½ cup whole pitted prunes
½ cup whole dried apricots
1 cinnamon stick
1 Tbsp turmeric
1 Tbsp cinnamon powder
1 big pinch saffron
2 fennel bulbs, cut into 4 wedges
4 medium carrots, chopped
1 parsnip, chopped
½ cup red wine
1/2 cup water
1 bunch cilantro
Cilantro, pomegranate arils and pine nuts, for garnish

In a large bowl, combine ½ cup oil, salt, paprika, turmeric, ginger, garlic and cilantro.
Add the chicken and coat all sides in marinade. Let sit for 1/2 hour.
In a tagine or Dutch oven, warm ¼ cup oil over medium heat.
Sauté onion for 5 minutes, then add the prunes, apricots, turmeric and cinnamon stick.
Add the carrots and fennel, then add the chicken in the center of the pot.
Sprinkle the cinnamon and saffron over the chicken and sauté for 10 minutes
Add the wine and water, then cover pot. Simmer over low heat for two hours.
Top with cilantro, pomegranate arils and pine nuts just before serving.

Quajado de Carne

1 large onion, finely chopped
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 pounds ground beef
1 cup farfel (or crushed matzah)
1 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon white pepper
1 cup chopped Italian parsley
10 eggs (set aside 2)

Preheat oven to 400°F.
Place the matzah farfel in a small bowl, then pour warm water over it.
Warm olive oil in a pan over medium heat, then sauté the onion until it starts to soften. Add the ground beef and continue to sauté until the meat is fully browned. Set aside to cool.
In a large bowl, beat 8 eggs with a fork. Add the salt and pepper and parsley.
Drain all the liquid out of the matzah farfel, then add to the egg mixture.
Stir the ingredients together to combine well.
Pour mixture into a well oiled 9×13 inch oven-safe dish.
Beat the two reserved eggs and spread on top of the meat mixture.
Bake for 30-40 minutes or until golden brown.
Can be frozen after cooking.

Sharon Gomperts and Rachel Emquies Sheff have been friends since high school. The Sephardic Spice Girls project has grown from their collaboration on events for the Sephardic Educational Center in Jerusalem. Follow them on Instagram @sephardicspicegirls and on Facebook at Sephardic Spice SEC Food. Website sephardicspicegirls.com/full-recipes.

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Table for Five: Tazria

Judaism, Torah / Salvador Litvak

One verse, five voices. Edited by Nina Litvak and Salvador Litvak, the Accidental Talmudist

As for the person with a leprous affection: The clothes shall be rent, the head shall be left bare, and the upper lip shall be covered over; and that person shall call out, “Impure! Impure!”

– Lev. 13:45

Dini Coopersmith
Director, Orot HaTorah Israel

Oy. What a humbling experience to be a metzora! Our Sages tell us in the Talmud: “the lowest of the low is a metzora”. The word “leper” is synonymous with “ostracized.”

Can you imagine, in our shaming, cancel-culture generation, a person with a “leprous infection” going to the priest, who declares him (or her??) impure, leaving the community, tearing one’s clothes, walking around bare-headed and calling out: “Don’t come near me- I’m impure?” Amazingly, this self-shaming, self-cancelling and self-ostracizing process would take place in the days of the Temple.

Metzora comes from the words “motzi ra” – brings out bad. In this case, the Jew with leprosy has become an agent for evil, and it is affecting his/her whole internal being. In those days, we were guided and taught by priests, who would interpret for us the divine messages in the world. It was clear that illnesses were messages from a loving God who wanted us to realize we were on the wrong path, recalibrate, and grow and develop as human beings.

Now, although we no longer have kohanim who can tell us why we are suffering, we still have a Father who is sending us messages, nationally and individually. If calamities befall our nation, if we are ostracized or cancelled individually or collectively on social media, may we hear the message, evaluate where we went wrong and come up with a plan for tikkun (repair).

Rabbi Shlomo Yaffe
The Alliance of Orthodox Congregations, Springfield, MA

In Tractate Shabbat (67A) The Talmud remarks that it is permissible, in the case of a tree that sheds its fruit before becoming ripe, to paint it with red paint. It asks “What healing is he performing with this?” The answer: “So that people will see the tree and pray for mercy for it.” It then quotes the above verse “(He) will cry: Impure, impure” (Leviticus 13:45). “He must announce his pain to the masses, and they will pray for mercy on his behalf.”

