Do Judaism and Zionism necessarily align? Rabbi Joseph Berman and rabbinical students Alana Alpert and Ari Lev Fornari will share the connection between spirituality and activism in their own lives. Come learn how young Jews can work for justice in Israel and Palestine through Jewish traditions and values.

RSVP on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=163931960328034

If I am not for myself, who will be?
If I am only for myself, what am I?
If not now, when?
-Hillel the Elder, Avot 2:4

Mira Dabit and Amer Shurrab, young activists from the West Bank, will share the challenges facing students who live under Israel’s military occupation, and their inspiring struggle to put an end to it by holding companies like TIAA-CREF accountable for investing in Occupation.

The fight for equality and accessibility in education is cen…tral to every struggle for a just and democratic society. That struggle continues today in Israel/Palestine, where Palestinian students and teachers trying to access education face unlawful detention, armed harassment, curfews, checkpoints, closed schools, dorm raids, apartheid wall, apartheid roads, illegal arrest, and bombed schools and universities.

So why is TIAA-CREF – the world’s premiere retirement fund for educators – invested in companies that create these barriers? Why is the retirement fund that claims to be “financial services for the greater good” profiting from the Israeli Occupation? Come meet Mira and Amer to find out!

PS: Only one more day to sign the petition for inclusion in Hillel…we are almost at our goal of 1000 signatures from current Brandeis students! Visit www.includejvp.org

Noam Chomsky at Brandeis
Thursday, November 11, 6:30 – 8
Sherman Function Hall (Upper Sherman)
Hosted by Brandeis Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace

Brandeis ID Required (Contact us with questions)
No large bags or posters allowed inside

For more information on Chomsky, visit his website at http://www.chomsky.info/

Palestinians, Israelis, and internationals protest settlements in Sheikh Jarrah, East Jerusalem

Israeli Occupation Awareness Week will take place November 8 – 12
Hosted by Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace

We are young Jews, Muslims, & Christians; Palestinians, Israelis, Americans, & Europeans; we envision Israel & Palestine as a place of justice, and we hold Israel accountable for its military occupation. Peace can proceed when all Palestinians reclaim their rights to free movement, land, water, a home, a fair trial, cultural preservation, national identity, & democratic representation.

Highlights of the week include Noam Chomsky on “Escalating Policies of Apartheid,” Daoud Nassar on Palestinian farmers fighting settlement construction, Alice Rothchild on “Difficult Conversations: Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions within the Jewish Community,” and Diana Buttu on moderating peace talks with the PLO.

Check out the facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=125844904140133

SCHEDULE

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…MONDAY, NOVEMBER 8
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MISSING HEADLINES: Women’s Activism in Palestine
5:30 – 6:30, International Lounge

(http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=103411046395549)

Slingshot Hip-Hop: Film on DAM, Palestinian rappers.
6:30 – 8, Rapaporte Hall

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Tuesday, November 9
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DAOUD NASSER: A Community Leader Opposes Settlement Construction in Nahalin, Palestine
11 – 12:30, International Lounge

(http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=157863947582097)

DIFFICULT CONVERSATIONS: Alice Rothchild on Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions in the American Jewish Community.
6-8, Pearlman Lounge

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=164797830208935

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Wednesday, November 10
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Diana Butu: Legal advisor to the PLO. Palestinian food served.
7 – 8:30, Pearlman Lounge

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Thursday, November 11
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Boston Palestine Film Fest 2010 Features:
“To Shoot an Elephant” and “East Side Story”
2 – 5, SCC Multi-Purpose Room

Noam Chomsky: Israel’s Escalating Policies of Apartheid
6:30, Pollack Auditorium

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=167002926650955

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Friday, November12
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FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 12

DAM (Da Arabic MCs): Palestinian hip-hop group performs at MIT!
6, MIT Lobdell Hall, $10

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=169633429729646

More information to come soon!

I APOLOGIZE FOR THE LENGTH OF THIS POST!!! I COULD NOT FIGURE OUT HOW TO ADD A JUMP!
LOVE
LIZA

Hedy Epstein, Holocaust Survivor and Human Rights Activist, Speaks Out Against the Occupation of Palestine

Thursday, Oct 21, 6 pm, Lurias (Upper Sherman)

Hosted by

The Peace, Conflict, and Coexistence Studies Program

Hedy Epstein survived the Holocaust when her parents sent her from Nazi Germany to Britain on the Kindertransport. Since then, she has devoted her life to human rights causes from reproductive rights to immigration reform. She has made five visits to the West Bank, Palestine, and came close to boarding the Freedom Flotilla to Gaza. She is an outspoken critic of Israel’s military occupation of Palestine, and has become a well-known, controversial figure in the Israel-Palestine peace movement.

