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Printed in Protest: How I Am Using My Voice in Fashion School to Stand for My Values
Illustrative: Members of the United Nations Security Council vote against a resolution by Russia and China to delay by six months the reimposition of sanctions on Iran during the 80th UN General Assembly in New York City, US, Sept. 26, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz
Trust between students and professors depends on a delicate balance. Professors are responsible for teaching students how to think through complex issues without imposing their own political beliefs. Students trust professors to act with impartiality and neutrality.
In art school, when an assignment is open for interpretation, there are many routes the mind can take. Creative approaches and executions vary wildly. Each artist brings their own perspective and style. Amid the brainstorming, thumbnail sketches, and first drafts, it becomes essential to stay true to your beliefs. Sometimes that means not just creating a pretty picture to please the crowd.
My recent experience at my university illustrates how easily that balance can break down.
Due to the inescapable nature of traffic, I arrived late to my screen printing class. It was the first day and I walked in mid-lecture. On the board was a video explaining the history of the United Nations. Had I walked into the wrong class? My professor explained that the theme for our first assignment was to answer the prompt: “What the United Nations means to you.”
It was announced that we would be presenting our designs and artist statement in front of the United Nations headquarters. My interest was immediately piqued.
The lecture explained that screen printing has a rich history connected to political and social movements, specifically in the creation of commemorative scarves. There have been numerous methods and color techniques used to create messages through what we wear on our clothes as a form of expression. We looked at examples from world fairs, festivals, and the Olympic Games. Visual messages can be heard when words cannot.
I chose to focus my concept on the United Nations’ founding vision of peace and justice. As a pro-Israel Jew, my relationship to the United Nations had been watching the news and witnessing how their decisions affect the lives of my loved ones in Israel.
I wondered if any of my classmates in the room felt as conflicted as I did. It seems that every time we are met with hope of progress within the United Nations, we are met with a rise in terror attacks rather than diplomatic compromise, and even while the resolutions have historically leaned heavily in the Palestinians’ favor, there has been a constant refusal from that side to accept coexistence with Israel.
How can I make a design celebrating the United Nations when there is so much systemic antisemitism within the UN bodies?
I was left with a decision: create a pretty picture depicting peace, or take a critical stance on this problematic institution through my artist statement. I chose the latter.
It has been more than two years since the October 7th massacre — and two years since the public responded through a rise in antisemitism around the world.
As a Jewish student, I feel this shift every day on campus. It has taught me the effects that silence has in times when voices are so desperately needed. It is for this reason that I felt compelled to focus my design on Israel.
My design’s focus was on the skyline of Jerusalem — the heart of a multicultural land where Israelis and Arabs live side by side. To me, that is a perfect emblem of peace. I paired its skyline with a natural landscape, connecting the land’s past, present, and hopeful future to convey the people’s enduring spirit and lifelong pursuit of peace.
Since the establishment of Israel, it has been under attack. The United Nations has played a crucial role in the history of the region. So, as I reflect on their promise of peace and justice, I must also acknowledge their failed efforts that seem to undermine the very ideals they seek to uphold.
This scarf is a response to that dissonance. It recognizes the ongoing struggle for peace while acting as an urge to return to moral clarity. The UN was born from the dream of a world without war, rooted in freedom and better standards of life and human rights. As their 80th anniversary approaches, may those dreams become more than a distant vision, and shape what lies ahead.
It was clear that the project made some people uncomfortable. This felt inevitable and even necessary. Sometimes the role of art is to unsettle, create controversy, and get people to think. My goal was to offer nuance to the assignment. The conversation that followed the critique was engaged and thoughtful, affirming my goal of sparking the dialogue. This design process showed me the power in being authentic to my values even when a task feels uncomfortable. Own your perspective, and create work that is meaningful to you. Because ultimately, standing firmly in your values is its own form of artistry.
CAMERA fellow Kayla Rubin is an artist and designer studying textile design at the Fashion Institute of Technology, whose creative work explores Jewish identity, culture, and tradition.
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YouTuber Ms. Rachel Apologizes for ‘Accidentally’ Liking Instagram Comment Calling to ‘Free America From Jews’
Ms. Rachel. Photo: Wiki Commons.
Children’s educator and YouTuber Ms. Rachel admitted on Wednesday that she “accidentally” liked an antisemitic comment on Instagram that called for America to be “free from the Jews.”
The YouTube star, who creates toddler learning videos, apologized for the apparent mistake after a social media user privately messaged her on Instagram and pointed out that Ms. Rachel liked the antisemitic comment left on one of her posts. The private message promoted Ms. Rachel, 43, to issue a public apology in a video that she posted Wednesday on Instagram for her 4.8 million followers.
The YouTuber, whose real name is Rachel Griffin Accurso, explained that she thought she deleted the hateful comment but accidentally hit “like and hide” instead. The avid critic of Israel, who has shared online posts accusing the Jewish state of “genocide” and has 18.6 million subscribers on her YouTube channel, got emotional in an Instagram video while explaining what happened.
“I thought I deleted a comment, and I accidentally hit ‘like’ and hide,’” she said in an Instagram video. “I don’t know how or why. I’ve accidentally liked comments before. It happens. I’m a human who makes mistakes. I would never agree with an antisemitic thing like the comment. We have Jewish family, a lot of my friends are Jewish. I delete antisemitic comments.”