Maimonides, at the end of describing these laws, writes (MT Tza’raat 16:10) “These changes … which the Torah described with the general term of tzara’at is not a natural occurrence. Instead, it is a sign and a wonder prevalent among the Jewish people to warn them against lashon hora, ‘undesirable speech.’” This is speech which denigrates a person to others. Even if the recounted shortcoming is true, it is nevertheless wrong to speak about it.

Inasmuch as this is a personal failing on the part of an afflicted person who must then change him/herself, how is praying for him going to help? An answer is that all of us are part of a single soul-entity. Prayer is the act of drawing down a new divine life force to our collective self. When we focus that power on a particular person in need, it can cause what the Mystics call “an awakening from above” and jump-start introspection and self-transformation by drawing down G-dly inspiration upon the afflicted individual.

Kylie Ora Lobell
Jewish Journal Community Editor

Tazria deals with all the ways in which a person can become “impure,” with this particular passage focusing on leprosy caused by lashon hara – evil speech/gossip. When we speak ill of others, it not only corrodes our soul; in Biblical times, it also showed up on us physically. There’s a story we often hear: A rabbi instructed a man who often gossiped to open up a pillow and let the feathers float away with the wind. Once the man did this, the rabbi then told him to go and fetch all the feathers. The man declared that he couldn’t possibly do that. The rabbi then said, “Once a rumor, a gossipy story, a ‘secret,’ leaves your mouth, you do not know where it ends up. It flies on the wings of the wind, and you can never get it back.” These days, it is so easy to gossip. We can do it during a casual conversation with a friend or anonymously through social media. But as Hashem warns, it hurts us and it ruins the reputations of others. Gossip can lead to a person being harmed, so we take it very seriously. In the parsha, the person who is afflicted with this spiritual disease must separate physically from the community, because that is what they did spiritually when they spoke ill of others. Even though this type of leprous affliction is not inflicted upon us now, we must always guard our tongue, speak well of others, and avoid lashon hara – which is not a victimless crime.

Rabbi Peretz Rodman
Head of Israel’s Masorti/Conservative bet din

When a person is stricken with “tzara‘at,” a skin affliction that seems to appear from nowhere and abates after the required cleansing is performed, he (or she) must announce his arrival by calling out a warning: “Tamei! Tamei!” (“Impure! Impure!”). Is this an instance of forced self-abasement, as if one must announce, “Shame on me”? It’s possible, as our sages suggest it is a punishment for speaking ill of others.

Or are we looking at a public health regulation? If the disease were communicable, that would make sense. But there are no hints that the condition is contagious. The Aramean general Naaman went about his life as usual even when afflicted with this repulsive disease (2 Kings). As the late Jacob Milgrom pointed out, the Torah’s treatment of tzara‘at focuses on the appearance, not the disease itself. And that provides a hint at what our verse is about.

Leviticus seems to make a particular assumption: that Israelites would feel compassion toward the unfortunate person suffering from tzara‘at. His tattered clothes, disheveled hair, and, one must assume, pitiable demeanor would arouse sympathy. Good, decent Israelites would approach with offers of assistance, perhaps assuming he is a mourner, whose appearance is similar. They are warned away not because of a health risk but because of ritual impurity, which indeed can be imparted by touch. Would that we might all assume such kindness would be forthcoming from strangers.

Rabbi Tova Leibovic-Douglas
Founder of The Ritual House (www.theritual.house)

How do we hold the parts of our wisdom tradition that don’t feel right? For many rabbis, the conclusion is to avoid the moments that go against the progressive values of today. There is an avoidance to share that in our beloved Torah, there are sections that cast people out for merely having a disease, as this verse suggests. Yet, it is up to us not to avoid them but rather to find our way into these ancient ways of being despite them seeming misaligned with our moral compass. We are here to ask what they are teaching us, especially when they are challenging. I see the individual with the leprous affliction and feel their pain and their sense of otherness. And how unimaginably painful it must be for one with an uncomfortable and visibly embarrassing disease to be cast out by the community. Each of us must know this feeling of outsider-ness deep within us. As human beings and social animals, we are conditioned to never be the ones who are cast out because, as much as we have collectively progressed, we are still hard-wired to form group norms and expectations and to adhere to these. This verse is an invitation to remember the unbearable feeling of exclusion and transform it by being part of building a community without insiders and outsiders and to know that we have the power to do so in our everyday life.