At Brandeis, Hedy will share stories from a life fighting injustice, advocating for an end to the occupation of Palestine.

All are welcome!

Here is a paraphrased summary of what  we were told regarding the closing of the Rose.  More summary to come regarding details on endowment return and other areas of the presentation.

Brandeis lost 25% of its endowment between June 30 and December 31, falling from $712 million to $549 million in market value. Peter French’s projections predict the endowment’s value will reach an all-time low of $468 million in Fiscal Year 2009. After that, the endowment will begin to recover, but until it surpasses its original principal, no withdrawals can be made due to Massachussets law.  Proposed changes in academic structuring and student/faculty ratio will help to close gaps, but not by a lot.  Selling the Rose, as sad as it makes the Board of Trustees, is the only feasible large-scale cutback.

So, what exactly will happen?  There are 7180 works of art in the Rose collection, with an estimated worth at about $350 million before the crash.  It will take months or years to sell the paintings, as we must wait for the art market to recover, as well as examine the terms of donation or purchase for each and every work to see if its sale would be legal. A full sale of the Rose collection is thus nearly impossible and undesirable.  If, by some miracle, the economy recovers and philanthropy picks up, Pres. Reinharz said that there may be no sale at all.The actual shut-down of the Museum will have little effect on budgetary savings. The direct operating expenses for the Rose (salaries, exhibitions, etc) and its operating revenues even out; both costs and proceeds from the Museum are somewhere between $1 and $2 million per year. In addition to direct expenses however, there are approximately $600,000 in indirect expenses (heating, lighting, water, maintenance) which would be saved by the closing of the physical Museum.

So, why was this decision kept secret? According to Pres. Reinharz, the Board of Trustees did not want a widely-publicized discussion, and they wanted to “protect” the director of the Rose, Michael Rush, who could not have been expected to collaborate on the decision to close down the museum he is responsible for.  Along these lines, the Rose’s Board of Overseers was also not alerted.

What are the alternatives?  According to Peter French, the Rose could only stay open if Brandeis drastically increased tuition or donations.  The university has no capacity to take out more debt, or make sufficient cuts without neglecting vitally important services.  An idea came up to close buildings temporarily, but according to Dan Feldman’s analysis, we would need to close about half of the campus’ buildings.  If the savings expected from the Rose were to come from additional personnel cuts, we would need to cut approximately 270 more staff members or 200 more faculty.

Some students brought up creative ideas to save the museum, such as attempting to sell the pieces of art back to the donors themselves, so that we could restore our collection in more prosperous times.  To this, Pres. Reinharz responded, “If it works, cool!”

Feel free to post your own thoughts on the presentation.

Johns said on Tuesday, “I find it astonishing. I’ve never heard anything like it.”

Johns is only one of the revolutionary artists cherished at the Rose, including Robert Rauschenberg, Cindy Sherman, Andy Warhol, Joan Miro, and Roy Lichtenstein.

4,000 students, faculty, and staff from Southern Nevada schools rallied on Thursday

In the words of Hillel Buechler’s unsubstantiated op-ed in the Justice, greater student inclusion in decision-making “isn’t feasible for now; the University has already established a pattern of disregard for our say in making changes, and that pattern has yet to be broken.” These feelings of hesitancy, undoubtedly spreading among campus activists, are contrary to the principles of the very University we are trying to preserve.

How about the Rose Art Museum. Even as we struggle with our own emotional cost-benefit analyses, it is still integral that we express passion for what we value on campus. A college education teaches us to explore our interests, and then to immerse ourselves in what we find fulfilling, preparing us to fight for our ideals after graduation. We are supposed to utilize the confidence we develop in the classroom for positive change. In that vein, I will be attending Thursday’s sit-in (1:00 at the museum!) not because I definitively oppose the closing, but because I want to make sure that the Board of Trustees and administration deeply understands the adverse affects of this decision not only on PR and financial asset holdings, but on student morale. The Board of Trustees is removed from campus values and attitudes, which can turn the student body into a means, rather than an end, to an educational institution. We must do whatever we can to break through financial analysis and make our complaints felt.

