Should the civil rights of Jewish students be protected due to their shared Israeli heritage?

When does criticism or hatred towards Israel cross the line into hate speech and antisemitism?

Should universities be held responsible for maintaining a safe environment for its students?

Today we visited with Adela Cojab. Although Adela tried to graduate quietly, she eventually felt compelled to stand up and be the change.  Adela recently graduated from New York University (NYU) and  made headlines as a student leader and member of the Jewish community on campus at NYU. Continuous threats to Jewish students on campus she forced her to take action against the University’s inaction. She filed a complaint with the United States Office of Civil Rights which the University eventually opted to settle out of court. Adela successfully sought needed change in University Policy which would offer students protection in the future. She did not seek money, she sought change.  This is her story. I’m JP Katz and this is the TRIBECAST at TRIBEJOURNAL.ORG. Thanks for joining us.

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Today we visit with Corey Gil-Shuster from The Ask Project, a nonprofit that creates authentic man-on-the-street  videos to increase  understanding about the realities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Corey is a Canadian-Israeli citizen living in Israel, and has a fascinating story about how during the second intifada he grabbed a camcorder and a translator and hit the streets to get real perspectives first hand from real  people on both sides of the conflict Corey and I have never met, and likely never would have met if not for youtube. We come from different countries and in the course of conversation we found out that we identify with somewhat different communities, even though we’re both Jewish. 

Our conversation starts off with the back story of The ASK project and from there we walk right up until the edge of many of the most controversial topics of our time which polarize our societies today. This is the raw conversation between two people trying to reconcile the herd psychology, propaganda and community sensitivities and how they impact our perspectives and behavior. 

In our unscripted conversation, we discuss the following topics: Second Intifada (15:00) Herd Psychology & Tribalism (19:00) The Role of Media (27:45) Man on the Street (34:00) Visiting the Settlements (38:00) Religious Divides (45:30) LGBTQ+, BLM & BDS (48:00) Orthodox & Nonorthodox (59:15) Unorthodox & Propaganda (108:30) Biggest Paradigm Shift (1:16:45) Religious and Secular Israeli paradigms (1:22:45) Thanks for listening in….As with all good conversations, we’re just scratching the surface here and I hope you find this discussion both insightful and fun. As always, we’d love to hear your feedback in the comments….enjoy! I'm your host J.P. Katz and you’re listening to the TRIBECAST at TRIBE JOURNAL...a Jewish digital community podcast looking at different things... differently. www.tribejournal.org