Table for Five: Tazria Read More »

Don’t Ditch the Ivies

Commentary, Opinion / Matthew Minsk

Six months ago, it would have been a no-brainer. Six months ago — before Jewish and Israeli speakers were shouted down, campus marches parroted blood libels, and student-led BDS resolutions proliferated — an acceptance would have marked the end of the decision-making process.

On Thursday, March 28, the Ivy League schools released their application decisions. Despite the rapidly-shrinking self-imposed quota on Jews accepted into these schools, as documented in Tablet by Armin Rosen, a still sizable number of Jewish students beat the odds and received a golden ticket. But the open hostility on those campuses since the attacks of Oct. 7 have changed the once-easy conversation.

At Yeshiva University (YU), I haven’t experienced any belligerence. The worst enmity I know of was a failed attempt at burning a restaurant’s Israeli flag a block from campus, and I didn’t hear about it until the New York Post picked it up two weeks later. Our students mobilize to arrange support missions and days of loving-kindness instead of Jew hatred and acrimony.

For me, YU offers unmatched intellectual and religious benefits. I relish the seven hours a day I get to spend in the Beis Medrash studying Torah. I am blessed to study Jewish thought and history rigorously, with the confidence that my professors approach academic Judaic Studies as G-d-fearing Jews. I could not invoke the Talmudic sages’ distinction between ownership and possession in a class discussion about John Locke’s defense of private property in any other university; Yeshiva University allows me to develop religiously and academically, in harmony. If these opportunities excite a potential Ivy League admit, I welcome them with open arms aboard a well-trodden path.

Similarly, if another educational institution provides a better fit than the “elite” universities — whether because of a certain academic specialty, a desired professor, or even a fierce desire to avoid brutal New England winters — I encourage those students to take advantage.

The Jewish people — and patriotic Americans — cannot afford to simply give up on the Ivies and their peers; we must not cede the credentials they offer to our antagonizers.

But concerns about campus rancor, while legitimate, should not be the reason to flee from the Ivies for calmer pastures, at YU or otherwise. The Jewish people — and patriotic Americans — cannot afford to simply give up on the Ivies and their peers; we must not cede the credentials they offer to our antagonizers.

I share the righteous indignation towards the moral rot revealed in post-secondary education. I do not dispute that the scandal of Claudine Gay’s plagiarism and moral failure represents just a tip of the iceberg of the intellectual corruption that reaches the highest levels. But I also know that hundreds of years of ubiquitous name recognition does not disappear overnight. The Columbia or Harvard name on a diploma still carries weight and will continue to do so, even amongst those of us who feel nothing but disdain for those institutions. As much as we might want to deny it, “Yale University” on the top of a resume creates a unique impression in nearly all professional contexts.

Jewish communal interests — including but not limited to American support for the State of Israel — require Zionists and committed Jews to have a foot in the door at the uppermost levels of government and public policy. Rightly or wrongly, those positions generally require elite credentials, and to have people in place twenty years from now requires braving the storm today.

Jewish communal interests — including but not limited to American support for the State of Israel — require Zionists and committed Jews to have a foot in the door at the uppermost levels of government and public policy. Rightly or wrongly, those positions generally require elite credentials, and to have people in place 20 years from now requires braving the storm today. If, instead, the Jewish community abandons these schools entirely, we will be set back for a generation. The reality is, a large portion of future presidential administrations and congressional staffers will come from the ranks of Ivy League alumni or those who graduated similarly-regarded schools. It would be irresponsible to abandon the playing field.

I do not envy the next four years those Jewish students will face in the lion’s den. I can only imagine how difficult it must be to sit in Calculus with students who protest in support of Hamas in their free time. But our shared mission beckons. The Jewish people need leaders with access to the halls of power, emerging both from YU, with the Judaic grounding and synthesis that it provides, and from the ivory towers of Princeton, Cambridge and Philadelphia.

