It's been a week since Columbia University students were targeted with a chemical attack while attending a peaceful pro-Palestine rally. This attack is a serious crime, possibly a hate crime. Although the "alleged perpetrators" have been banned from campus, no arrests have been made even though there were multiple witnesses.

Do you know that the word “racism” wasn’t commonly used until the 1930s, when the word was coined to describe Nazis’ persecution of Jewish people? Racism is one of the most catastrophic evils of the modern world. And yet, today the term “racism” is sometimes used in ways that divorce it from a broader history of domination. For example, when anti-DEI activists claim that affirmative action is racist, what they’re saying is that treating people differently on the basis of race is, ipso facto, racism. But is this what racism actually is?

Is DEI on the down low strategic or self-defeating in the current climate? Some leaders say that it's the work that matters, not what we call it. What this argument forgets is that “repackaging” DEI closets the work and, by extension, the legitimate needs of the people whom diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility, and belonging initiatives are designed to represent and serve.

One of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s greatest gifts to the world is how he embodied the power of love to solve social problems. Today, it may seem like Dr. King's work doesn't apply to the entrenched conflicts that cause tremendous violence and oppression around the world, from the Middle East to Sudan. But what he advocates for isn't a pie-in-the-sky utopia or "superficial optimism." King recognizes human beings' propensity for collective evil (this is why he rejects liberalism), but he also trusts that history--and God--is on the side of justice and truth.

As a Jewish DEIB practitioner invested in fighting antisemitism, I'm deeply saddened to learn that, after only a 6 month term, Harvard President Claudine Gay has resigned. She is the first Black person to lead Harvard and its second woman president. While antisemitism on college campuses is a real problem, anti-DEI extremists' weaponizing of antisemitism is actually a part of a broad attack on equity and justice in US society. This explains the witch hunt against Dr. Gay.

We don't solve the problem of one injustice by creating another injustice. As everyone should know by now, an eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind. The death toll in Gaza is now over 20,000 people, making this the deadliest conflict for Palestinians since the creation of Israel in 1948. 70% of those killed in Gaza have been women and children, not combatants.

When people tell me that they are uncomfortable including religion in DEI programming, I remind them that antisemitism is not only about faith. It’s racism against Jews. Because Jews are an ethnoreligious group, addressing antisemitism requires us to challenge DEI’s tendency to separate conversations of religious inclusion from conversations about race and ethnicity.

Growing up, I was taught that being Jewish meant unwavering support for Israel. I love and support my family in Israel. Period. But I simply cannot support Israel's government, which is the most right-wing and extreme in its entire history. I've been horrified and heartbroken as I've witnessed the humanitarian deterioration in Gaza and escalating genocide against the Palestinian people, with backing from the US government.

We can disagree without dehumanizing others. In honor of the holiday season, I'm sharing a simple message: If we truly want to bring peace to the world, we need to live it. If you are sickened by the hate, violence, and the deep divisions in our world, take a positive step, even a small one, to build more constructive dialogues in your next meeting, at a holiday gathering, on your campus, or on social media.

It’s time to call out the trend of American conservatives weaponizing our fight against antisemitism for their own reactionary agenda. Good for the Jews? Not so much. I am referring to the Education Department hearing in which the Presidents of Harvard, MIT and UPenn (my alma mater) were grilled by lawmakers about rising antisemitism on their campuses.

I have a heavy heart because the truce ended. I fear a future of endless war and a wider, even more devastating conflict in the Middle East.

Antisemitism is not anti-colonial struggle. Islamophobia is not counterterrorism. I’m deeply disappointed by those who claim to stand for equality and peace and yet incite hatred and demonize the “other side.” As I’ve repeatedly argued, refusing to recognize the humanity and suffering of the other side diminishes our humanity. My fight against antisemitism is fundamentally linked to my antiracist work, my queer activism, my feminism, and my efforts to advance justice for all. That’s why today I’m expressing solidarity with both my Palestinian and Israeli siblings.

Years ago, a well-dressed White male colleague of mine, let’s call him Bill, was promoted to Dean. When I congratulated him, he said “I fit the part.” He was only half kidding. Bill was one of the few faculty on campus who wore a suit and tie every day. In fact, he already “looked like” a Dean! This story is an example of confirmation bias, a common form of cognitive bias that inclines us to favor information confirming our previously existing beliefs and discount information that contests them. We all have cognitive biases. In fact, our culture reinforces them in ways that we often don’t recognize. This is why it’s essential to be aware of our own bias when consuming information. Read on to learn 5 ways to reduce confirmation bias in your workplace…starting today!

"She's a Palestinian and I'm Jewish, but the only home we both have is the same home." I was so inspired by this powerful insight from the New York Times article about Israeli and Palestinian Activists Sally Abed and Alon-Lee Green. They are the brave leaders of Standing Together, an organization that works for peace between Israel and Palestinians. The two activists recently traveled from Israel to the US and have discovered a polarization about Gaza so intense that it might be described as a new war zone. How do we move beyond this either/or mindset?

No one should be punished for exercising their free speech rights. Suppressing speech will not make us, our organizations, or our college campuses safer. I stand against censorship, hate, and efforts to prevent any individuals or groups from participating in our democratic society—including those speaking out for Palestinian people.

What does queer mean? Who “counts” as queer? Who can say the word "queer?" These are questions that people have asked me for years. These days, I sometimes feel that people are afraid to ask so here are my thoughts. Yes, you can say queer even if you don't identify as queer. You don't have to be a member of the LGBTQIA2S+ community to be queer; same gender loving folx are sometimes the least queer folx in the room. (Yes, I said it!) Poly and kinky people are queer. Yes, asexual or ace individuals are queer.

As my beloved rabbi recently reminded us, caring about human beings does not make one either pro-Israel or pro-Palestine; we can be both.

These days, the trauma, grief, and pain is profound and unprecedented for people of diverse races, faiths, nationalities, and ethnicities. As an American Jew with family in Israel, I am directly impacted by the Israel-Hamas war. Why has antisemitism been spreading like wildfire among progressives, and where do we go from here? That’s the question I seek to answer in this piece. I argue that the left’s longstanding exclusion of antisemitism from conversations about racial and ethnic oppression is both a CAUSE and an EFFECT of its tendency to deny, minimize and even justify Jewish suffering.

I have intentionally paused my regular content in light of mass atrocities. What is happening in Gaza and Israel may feel like an ocean away to you, but it’s deeply personal to me. My family lives in Israel--not distant relatives but my immediate family. The effects of generational trauma affect not only Israelis and Palestinians but progressive American Jews like me, for whom both the genocidal violence of Hamas against Israel and Israel's genocidal "complete siege" of Gaza are trauma triggers.

The work of inclusion requires that all of us examine our “default settings.” Many white people don’t acknowledge that systemic racism exists; instead, we say that America is a society of equal opportunity…. “Not everything is about race,” we say. “There was unfairness in the past but everyone has the same opportunities now.” Whiteness is our default. We don’t recognize that we have internalized what Toni Morrison calls the white gaze, often imposing it in the workplace in ways that require people of color to expend energy and resources to accommodate whiteness.