Even if we, the students, are viewed as a means to a financial end, we need to remember that we are the most important means. We too often forget that the university depends on our money, our success, and our support. It is irresponsible for us to neglect input. The administration has not only expressed a desire to hear from students but implemented avenues of dialogue (i.e. Jehuda’s 11:00 meeting today in Sherman); it would be a humiliating demonstration of apathy for us not to partake.

Our administration is just as desperate as we are, and a mutually beneficial solution depends on discourse involving both sides! Few administrators/faculty are viewing student organizing as antagonistic, in fact they are relying on it. At a time when we are selling the Rose, our second largest asset after the school’s land itself, no idea is too radical.

So, in a clichéd attempt at a rallying cry, let’s put aside our pessimism and save our own school!

Shortly thereafter, police showed up. Alwina Bennet came back out and said that the students were trying to access a secret faculty meeting. Bennet claimed Alex hurt her hand as she tried to open the door. Apparently the interaction was entirely nonviolent. The police said that the students could potentially be charged with assault and battery, though it seemed this was an empty claim.

Ed Callahan explained that everyone should be allowed to have private meetings. Then they spoke with the police, who made a report.

Jason Gray arrived to talk with them.

Now, a group of students are assembled at the top of the Rabb steps, waiting for the faculty to exit.

UPDATE: Alex, Danny, and Jason have exited Olin-Sang.

No word from Sahar.

Yesterday, students from both schools canvassed every neighborhood in Raymond, New Hampshire, knocking on 1023 doors and identifying 268 people in Raymond who are planning on voting for Obama on election day.  next week! (To put things in perspective, Raymond has a population of 15,000.)

Please mark your calendars and take at least a day off to support Obama on election day and weekend!  We’ll be going back up to Raymond on November 1, 2, 3, and 4.  Email Justin at just...@brandeis.edu to reserve a spot in a car.

Yet what struck me in the statement was the relevance to modern campus life.  I have always viewed Brandeis as a contrived little bubble.  It’s a wonderful (and often enlightening) bubble, but one has to admit how fake it is.  We construct our own universe where we can all feel like stars in a chosen field: academics, performance, or in the case of Innermost Parts, political engagement.  Yet I have often felt frustrated when people forget the bubble, and treat their Brandeis proceedings with self-importance.  Paradoxically, the bubble can also lead to an extreme lethargy, as students see no point in engaging themselves in broader “issues”.  While the university institution certainly can lend itself to genuine political involvement, it’s difficult to strike the balance between apathy and egotism.

Fortunately, Tom Hayden echoed my feelings.  Apparently things haven’t changed so much since 1962…

Apathy is not simply an attitude; it is a product of social institutions, and of the structure and organization of higher learning itself.

The extracurricular life is ordered according to in loco parentis theory, which ratifies the administration as the moral guardian of the young.

The accompanying “let’s pretend” theory of student extracurricular affairs validates student government as a training center for those who want to spend their lives in political pretense, and discourages initiative from the more articulate, honest, and sensitive students. The bounds and style of controversy are delimited before controversy begins.  The university “prepares” the student for “citizenship” through perpetual rehearsals and, usually, through emasculation of what creative spirit there is in the individual.

And so, as Brandeis students continue to explore our political power on campus, let’s not forget to keep things in perspective.  Our personal political expression is not limited to the confines of University institutions!  Hayden would encourage us to fight alienation and powerlessness not through beurocracy, but through self-exploraion and human relations.  He states that “students leave college somewhat more ‘tolerant’ than when they arrived, but basically unchallenged in their values and political orientations.”  Let’s prove him wrong by remembering that college is an opportunity to explore ourselves, and not to prove ourselves within institutional confines.

Thank you to Tim for posting on Brandeis dining, specifically Aramark’s waning contract.

The good news? A Brandeis student campaign has already begun to seize this opportunity and reform our food services. There has been much discussion about switching providers, presumably to a rival corporation such as Sodexo or Compass Group. However, as Tim mentioned Aramark’s ties to Brandeis will be extremely difficult to sever. This is not necessarily a bad thing: Aramark has already made positive changes at Brandeis, such as compost, and has gone even further at other universities. John Hopkins, NYU, Baylor, Penn State, and Vassar, for example, have sustainable dining programs that we can demand as well. Aramark, with its record of health, labor, and environmental violations, is actually rumored to be quite receptive to student demands. I have confidence that a well-organized group of campus activists can succeed in a series of reforms.