Rabbi Dr. Ari Berman, the president of Yeshiva University, often stresses “hakol lichvodo,” that all of our actions should be in the service of G-d and the Jewish people. For those who received an invitation to what Dr. Gil Troy has termed the “Poisoned Ivies,” I urge you to not shy away from your responsibility to our people and to America.

In Megillas Esther, Mordechai beseeches Esther, “Who knows if it was for this occasion that you were elevated to royalty?” To those fortunate enough — or perhaps, unfortunate enough — to be accepted to an Ivy League school, you have an opportunity through which you will be able to help our nation. To throw that aside — to ditch the Ivies — would be short-sighted and an abdication. I urge you to take advantage, and I look forward to working with you from here in Washington Heights.

Matthew Minsk is a sophomore at Yeshiva University majoring in political science and mathematical economics. He is a Straus Scholar at the Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought.

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Xaviaer DuRousseau: The Black Christian Zionist, Former BLM Activist Fighting for Israel and the Jews

Cover Story / Aaron Bandler

“Make Gaza Jewish Again.”

That was a shirt worn by Prager University personality Xaviaer DuRousseau, 27, in a picture posted to X on Feb. 29. DuRousseau explained in the post that he didn’t mean it literally, but it didn’t matter. The post received two million views on X … and a lot of backlash.

“Oh, that shirt did start some controversy, didn’t it?” DuRousseau laughed as he did a sit-down interview with the Journal inside the PragerU headquarters. He recalled “thousands of people” cussing him out on social media over that shirt, including some Jews who thought it was “too aggressive.” Even Marissa Streit, the CEO of PragerU, told DuRousseau that she thought the shirt was a bit much. But DuRousseau said he “would do it again.”

“(Israel) simply wants to exist in peace, simply wants their hostages back and go on to its regular way of life … this is terrorism versus democracy.”

In his social media post wearing the shirt, DuRousseau qualified it by stating: “I am not calling for the harm, exile, or hatred for anyone in Gaza. The meaning of my shirt is returning Israel to a unified state that welcomes and values cultural diversity and peace.” He explained further to the Journal that some people took it “too literally.” “They think it means to have all these Jewish people living in Gaza. I don’t even think that’s necessary,” DuRousseau contended. “I don’t even think that’s safe for the Jews.” DuRousseau also believes that there should still be a Palestinian territory in the Gaza Strip with a degree of separation between it and Israel. DuRousseau is simply calling for Israel to have some influence over Gaza in order to make it “a better place.”

“I would want the Palestinians to acquiesce a bit more to just having some type of agreement with Israel to be like, okay we’re going to help you get food, water, and electricity again, but there is a no-tolerance, no BS [policy] when it comes to terrorism,” he elaborated. “The terrorism has to stop.”

DuRousseau acknowledged that the shirt is “polarizing,” but felt like it was necessary because “sometimes you have to do something very bold and borderline polarizing in order to start the conversation.” “That’s what it did: I got people talking,” he said. “I got people realizing … would you rather Gaza stayed the same? Would you rather Gaza even be the same as it was on Oct. 6? Because I don’t. It’s not because the Muslims are there; it’s because there’s a terrorist regime there.”

DuRousseau’s well-trafficked videos on social media (he has more than 150,000 followers on X and Instagram) feature the PragerU personality advocating for Israel and against antisemitism as well as criticizing Black Lives Matter (BLM), COVID-19 mandates, and affirmative action. And on April 2, PragerU released DuRousseau’s 16-minute documentary “100 Days after October 7” about DuRousseau’s visit to Israeli communities that were devastated on Oct. 7.

Four years ago, all of this would have been nearly unfathomable to DuRousseau, who at the time was a self-described woke BLM activist. “I always describe my backstory as ‘Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’ but backwards,” DuRousseau said, explaining that he was born in the South Side of Chicago — then the most dangerous neighborhood in the city — to a “radical leftist” father and liberal mother. When his eldest brother got into trouble, the family moved “to the middle of nowhere cornfields” in Pontiac, a city in central Illinois. “At the time it was about 10,000 people — 95% white — and because of the differences, I was always told to focus on skin color and race and all of that,” DuRousseau said. “So I was always really woke as a kid, just because this is what I was led to believe.” College further hardened his woke leftist beliefs.

