The chitter-chatter dies abruptly. The lights dim, except for up front. If you are not in your seat, rush back to it. Make sure your cell phone is shut off, or at least set to silent mode. You’ve probably forgotten to do that last part. The stage holds your attention. The show has just begun. The Batsheva Dance Company performed...

The past month has been challenging for both our UCLA community and our nation at large. On our campus, tensions flared between the pro-Israel and anti-Israel communities as the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel surfaced at both the undergraduate and the graduate levels. Concurrently, the tragic death of multiple Black men at the hands of US police officers...

It is natural that in times of war the voices of moderation are stifled. A threat to the health of the community awakens a deep internal defensive stance while the scrutiny of one’s peers only reinforces this attitude. For over a century, the Israelis and Palestinians have been at war with one another, further entrenching the feelings of animosity with...

"Dayeinu" is one of the more perplexing passages in the Passover Haggadah. It comes as a respite after a long stretch of Talmudic exegesis, and is therefore typically chanted in an exuberant manner. This fosters its interpretation as a song of rejoicing. Most say that Dayeinu serves as an accounting of the great enactments of G-d, starting with the exodus...

An Encounter with the Past: After high school, I spent a year studying at a yeshiva in Israel. During one of the breaks I joined some of my peers on an organized trip to Poland, called Shorashim. Shorashim is the Hebrew word for "roots," and this name encapsulates the goal of the trip. We learned about the Holocaust and visited...