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‘Dialogue’ isn’t enough to fix what ails campuses. Jewish students like us need more.
The past two years have been particularly challenging for Jewish college students. Our campuses, which should be places of curiosity and critical exchange, have too often become arenas of polarization. As upperclassmen, Ari at Harvard and Maya at McGill, we have watched peers feel trapped between two extremes: to take a strident side on nuanced conflicts, or to stay silent and withdraw from the conversation all together. Charlie Kirk’s recent assassination has further intensified the polarizing atmosphere. Frighteningly, some have seen his death as proof that civil discourse and free speech are impossible to achieve.
For students like us who care deeply about pluralism, this climate has felt especially isolating.
Even before Kirk’s assassination a number of university administrators were calling for pluralism and increasing investments in dialogue training. In fact, Barnard College President Laura Ann Rosenbury recently wrote an op-ed in the New York Times describing her college’s efforts to offer “courses and programs on civil discourse and dialogue.” While we’re heartened by this trend, we also recognize this isn’t the norm across universities and we’ve also come to see its limits. A mandatory workshop on “how to speak to one another” may help students avoid pitfalls but skills alone are not enough to solve the problem of polarization.
What’s missing on campuses across the country are sustained spaces where students learn to hold disagreement within a community. Over the past year, both of us have found great comfort in Jewish learning, through which we are reminded that intellectual and communal life can be most rich and vibrant when practicing the ethic of pluralism.
Jewish life has always included debate, diversity, and dialogue. The Talmud preserves arguments not for their resolution, but because the disagreements themselves are valuable. As our sages put it, a dispute for the sake of heaven is one that sustains community even when consensus is impossible. Disagreement can be a bond, not a rupture.
What Jewish wisdom has helped us recognize is that the key to pluralism is prioritizing relationships over the need to be right. We find ourselves concerned that this message is getting lost in the rhetoric on campus and in Jewish spaces when, all too often, the response to disagreement is to throw more “facts” at the other side, to win the debate.
Last school year, we each attempted the Sisyphean task of getting those who disagree on campus into one room to no avail. It was exhausting. No matter how close we got to encouraging open conversations, at the last moment, a social media post, national or international news event or protest would dissuade participants that such a conversation was desirable or even worthwhile. The trauma and upheaval of the Israel-Hamas war further enhanced a sense of fear, grief, alienation and anger among and between our Jewish peers.
What renewed our spirits and resolve was jointly participating in a program created for Jewish college students called Campus Commons. The experience of being in a mixed group of Jewish students from across North America — politically and religiously — was inspiring and enlivening, creating a trusting community with peers who, back on our college campuses, circulate in different spheres from ours. It meant that when tensions naturally surfaced – not through force or as an illustrative exercise — they were met with care rather than defensiveness.
Being in a pluralistic Jewish community and studying Jewish texts together gave us the courage and self-awareness to examine our own personal barriers in conversation. For the first time in a long time, we felt able to express pain without being dismissed or misunderstood.
College campuses have the potential to, once again, become spaces where students can cultivate meaningful relationships before diving into debate. This is especially true of Jewish spaces on campus which are in desperate need of a relationship reset. More resources should be given to trusted campus professionals and peer leaders who can serve as relationship-builders on campus and are best positioned to foster pluralism in these environments. This includes Jewish professionals and Jewish student leaders, who are uniquely situated to cultivate pluralistic environments and initiatives, both within the Jewish community and beyond it.
At Harvard Hillel, Ari started the “Oy-ntology Club,” a Friday-morning bagels-and-texts group on Jewish ethics. The series opened with thorny but relatable topics — how to hold close friends accountable without becoming responsible for them — and, after a few months of steady meetings and goodwill, turned to the morality of the Israel-Hamas war. This format worked and was rooted in two practices gleaned from the Campus Commons experience: 1) chevruta, or paired Jewish study, lets students meet through a shared text, giving a common entry point and slowing reactive takes; 2) beginning on common ground and, as trust builds, easing into harder questions. Regardless of the format, technology-free and off-the-record spaces do make a difference. When students can try on views without fearing they’ll be broadcast online, diversity in perspective and the potential to become friends is much easier to come by.
We hope university administrators and community leaders will go beyond “dialogue skills,” giving students opportunities to deepen relationships and build community. Our participation in a Jewish program that prioritizes pluralism and exposed us to Jewish learning related to the values of pluralism, restored our hope that things can be different; we can act together without needing to think alike.
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Australia Pro-Palestinian Rally Draws Tens of Thousands, Skepticism on Ceasefire
Demonstrators hold a banner during the ‘Nationwide March for Palestine’, after a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza went into effect, in Sydney, Australia, October 12, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Hollie Adams
Tens of thousands joined a pro-Palestinian rally in Sydney on Sunday, organizers said, one of dozens of demonstrations across Australia, with some protesters expressing skepticism a ceasefire in Israel’s two-year-old assault in Gaza would hold.
The organizer, the Palestine Action Group, estimated a crowd of 30,000 in Sydney, the nation’s most populous city, one of about 27 nationwide. Police did not have a crowd estimate for the protest.
The Gaza ceasefire appeared to be holding early on Sunday and Israeli troops had pulled back under the first phase of a US-brokered agreement to end the war, which has killed tens of thousands and left much of the narrow enclave in ruins.
