What is the value of the Jewish voice? It is undignified to even ask the question, yet this quarter I found myself asking it far too many times. With the Pittsburgh tragedy, anti-Semitism throughout the country, and the NSJP conference at UCLA, my instinct is to feel that my Jewish voice is weak and unwanted.
I can’t speak for the greater community wants to hear, or cares to hear the Jewish voice, but I can tell you that everyone definitely heard it. The community with the second largest Jewish population in the United States used their collective voices to combat the voice of injustice, the voice of anti-Semitism.
It is our own voice that was heard. Whether it be students like Hillel President Noy Anisman and Michael Dayan who organized an incredibly meaningful UCLA vigil for those lost at the Tree of Life synagogue, or students like Jackie Schaeffer and Orly Termeie — who bore their emotions on their sleeves in front of USAC and the public, Rabbi Aaron Lerner in his meetings with Chancellor Gene Block,