DuRousseau’s political shift began during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, when out of boredom he applied — and was accepted — to star in a Netflix reality show to teach people how to be a woke BLM activist and ally. Because of the months-long wait for the show to start due to COVID restrictions, DuRousseau delved into counterarguments against BLM so he could better argue in favor of the cause. “There was a particular video I saw from Candace Owens about BLM that completely enraged me,” recalled DuRousseau, prompting him to want to debate Owens and completely debunk the arguments put forward by PragerU, Owens’ employer at the time.

“In the process of studying all the counterarguments, I ended up debunking the entire narrative that I had been indoctrinated with,” DuRousseau said. “So I accidentally red-pilled myself … I learned you have a way greater chance of being struck by lightning — as a black man –– than being shot and killed by the police. And that blew my mind, because I was under the impression that police officers were hunting down black people, and that I was going to go outside and become the next Black Lives Matter hashtag. And what I quickly realized is that that couldn’t be further from the case … if anything I just became more grateful for how far our country has come.”

Three days before the Netflix show was about to start filming, DuRousseau backed out; at the urging of a friend, he began making videos to share the information he had learned. He posted his first video in February 2021: “30 different issues that are more relevant today to the black community before we should even be talking something like white supremacy, and that video just blew up. And the rest is history.”

How did this “red-pilling” result in DuRousseau becoming a staunch Zionist advocate? He was initially “confused” about how to view Israel due to the “conflicting narratives” that were “deeply muddied with propaganda.” When he was a BLM activist, “I just didn’t bother,” he said; he could only fight so many fights. But after his political awakening, DuRousseau leaned toward the pro-Israel side because it seemed to him that Israel was always on the defense in response to Palestinian terror “but I didn’t really understand it.” In the summer of 2023 DuRousseau visited Israel for the first time through a trip organized and coordinated by PragerU, and having become “ten times more excited” about the idea after going to a Shabbat dinner.

“I was fascinated by, first of all, just the depth of the tradition,” he said. “I was just in love with the fact that Jewish people worldwide can be in a synagogue anywhere and they are still studying the same part of the Torah all simultaneously, like that just seemed so unified and strong to me.” He also found it “beautiful” to learn about the various songs and traditions at a Shabbat dinner that date back thousands of years. “The core values, the core principles, the core traditions are consistent,” DuRousseau said. “And everybody can at least agree on the core values. And that made me just really respect the Jewish community more than ever.”

“Never once did it go through my head like, ‘Oh they’re all looking at me like I’m a weird black guy,’ because first of all, I saw a bunch of black people there, which was something I didn’t expect to see … But it was a pleasant surprise.”

DuRousseau fell in love with Israel during his first trip, which lasted 10 days. “It was my best vacation ever,” he said. “We were there for 10 days, and I was in love with the food, with the culture … just learning how everything that I had heard about Israel couldn’t be further from the truth.” DuRousseau was also “in awe of the night life” and of the Shuk (market). “I just loved everybody I interacted with, and never once did it go through my head like, ‘Oh they’re all looking at me like I’m a weird black guy,’ because first of all, I saw a bunch of black people there, which was something I didn’t expect to see,” he said. “But it was a pleasant surprise.”

The first nine days “felt like a dream.” But on the final day of the trip, DuRousseau received a “wake-up call” about the danger that Israel faces when he was touring near Israel’s northern border with Lebanon. “In the middle of the tour, I hear the loudest explosion I’ve ever heard in my life,” DuRousseau explained, “and the ground starts shaking.” And then another even louder explosion occurred, prompting DuRousseau to start panicking. He later learned that the explosions were due to Israel retaliating against Hezbollah’s failed missile strikes by firing cannon shots into Lebanon.

“The thought of having to teach my child that the world hates you because of your heritage and you have to get used to hearing war, that broke my heart, and I’m glad that it did.“

But what stood out to DuRousseau was watching a woman attempt to console her sobbing nine-year-old daughter when the explosions went off. “It dawned on me in that moment that this is the reality of growing up in Israel,” he said, adding that “as joyful as these people are … they’re constantly under attack and constantly having to defend themselves. And the thought of being a parent — because I would love to be a father one day — but the thought of having to teach my child that the world hates you because of your heritage and you have to get used to hearing war, that broke my heart, and I’m glad that it did. Because had I left Israel without that experience, I would have left an almost too idealistic view of what the Middle East is like.”

