By Rabbi Elie Mischel | February 04, 2021
A few months ago, just before the winter set in, I shared a socially distanced cup of coffee with one of my congregants. We’ve been close friends for years, so he got straight to the point. “I work hard to support my family and to live the Modern Orthodox life. Yeshiva tuition is very expensive, but I pay it; I know it’s important. But now my oldest is going to college, and I don’t know what I’m going to do. The University of Michigan costs over $75,000 a year!”
It’s a conversation I’ve had more than a few times over the years, as the obscenely high cost of college in America climbs ever higher. But with so many members of our community out of work because of the pandemic, it’s time to talk more openly about alternatives for our children. More specifically, it’s time to think about going home for college to Israel!
Seventy years after its founding with an 18-month mandate to provide emergency aid to the “Palestine refugees,” the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has grown into a gargantuan $1.2 billion, 30,000-strong “phantom sovereignty”[1]Â that has done more than any other international actor to perpetuate the “refugee problem” it was established to solve. With the Trump administration slashing its donation to the agency, and the Gulf states and the Europeans demanding greater transparency regarding its finances and operations, UNRWA may at long last be approaching its moment of truth.
The Original Mandate and Its Demise
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On a shoot with my wife, Kayla. (courtesy)
It is natural to search for silver linings in life as COVID-19 continues to turn society upside down. While remote learning is often criticized for its shortcomings, it has actually been one of my personal silver linings during the pandemic.
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Comments Off on Denver Native Wins Jerusalem College of Technology Men’s Hackathon with Predictive Hebrew Learning Tool
Jonah Lawrence, originally from Denver, was part of a team that took first place in the 5th annual Jerusalem College of Technology Great Minds Hackathon
Jerusalem Jonah Lawrence, a Denver native now studying computer science at the Jerusalem College of Technology (JCT), was part of a team that took first place in the college’s 5th annual Great Minds Hackathon by creating a software to assist individuals learning the Hebrew language.
The winning team of the 48-hour virtual event was made up entirely of native English-speakers Elan Leonard from Houston, TX, Lawrence from Denver, CO, Yitzchak Meltz from Toronto, ON, and Eli Levin from New York, all studying computer science in the school’s International Program in English, who were inspired by their experience moving to Israel and trying to learn Hebrew. Working on a hackathon challenge from