The issue reportedly began when Ms. Rachel shared a statement from her notes app on Instagram that read “Free Palestine, Free Sudan, Free Congo, Free Iran.” A social media user who replied to the post wrote, “Free America from the Jews” and the comment garnered four likes including from Ms. Rachel, according to screenshots cited by the New York Post.
The children’s YouTube star insisted she was “so broken over” the incident.
“I feel like we can’t be human anymore online,” she complained in the video. “And I’m so sorry for the confusion it caused. I’m so sorry if anyone thought that I would ever agree with something horrible and antisemitic like that. I don’t.”
“I want to say that it’s OK to be human and it’s OK to make mistakes and I’m old, so I am not as good with touching things online, I guess. I have liked things by accident before,” she added. “Everyone who knows me knows I would never like that.”
In an earlier Instagram post about the incident, Ms. Rachel wrote that “people are allowed to make mistakes” and that she was “super sorry for any confusion it caused.”
“I delete antisemitism ANY time I see it. I am against all forms of hate including antisemitism against the Jewish people,” she added.
The watchdog group StopAntisemitism.org has previously accused Ms. Rachel of spreading Hamas propaganda and false information about Israel’s military actions in the Gaza Strip during the Israel-Hamas war.
Ms. Rachel lives in New York City and her husband is Broadway music director and composer Aron Accurso.
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Discussion: Growing up Hasidic in Vienna
זונטיק דעם 25סטן יאַנואַר וועט אויף זום פֿאָרקומען אַ שמועס מיט איידל מלובֿיצקי (מאַלאָוויצקי), אַ צאַנזער־רביש אייניקל וואָס איז געבוירן און דערצויגן געוואָרן בײַ אַ חסידישער סלאָנימער משפּחה אין ווין, עסטרײַך.
אלי בענעדיקט, וואָס וועט פֿירן דעם אינטערוויו און איז אַליין פֿון אַ חסידישער משפּחה, האָט געזאָגט אַז איידל מלוביצקי „טראָגט אין זיך אַ לעבעדיק לעבנבילד פֿון אַ חסידישער וועלט אין אַ מאָדערנער שטאָט. אין איר דערציילן פֿאַרבינדן זיך פּערזענלעכע זכרונות מיט קהילות־געשיכטע, און ייִדיש בלײַבט די שליסלשפּראַך פֿאַר ביידע.“
די דיסקוסיע ווערט געשטיצט פֿון דער ייִדיש־ליגע.
איידל מלובֿיצקי איז הײַנט אַ ייִדיש־לערערין און קולטור־פֿיגור, אַקטיוו אין פֿאַרשידענע אינסטיטוציעס — צווישן זיי: דער ווינער אוניווערסיטעט, „יונג־ייִדיש־ווין“ און „ייִדיש־זומער־ווײַמאַר“. זי איז אויך אַ וועגווײַזערין און גיט לעקציעס וועגן דער ייִדישער געשיכטע פֿון ווין, וועגן דער חסידישער געשיכטע בכלל, און די געשיכטע פֿון דער חסידישער קהילה אין ווין בפֿרט. בקרובֿ וועט אויך אַרויס אַ דאָקומענטאַר וועגן די בית־יעקבֿ־שולן, וווּ זי ווערט אויך אינטערוויוירט.
דער שמועס, וואָס איז פֿרײַ פֿון אָפּצאָל, וועט פֿאָרקומען זונטיק, דעם 25סטן יאַנואַר, 2 אַ זייגער נאָך מיטאָג ניו־יאָרקער צײַט. כּדי זיך צו רעגיסטרירן גיט אַ קוועטש דאָ.
The post Discussion: Growing up Hasidic in Vienna appeared first on The Forward.
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Australia PM Albanese ‘Profoundly Sorry’ for Failing to Prevent Bondi Beach Attack
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese speaks at the Sydney Opera House during a National Day of Mourning for the victims of the Dec. 14, 2025, mass shooting at a Jewish Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach, in Sydney, Australia, Jan. 22, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Jeremy Piper
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Thursday he was “profoundly sorry” for his failure to prevent the Bondi Beach mass shooting, as the country observed a day of mourning for the victims of the attack.
Police say a father and son opened fire at an event celebrating the Jewish festival of Hanukkah on Dec. 14, killing 15 people in Australia‘s worst mass shooting in decades.
They say the two men were inspired by Islamic State to carry out the attack, which the government has called an act of terrorism against Jewish people.
Flags were flown at half-mast across the country ahead of a memorial event at Sydney’s iconic Opera House, where Albanese apologized to the relatives of the victims in the audience.
“You came to celebrate a festival of light and freedom and you left with the violence of hatred. I am deeply and profoundly sorry that we could not protect your loved ones from this evil,” Albanese said to sustained applause in his speech at the event.
Last month, the prime minister said he was “sorry for what the Jewish community and our nation as a whole has experienced” – an apology that some relatives said was insufficient.
A minute’s silence, including on the country’s main television channels, was held across the nation just after 7 pm in Sydney (0800 GMT) as the memorial event began.
Event attendees lit candles and heard speeches from other lawmakers, as well as Jewish prayers and video tributes.
Buildings across the country, including cricket stadiums in Melbourne and Perth, were also illuminated, while play was paused during the Australian Open tennis tournament to observe the minute’s silence.
The Bondi attack shocked the nation and led to calls for tougher action on antisemitism and gun control, with critics of Albanese saying he had not done enough to crack down on a spate of attacks on the Jewish community in recent years.
The government disputes this, and has already passed legislation tightening background checks for gun licenses, as well as separate legislation that would lower the threshold for prosecuting hate speech offenses.