DuRousseau also received a rude awakening to the reality of antisemitism after posting on social media that he was visiting Israel. “Just me posting that I went got me so much backlash,” he said. “I’m talking hundreds of people mad at me just for going, cursing me out, saying things like, ‘Why would you go there? You know they hate black people there, Israel is a racist country,’ all of this stuff. I’m like, well I’m here, and nobody’s been to mean to me, everybody’s been very nice to me.” He was subjected to various terms he had to Google like “Shabbos goy” and “good goyim.” “I asked my Jewish friends, is antisemitism still that big of a deal today? Because I was under the impression that people weren’t corny like that anymore,” DuRousseau said. What makes him want to use “corny” to describe prejudice? “Because: why? It’s just… grow up. It’s 2024. Why are you being prejudiced? It’s so unnecessary.”

So DuRousseau doubled down by discussing Israel and the Jewish community during one of his “Walk With Me” videos, where he talks about serious topics while drinking an Erewhon smoothie and donning AirPods — (he describes it as a “funny Gen Z kind of way” of going about it). In a video he posted in August, DuRousseau said: “So a lot of people think that Jewish people are corrupt because a lot of them hold powerful positions, but to me that just sounds like bitterness and jealousy, because Jewish people know how to work hard. They know how to move in silence because wealth whispers, and Jewish people have values that elevate their community. Meanwhile, too many other communities are focused on dragging each other back down to the ghetto … if anything we should be taking notes on how they have continued to elevate their community in the face of adversity.” As for Israel: “I just find it funny how all these Middle Eastern Muslim countries are unproblematic apparently but Israel, the one Jewish country, is not allowed to exist. If you have a problem with a nation that minds its business but stands on its values and stands its ground, just say that.” Of course “it triggered the antisemites — which I knew it would — but it was the beginning of me standing with the Jewish community,” DuRousseau told the Journal.

And then the Oct. 7 massacre happened. “I remember it so vividly,” DuRousseau recalled. “I had company in town that had flown in, and I’m sitting there on my couch and I start seeing all the headlines … I just couldn’t believe it.” Having just visited Israel, his mind “began racing” as he frantically redownloaded WhatsApp to see if the friends that he had just made in the Jewish state were okay. Du
-Rousseau ended doing a live stream with his friend Adam Scott Bellos, who hosts the “Unfiltered with Adam” podcast. “He’s in tears telling me what’s going on out there, just giving me the reality,” DuRousseau said, “and I’m someone who always has something to say, but at this moment I was speechless.”

Hours later, the PragerU influencer noticed that the online narrative began turn against Israel. “These people are being slaughtered, raped, beheaded and massacred, and y’all over here are saying that they deserved it or that it didn’t happen?” DuRousseau said of the anti-Israel narrative following Oct. 7 that was fermenting online. “So what is it that we’re looking at these video footages?” One of the first videos he saw from Oct. 7 was the video of a woman (later identified to be Shany Louk, 23) “who looked like she had been violently raped, beaten and battered” being paraded through the Gaza Strip. “There is no situation where that’s acceptable,” DuRousseau said. “That’s not resistance. That’s terrorism.”

At that point, he knew he had to fight back against the anti-Israel narrative and that there is “nothing more important” than discussing the situation in Israel. DuRousseau views it as “an American issue” because there are still Americans being held hostage by Hamas and Israel is an important ally to the United States for geopolitical reasons as well as the fact that Israel shares America’s Judeo-Christian values.

“You got Russia who’s mad at us for supporting Ukraine, you have China that’s been salivating at the thought of invading and taking over Taiwan, you have Iran who still wants to get their revenge on the United States and eliminate all of Western culture,” DuRousseau said. “If you take Israel out, you have all of the Middle Eastern region — led by Iran, plus Russia and China who both want to be the global power — those are three ginormous allies who would come after America potentially if World War 3 were to pop off … if you think about that, we would need somewhere even just to base. How are we going to fight in the Middle East if we don’t have Israel to put our equipment and our intelligence and all of that?”

Thus, he has been churning out video after video in defense of Israel, all of which have gone viral, although he now has “to take extra precautions” due to receiving multiple threats. But DuRousseau refuses to live in fear. “I am very confident that God’s plan will protect me.”

