A line of policemen armed with shields and stun grenades position themselves across a mob of angry protesters. The protesters wield signs reading “Stop police brutality” and “Black is not a crime.” Their hearts are filled with anger, frustration, and questions without answers. Their color, a constant reminder of their unjust struggle, blends with the color of the sky in...

Written by Gil Bar-Or It has been over 3000 years since we were freed from the bondage of slavery in Egypt, but it appears that today we are still bound by another set of shackles. The culture of materialism that surrounds us in our day-to-day lives threatens our personal freedom and limits our ability to fully grow. In this week's...

How can it be that there are so few religious Russian Jews left, when the vast majority of 18th century Jews lived in the Russian Empire? In fact, it is estimated that the Russian Empire had a population of 5.25 million Jews in 1897. How does a group that large lose its orthodoxy and disappear into secularism? With the exception...

The devastation suffered by Jews in the Holocaust is unforgivable, unparalleled, and unforgettable, so much so that their struggles startled the world in a way never seen before. Americans, particularly, were shaken after this horrifying genocide took place. For many Americans, anti-Semitic sentiment would soften after this tragedy, resulting in the gradual lessening of discriminatory acts. It would appear that...

Shavuot, coming up in just over two weeks, is the holiday celebrating the giving of the Torah, as well as the holiday of dairy decadence. This break from the heavy meat consumption common to many homes during most Jewish holidays has numerous explanations given in the Talmud and other Jewish sources. The most popular reason I've heard repeated around Shavuot...

Video by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan, Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus ______________This article is part of Ha'Am's Friday Taste of Torah column. Each week, a different UCLA community member will contribute some words of Jewish wisdom in preparation for Shab...

My journey with Ha'Am began as a freshman, when I stalked about the Enormous Activities Fair, searching for clubs to join. My eye caught a young man with a clipboard, emphatically explaining to anyone with a kippah, or a typical signifier of Judaism, that he was the editor-in-chief of the Jewish newsmagazine at UCLA. Having been previously discriminated against on...

Now that the results of the USAC election are in, Jewish Bruins have begun to contemplate what the upcoming 2015-2016 term will look like. For the first time since 2012, the Bruins United slate has garnered majority representation in student government. To many Jewish students on campus, this is a victory. BU has generally been known as the slate that...

A young man, alone in the "hive of scum and villainy" he comes from, becomes inspired by an omnipotent force to carry out a message of clarity and goodness. Basically, your average boy finds religion. Luke Skywalker sought something greater than the desolate deserts of Tatooine — a place so devoid of any happiness that the former mining-settlement-asteroid Polis Massa...

If you are reading this article, you are obviously aware that UCLA has its very own student-run Jewish newsmagazine, Ha’Am! Not many universities can brag about having their own Jewish newsmagazine. Contradictory to what some might believe in light of recent events, UCLA is an amazing place to be, particularly for Jews. In high school, I was the president of...