“Even if the ceasefire holds, Israel is still conducting a military occupation of Gaza and the West Bank,” Amal Naser, an organizer of the Sydney rally, said in a statement. “The occupation as well as systemic discrimination against Palestinians living in Israel constitute an Apartheid system.”
Australian Broadcasting Corp footage showed protesters, many carrying Palestinian flags and wearing keffiyeh scarves, marching on closed city streets. Police said no arrests were made.
The rally was held in the business district after a court last week blocked a move to hold it at the Sydney Opera House.
Protester Abbi Jordan said she was at the rally because “this so-called ceasefire will not hold.”
“Israel always breaks every ceasefire they’ve ever done. For 78 years, they’ve been conducting an illegal occupation in Palestinian territories, and we demand the Australian government sanction Israel,” Jordan told Reuters.
The Executive Council of Australian Jewry, an umbrella group for more than 200 Jewish organizations, condemned the protest organizers. “They want the deal to fail, which would mean the war would continue,” co-Chief Executive Peter Wertheim said in a statement.
Pro-Palestinian protests have been common in Australia, especially in Sydney and Melbourne, since the war in Gaza erupted when militants of the Palestinian militant group Hamas killed 1,200 Israelis in an attack on October 7, 2023.
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UK PM Starmer to Attend Middle East Peace Summit in Egypt
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and US President Donald Trump (not pictured) hold a bilateral meeting at Trump Turnberry golf course in Turnberry, Scotland, Britain, July 28, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will travel to Egypt to attend the Sharm El Sheikh Peace Summit, where leaders are expected to sign a US-brokered peace agreement aimed at ending the conflict in Gaza, his office said on Saturday.
The first phase of the plan is set to begin with the release of hostages and Palestinian prisoners by Monday, marking what Britain called a “historic turning point” after two years of war.
The British leader would pay tribute to the role of US President Donald Trump and the diplomatic efforts of Egypt, Qatar and Turkey in brokering the deal, his office said.
He is expected to call for continued international coordination to implement the next phase, which includes deploying a ceasefire monitoring mission and establishing transitional governance in Gaza.
Starmer will reiterate Britain’s “steadfast support” to help secure the ceasefire and deliver humanitarian aid.
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As Israelis rally for hostages, they hope for the last time, Trump’s name is cheered and Netanyahu’s is booed
(JTA) — Hundreds of thousands of Israelis poured into Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square on Saturday night in what everyone present was hoping would be the final vigil on behalf of the hostages taken to Gaza two years ago.
Massive posters showing the 48 hostages expected to be returned imminently, 20 alive, under the terms of a ceasefire struck on Friday, surrounded the square. Demonstrators carried signs thanking U.S. President Donald Trump, who pressed for the deal. And hostage families described their excitement at finally being able to reunite with their loved ones — and their grief at preparing to receive their loved ones’ remains.
Some of the stars of the rally were three American Jews — Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump — who played a role in pushing negotiations between Israel and Hamas over the finish line.
Witkoff was visibly emotional. “I dreamed of this night. It’s been a long journey. This is the most powerful sight,” Trump’s Middle East envoy told the crowd. “All of our hearts beating as one.”
When Witkoff thanked Trump, loud cheers resounded. But when he mentioned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the crowd booed. Multiple times, he had to ask to be allowed to go on before saying, “I was in the trenches with the prime minister, believe me, he was a very important part.”
Many Israelis blame Netanyahu for prolonging the war and the hostages’ captivity, a sentiment that independent reporting has supported and that Trump reportedly expressed privately at times in the course of negotiating an end to the war.
Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, followed, praising Witkoff, thanking the Israeli soldiers who fought in Gaza and describing his own reaction to Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack. Kushner, who has significant business interests and relations across the Middle East, also was the only speaker to mention Gazans who also experienced two years of war after Hamas attacked Israel from Gaza.
“October 7, for me, was a shattering day,” he said. “Since then, my heart has not been complete, and it’s been a tremendous burden that I felt to see these hostages come home, to see their families get the closure they deserve and to end this nightmare – and also to see the suffering end for the people in Gaza, who, for most of them, were experiencing this through no fault of their own, other than being born into a situation that was horrific.”
Kushner’s wife, Trump’s daughter Ivanka, also addressed the crowd, saying that her father had a message he wanted to pass on. “The president wanted me to share, as he has with so many of you personally, that he sees you, he hears you, he stands with you always, always,” she said.
Trump repeatedly cited the crowd sizes in Tel Aviv as evidence that the Israeli people wanted to make a deal to end the war and bring the hostages home. (Polls easily supported the idea.)
The 20 living hostages and some number of deceased hostages are set to be returned on Monday morning, after Hamas said it had amassed them at three points within Gaza.
Earlier in the day, Witkoff had told hostage families that there was concern that Hamas would not be able to locate all of the bodies of the hostages who had been killed. Some family members exhorted the crowd to keep demonstrating until all of the deceased hostages had been returned, too.
And even those who are preparing to reunite with their loved ones after two years said they could not totally celebrate. “This is not a happy event,” Itzik Horn, whose son Eitan is set to be released alive, eight months after his brother Iair was freed, told the crowd. “This is the end of the cursed day in the history of the state — Israeli citizens are returning to their country after being abandoned.”
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