TIMES OF ISRAEL
How Campus Hamas Supporters Led Me To Judaism
Toni Airaksinen
June 4, 2025

When I began studying at Barnard College of Columbia University in 2015, I was on a full-ride scholarship. Coming from a foster-care type upbringing, I had no family. No friends in NYC. And no support system. But I was full of hope, excitement and dreams to study. But when a student knocked on my door my after I moved in with a Boycott, Divest, and Sanctions (BDS) petition against Israel, I paused. Was this a friend or foe? What was this about? I had only vaguely heard of Israel and Palestine, and I didn’t feel comfortable signing the petition. Geopolitics wasn’t my strong suit. And I barely heard about Israel or Palestine before. So, I told the girl that I couldn’t sign it till I did more research, and she left, seemingly ok with that response. Days later, she again asked me to sign the BDS petition. READ MORE

JNS Arizona governor vetoes bill to hold teachers liable for Jew-hatred in schools “Governor Hobbs is frighteningly wrong,” Morton Klein, national president of the ZOA, told JNS. Under the provisions of HB 2867, Arizona would have adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of Jew-hatred and forbidden education officials from propagating any “antisemitism or antisemitic conduct, act or process that constitutes harassment or discrimination and that creates a hostile educational environment.”