“It was the first time in my life I feel like I looked evil right in the eye. I was in disbelief hearing the stories of what happened there.”

Simply getting the message out there wasn’t enough for DuRousseau — it was important for him to visit Israel again during the country’s darkest hour, and through a friend he was able to join a trip with the Young Jewish Conservatives (sponsored by the World Zionist Organization) in January. While his first trip to Israel may have felt like a dream, the second time around was “very intense” and “a whirlwind of emotions” as DuRousseau sought to document the situation on the ground and provide a global message of solidarity with the Jewish community. They visited various communities that were ravaged on Oct. 7, including Kfar Aza and Ofakim, both of which can be seen in his documentary. “It was the first time in my life I feel like I looked evil right in the eye,” he said. “I was in disbelief hearing the stories of what happened there.”

One particular moment that stood out to him was when he was standing outside of a safe room at Ofakim. Prior to Oct. 7, Hamas knew in that part of the neighborhood were older people who would all go to that safe room, so the terrorists set up a trap so they could gun them down as they attempted to flee into the safe room. In that safe room, DuRousseau found a crayon drawing by children who were hiding in there, clearly “just coloring trying to appease their anxiety” in such a perilous situation. “When I walked out of there, I heard kids laughing and playing at a playground about a hundred feet away,” DuRousseau recounted. “Now this was 99 days after Oct. 7, and hearing these kids laughing and playing, something clicked for me how real this was. Some of those kids might not have parents anymore. Some of those kids watched people die. Some of those kids probably watched their siblings die. Some of those kids might have been shot … they are still in this community trying to enjoy life. How do you smile again after going through something like that? It broke my heart,” he said, struggling with his emotions. “It was the most complicated emotion I’ve ever felt. It made me happy to hear these kids be joyful and not be perpetually sad, but at the same time, it was just very disheartening to know what they’ve gone through.”

DuRousseau further remembered visiting a hotel where members of a devastated community from Oct. 7 are taking refuge and talking to children who were orphaned as a result of Oct. 7. “They just got so angry,” DuRousseau said, “and these kids couldn’t have been more than six years old. They were very little kids and they were literally grabbing their hair, pulling it out, one of them was shaking, one of them went mute … and the ones that were talking were talking about how angry they are at Hamas for doing this, and it clicked for me … the same heaviness that Holocaust survivors went through, these kids are now survivors of.” So now DuRousseau wonders how that anger the children are feeling — which he says is justified — will manifest as time goes on. “I have no idea how much your anger can fester after witnessing something like that at such a young age,” he said. “That really scares me for the next generation, what their perspective of the world is going be.”

And then there was the site of the Nova music festival. In the documentary, DuRousseau stands next to a picture of David Newman, explaining that he was an American-Israeli who was murdered by Hamas at the festival and that he used his stature to shield his girlfriend from Hamas; Newman’s girlfriend survived. The couple, in their 20s, had been planning on getting an apartment together. “This is a human being. This is a humanitarian problem, and we can’t let stories like David Newman’s go untold,” DuRousseau says in the documentary.

After taking a moment to gather his emotions, DuRousseau told the Journal about his visit to the site of the festival: “Seeing the gunshots, seeing the blood splatter, seeing the photos of who these people were, learning their ambitions, learning that some of these people were young and had just gotten engaged and had their whole lives ahead of them and that it was taken away from them so abruptly … I’m 27 years old. If I lived in Israel, there’s a chance I would have been at a festival like this. I would have been out there having a good time or in a kibbutz like this, in a young person’s community. And to know that these people were just minding their business, living their lives, and seeing what happened, it broke me. It really destroyed me … and to know that there’s people in the world who either, one, deny that this happened or two, encourage it to continue to happen… it really just made me concerned about human nature overall.”

He also realized that he had been erring in referring to the conflict as “complex,” when it’s actually quite simple: on one side are “musty genocidal terrorists” who are “murdering their own people” and inciting hatred against Jews worldwide, while the other side “simply wants to exist in peace, simply wants their hostages back and go on to its regular way of life … this is terrorism versus democracy.”

If he had to describe the difference between his first and second trips to Israel, it would be that the first trip showed him “the joy of Israel” and the second showed him “the heart.” He explained how people he met treated him like family, and seeing at the site of the Nova festival a large group of people who didn’t know each other gather in a circle where they sang, prayed and heard each other’s stories. “That’s resilience,” DuRousseau said. “It was profound to me.”