And so I introduce…Brandeis Coalition for Food Service Reform

View the categories we plan on addressing after the jump.

These are some of the things we plan on discussing. A more formal list of demands will be published soon.

1. Campus Dining Workers:

The University must research the problem of under-staffing and overwork in order to give all dining employees fair hours.

2. Workplace Conditions/Safety:

The University and third party inspectors should engage in regular health and safety inspections.

3. Environmental Sustainability in Dining Halls:

Dining halls should use renewable materials; reduce packaging waste, energy use, and emissions; and address the problem of Agro processors.

4. Food Options

Dining halls should make ingredients and nutrition information available, reduce the use of common allergens, offer later dining hours, increase the availability of Kosher/Halal foods, maintain the current availability of vegan/vegetarian options, and improve the health of available foods by reducing grease, adding fresh produce, etc.

5. Food Sustainability

Dining halls should purchase more local and organic food.

6. Financial Transparency

Meal plans should aim for dollar-dining dollar equivalency, accounting for unused meals.

7. Additional Clause: All current full-time employees must maintain their employment under Brandeis dining services, no matter what changes occur. Any new employer must be union-friendly.

We are still drafting our preliminary list of demands, so there is plenty of room for additions, elaborations, and supplements to this list.

Get involved now!

Join the facebook group Brandeis Coalition for Dining Service Reform

Come to our first meeting: 10:00 PM in the Pearlman Lounge, Monday, October 6^th.

Turn your Aramark complaints into effective change on campus!

Children continue to be tortured in Massachusetts. For those of you who haven’t had the pleasure of Brandeis Students Against the Judge Rotenberg Center visiting your dorm room, the JRC is a school in Canton for people with mental disabilities. Students here are hooked to electronic devices at all times and given painful two-second skin shocks as a way of behaviorist conditioning, for infractions as small as speaking out of turn or falling asleep in class. Aversive treatment is not only inhumane, it is ineffective: students revert to former behavior once negative stimuli are removed. A statewide campaign of psychologists and disability rights activists has worked to stop this cruelty for decades.

Here’s a brief update on the efforts in the State House and at Brandeis to shut it down.

Senator Brian Joyce, a disability rights advocate who co-authored anti-JRC legislation currently in study (a.k.a. not going anywhere), put an amendment in the state budget that would regulate, but not ban, aversive shock treatment. Amendment EHS 874 is essentially the same as the “compromise” bill, S 1123, with one key difference: it permits the use of shocks for minor behaviors, only if all other forms of treatment are proven to not work. Therefore this legislation is far from perfect, but would still add a crucial level of psychologist oversight. You can read it here: http://www.mass.gov/legis/09budget/senate/amendments/ehs2.htm

The conference committee is running behind schedule, and will decide by the end of July whether or not this amendment will go to the House floor. It already passed in the Senate, a significant half-way victory. Please take a second to call Representative DeLeo, chair of the Ways and Means Committee, asking him to take action against cruelty to the disabled. Here is an optional script:

Representative Robert DeLeo: 617-722-2990

“Hello, my name is_________ and I’m from Brandeis University. I am calling to urge Representative DeLeo to support Budget Amendment EHS 874, restricting the use of cruel aversive treatment. The electric shocks used at the Judge Rotenberg Center are inhumane and unsafe, as demonstrated by the recent prank incident in which a student was wrongly shocked 77 times in three hours. This amendment offers a reasonable compromise, allowing aversive treatment in extreme cases but preventing future disasters. Please support disability rights in Massachusetts. Thank you.”

Here is another reason why Rep. DeLeo is important to this issue. While lobbying at the State House, David Emer and I had the pleasure of meeting with Representative Barbara L’Italien, a leading anti-JRC figure in the State House. She insisted that little progress can be made on this issue as long as Salvatore DiMasi remains the Speaker of the House. He is a close ally of Representative Jeffrey Sanchez, whose nephew is actually a JRC student (fyi: This was a hit at the January hearing in which Sanchez’s brother screamed, “I do not have a son: I have a retarded boy,” among other abhorrent statements). However, Representative DeLeo is a top contender to be the next Speaker. Therefore, even if legislation does not pass this time, our calls to DeLeo are still crucial to the future of disability rights.

For more information about JRC, read this Mother Jones article: http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2007/09/school_of_shock.html

or this Boston Globe article describing a single telling incident: http://www.boston.com/news/education/k_12/articles/2007/12/18/prank_led_school_to_treat_two_with_shock/