Month: October 2006

Culture, Justice, Politics

Israel Politics Leads Federation to Cut Funding to Student Voices

Money is power.
And it’s a shame when quallity journalism is shuttered because it doens’t meet the party lines.
So it’s even worse when the two collide and money is pulled form innovative projects such as New Voices magazine, published by the Jewish Student Press Serivce, recent selectee of the highly-competitive Slingshot award.
Check the article about New Voices’ funding woes in today’s Forward which stems from a conservative funder who took issue with the open freedom of writers to plumb the controversial depths of real Israeli life.
Slamming the reciever down when the voices of young people rings is a great way to (a) piss off the caller and (b) to lose the very involvement and interest in community of those on whom the greater community spending millions on “continuity” efforts. It’s a great chance for us to send in letters about why New Voices is a good thing, not a boring/anti-Semitic thing, and deserves institutional support.
In the words of one of New Voices’ writers:

The naked fact is that New Voices has gotten me interested in Israel and is responsible for perhaps a third or a half of what I currently know about Jewish traditions and history and current events (sad but true). I just sent in a letter to [email protected]. I think
somebody else should write one that says, in Ilana’s words, “why it’s important that NV’s material gets out there: that the material the J community makes available to J college students is so one-sided in support of Israel that they are ill-equipped to engage in a
substantive discussion and debate with more critical peers.” I wonder if, say, Kyle McCarthy might agree… EmDoug? Bexster? Nathan and Jessie, David, Abigail, you all have traveled wide with copies of New Voices tucked in your backpacks–would you share a few words? Theseletters can be like 3 sentences long. You all are better than I am at
brevity.

Here is a sample letter to use:

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