Immediately after his second trip to Israel, DuRousseau attended a screening in New York City (through The Philos Project, a Christian Middle East advocacy nonprofit) of the 47-minute compilation of bodycam video from Hamas terrorists documenting the carnage of Oct. 7. DuRousseau still loses sleep after watching the film. “If I hear even the most faint noise in my building, my mind just races … the thought of the terrorists coming in and doing what they did, the trauma of that is just so insane,” he said, describing the footage as “the most gruesome acts of violence that I ever could fathom.” “Watching someone’s head be sliced off, seeing the before and after of groups of women being violently raped and seeing the blood, seeing people shot at point blank range,” DuRousseau said, needing another deep breath before he could continue. And the Hamas terrorists mocked their victims while doing so, as the film shows terrorists taunting two young children whose father was just blown up by a Hamas grenade; the grenade also blinded one of the children.

DuRousseau couldn’t “wrap my head around” the fact that the Hamas terrorists committing these atrocities were in the 18-20-year-old range or in their late 20s who subsequently called their parents to excitedly tell them about the Jews they murdered in the name of Allah. “That made me sick,” DuRousseau said. “Because I’m like, there’s no way their parents are proud. But they were. And the mom is crying tears of joy they’re so proud, and the father’s saying how they’re so proud of their kids for killing these Jews and for living out these acts of violence, that to me was unspeakable. Unspeakable level of generational evil. And it showed to me how deeply ingrained hatred is to these people.”

Before his second trip to Israel, Streit told him that he would be safer in the Jewish state than in Los Angeles — and DuRousseau believes she was right. “These soldiers are there to protect us. They’re there with their guns to make sure that we’re not caught off guard again,” DuRousseau claimed. “And the people of Israel … they’re just good-natured people. I’m not concerned about being robbed and kidnapped and all these different things from the Israelis. But in L.A., it’s a free-for-all.”

He further alleged that the Israeli app alerting people about incoming rockets “is nearly as active as the Citizen app in L.A.,” which informs users about crimes happening in Los Angeles. “I feel like every 30 minutes I’m getting a notification about some maniac or some criminal or something’s happening … someone said a Christmas tree was on fire in front of my house recently,” DuRousseau said. “People are just always doing something crazy … it’s not safe here in our major cities anymore.”

DuRousseau’s thoughts on BLM Chicago and Los Angeles making social media posts in support of Hamas following Oct. 7? “It’s a very circular issue as to why people of the likes of BLM stand with Hamas,” he opined. “Woke ideology and social justice has become people’s new religion, and there is nothing in the world that will lead people to do irrational things without questioning it more than religion. And if you manipulate someone religiously, you can get them to do some very powerful and awful things.”

To adherents of the “woke religion,” all one has to do is claim that the Palestinians are being oppressed, and “any detail after that no longer matters to these people … they are dead set and dead-focused on eliminating who they view as an oppressor,” argued DuRousseau.

He wished “more black people understood the history of Israel and understood [that] there are so many black people in Israel, there’s so much history even within that to unpack. It makes all the sense in the world for black and Jewish people to stand together.”

While DuRousseau has gotten “a lot of backlash” from the black community over his work, he also has received “a lot of curiosity … particularly because there are prominent black conservative commentators that have completely different takes on Israel and what’s going on than I do, and because for the most part I’ve been aligned and in agreement with certain other large black political commentators that they’re kind of shocked to see the divide.” He added that he wished “more black people understood the history of Israel and understood [that] there are so many black people in Israel, there’s so much history even within that to unpack. It makes all the sense in the world for black and Jewish people to stand together.”

DuRousseau understands the importance of the digital war for Israel and the Jewish community, as he learned from a Holocaust museum how “decades” of propaganda brainwashed people into thinking that Jews were “vermin,” and thus “nobody cared” about what happened to the Jews in Nazi Germany. “Information is more accessible than ever before, which means propaganda is more available and easy to distribute than ever before,” said DuRousseau, “so part of my stance in this fight is: I have to fight the propaganda. Bad things only happen when not enough good people are there to step up and stop it.”

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April 11, 2024

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