Category: Challenges
The Supreme Court Case You Missed…
While there has been no shortage of discussion surrounding the recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions on such hot button issues ranging from marriage equality to health care, and the environment, one imp... Read More
The Only Terrorist in Israel
The only terrorist in Israel is one of Arab descent. At least, that is how it is portrayed by the media and dominant ideologues to the impressionable public either in a willful or extremely irresponsi... Read More
Tu b’Av: “R/evolution is love” (Assata Shakur)
Tu b’Av (the 15th of Av), celebrated today, follows on the heels of Tisha b’Av (the 9th of Av – clever). Tisha b’Av is the culmination of a period called the Three Weeks –... Read More
What Exactly is “Mutual Recognition”?
The construct of “mutual recognition” is circulated frequently in the interfaith society: nearly every organization I approach as an ethnographic researcher names it as a primary goal. But... Read More
Arab Like Me: Rachel Dolezal and My Anxious Jewish Mask
Am I the Jewish Rachel Dolezal? I was sitting in my East Jerusalem apartment in a Moroccan djellaba, Abdel Halim Hafez warbling from the stereo, sipping mint tea and reading a New Yorker article about... Read More
On Dignity, Morality, and Responsibility: The Effect of Obergefell vs. Hodges
This summer has been full of some pretty amazing and terrifying historic moments, and the Supreme Court decisions definitely made the list for me. As someone who finds the judicial process fascinating... Read More
“50 Years Since Nostra Aetate” with The International Council of Christians and Jews
“Jews are non-Christian in a way that other religions are not.” Meredeth Banki, speaker at the International Council of Christians and Jews, said this when speaking about her experience as part of... Read More
Ethnographic Filmmaking and the Scientific Study of Religion
What happens when a social scientist uses a camera as a tool in ethnographic fieldwork? For a decade prior to pursuing graduate school, I worked as a composer, film editor and documentary filmmaker. W... Read More