Nina Padolf: Labels Do Not Define You
For first grade, I had to take a bus to a school designed for children with disabilities. I no longer attended my neighborhood school, instead, I was placed in a room with all the boys.
Rebecca Gordon: Banning What Matters
Public Libraries Under MAGA Threat
Sydney Lea: But-cept
From a half-century ago, I remember wishing my oldest son would continue saying ‘upslide down’ at least until first grade.
Baron Wormser: Disunited Delusions
Donald Trump, as an unrestrained American ego, seems like an allegorical figure of the sort that Melville had a fondness for—the Confidence Man, par excellence.
Matthew J. Parker: The Hamas T-Shirt Fan Club
On October 17th, just ten days after Hamas massacred over 1,400 Israelis, an email on our faculty listserv announced that, on the following day, there would be a national student … Continue reading
Baron Wormser: Agony
The agony I feel about the events in Israel, an agony shared by millions around the planet, many of whom may never have entered a synagogue, is very real. I wake up at night and lie there, held fast by grief, impotence, anger, and despair.
A Teacher in NYC Tells the Children, “Look for the Helpers”
We all must demand a ceasefire now. Our witnessing and demanding change is how we can all be helpers for all children.
Majid Naficy: Ezzat’s Last Will & A Memory of Ezzat
I want only to say that life’s beauties are never forgettable.
Paul Christensen: Chapped Lips
Silence is winter’s sonata, a moody, tuneless trill of wind and creaking branches, and the muffled voice of a crow trying to call out through the blur of snowfall.
Abe Louise Young: New Seeds for Old Stories
When I was a child, everything I heard & read about Israel was aspirational. We saved our quarters in cardboard boxes emblazoned, “Plant Trees In Israel!” People said, “Next year in Jerusalem!” to mean goodbye, to celebrate New Year’s Eve.
Vox Populi: Most Popular Posts of 2023
We now have approximately 18,000 email subscribers, one third outside the United States, and our posts are picked up by social media where they often go viral. For example, Zeina Azzam’s poem Write My Name, published in November 2023, has been translated into Arabic, Spanish, French, and Japanese, as well as other languages, and read by millions.
Nasser Rabah: On the Birthday of the War
When I return from the war, if I do,
don’t look into my eyes,
do not see what I saw.
Letter from South Gaza, 12/13/2023
Dear [Name Withheld]: The situation in the North is getting worse and worse day by day. They manipulate the news. They play with the scenes. The Israeli forces break into … Continue reading
Paul Christensen: Pomegranates in Winter
Snow reminds me of the chalky blackboards of my childhood, the ones I was required to wash with a fat sponge and a bucket of water. A nun would occasionally check up on me to see that my labors were done in earnest.
