Review here. Excerpt:

'In this blog entry, I have assembled my own shorthand notes of a really important book by Lisa Braver Moss and Rebecca Wald: Celebrating Brit Shalom, (2015, Notim Press, ISBN-13: 978-0692353332). I hope what you find on this page encourages you to buy the book. It is clear and informative, short enough to read quickly, and inspiring in its fully set out scripts (English, and the few bits of Hebrew needed) of three sample ceremonies, including ideas for music. This book would be ideal as a resource for any parents who wanted to inform themselves, but also have as an authoritative and thoughtful resource they could show to family and friends to introduce them to the idea of a brit shalom. And, of course, it is extremely useful for anyone who wants to create their own ceremony to welcome someone into their Jewish family, people, and heritage. Although the authors do not mention it in the book, I can imagine the ideas here would be very useful for men converting to Judaism, but not wanting to have to be circumcised.'

Article here. Wonder if/when the scales'll fall from her eyes? Excerpt:

'The February essay that Northwestern University Professor Laura Kipnis wrote in the Chronicle of Higher Education was certainly provocative. Titled “Sexual Paranoia Strikes Academe,” the piece lashed out at campus overregulation, particularly against dating between professors and students. “Intergenerational desire has always been a dilemma as well as an occasion for mutual fascination,” wrote Kipnis. “Whether or not it’s a brilliant move, plenty of professors I know, male and female, have hooked up with students, though informal evidence suggests that female professors do it less, and rarely with undergraduates.”

Denunciations of what she terms the “Great Prohibition” jibe with Kipnis’s claims that contemporary campus culture essentially coddles students to the point that they can’t rely on themselves to deal with the world that awaits them. “The new codes sweeping American campuses aren’t just a striking abridgment of everyone’s freedom, they’re also intellectually embarrassing,” she wrote. “Sexual paranoia reigns; students are trauma cases waiting to happen. If you wanted to produce a pacified, cowering citizenry, this would be the method.”

In addition to such essayifying, Kipnis summarized a legal battle between a Northwestern University undergraduate student and a philosophy professor accused of “unwelcome and inappropriate sexual advances.” After laying out the conflicting accounts of their interactions, Kipnis commented, “What a mess. And what a slippery slope, from alleged fondler to rapist.”

Article here. Excerpt:

'In December 2013, Amherst College imposed its first major sanction under a new get-tough sexual misconduct policy, expelling a 21-year-old senior after a disciplinary board concluded that he had forced a female classmate to perform oral sex during an alcohol-infused encounter nearly two years earlier.

Article here. Excerpt:

'On Friday, the Army is expected to announce that all the women who had attempted to graduate from Ranger School had officially failed to meet the standards, according to a military source.

Ranger School, which grooms the Army’s most elite special operations fighting force, opened its doors to women for the first time this year. Eight of the 20 women who originally entered the school's first co-ed class were allowed to recycle through the program after they fell out in their first go-round. The Friday announcement will confirm that this happened again.
...
But there is another opinion quietly being voiced as well: that Ranger School is more akin to a rite of passage – an opportunity for men to “thump their chest,” as one Ranger puts it – than a realistic preparation for leading in war. That women can actually make Ranger units more effective. And that the standards that keep them out are outdated.

Story here. Excerpt:

'A Northwestern University professor was accused of retaliation and investigated after students claimed an article she had written had a “chilling effect” on students’s ability to report sexual misconduct.

Writing on Friday in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Laura Kipnis describes an academic climate in which professors lay awake at night in fear of losing their careers over a single careless word or missed trigger warning. A new academic culture is rising in which hurt feelings are considered evidence of an attack. This hypersensitivity is being abetted by an expanding process of Title IX charges which allow anyone with an agenda or a grudge to go on the offensive against the faculty:

"As I understand it, any Title IX charge that’s filed has to be investigated, which effectively empowers anyone on campus to individually decide, and expand, what Title IX covers. Anyone with a grudge, a political agenda, or a desire for attention can quite easily leverage the system.

And there are a lot of grudges these days. The reality is that the more colleges devote themselves to creating “safe spaces” — that new watchword — for students, the more dangerous those campuses become for professors. It’s astounding how aggressive students’ assertions of vulnerability have gotten in the past few years. Emotional discomfort is regarded as equivalent to material injury, and all injuries have to be remediated.

Article here. Excerpt:

'A nonprofit company, Sexual Health Innovations, has designed a new online system allowing college sexual assault victims to report crimes anonymously and safely:Callisto has not yet launched, but a campaignto help fund the project has already raised more than $6,000 toward a goal of $10,000.

What's unique about this system is that college-aged sexual assault victims and activists helped create it, and focused on ensuring victims feel safe and comfortable reporting their abusers. Users would visit their school-specific Callisto site and anonymously fill out a form reporting a sexual assault. They would then receive an explanation of reporting options and the opportunity to report as they choose right away, or save a time-stamped notice that the form was received and submit later if/when they feel ready. It's up to the victim who she wants to report it to, how much she wants to reveal, and when she wants to submit it.'

Story here. Excerpt:

Article here. Excerpt:

Article here. Excerpt:

'What does “Trouble in the Village” mean and how does it relate to changing existing law? The answer is simple — legislators do not act unless they have “Trouble in their Village.”

The secret to changing an existing law is proving that there is a problem. In most cases office-holders will not acknowledge that a problem exists. Your job is to dig up the bodies. In other words, find and expose the evidence of the need for family law reform.

The following are the steps necessary to accomplish legislative reform. When I took on alimony reform in Massachusetts, I was told “it’ll never happen.” Well, I proved them wrong. Not only did I make possible the most dramatic social policy change in decades, I did it with a unanimous vote from both houses of the legislature.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Gov. Andrew Cuomo is pushing for passage of what he calls “the toughest law in the nation” against campus sexual violence.

It would make campuses in New York a hostile environment for young men. One misstep and they could find themselves accused of “sexual assault,” denied a fair hearing, expelled and unemployable.

The law would apply at all private colleges in the state, extending regulations that Cuomo has already imposed on the state university system.

Everyone should want to prevent rape. But Cuomo’s bill criminalizes normal sexual interactions.

Story here. Excerpt:

'Goldsmiths' student diversity officer has been allowed to keep her job, despite tweeting the hashtag "kill all white men" and referring to people as "white trash".

Bahar Mustafa has been embroiled in a race row after telling white people and men they were banned from an event at the university. She also then made a public statement insisting she could not be racist as she was an ethnic minority woman.

An online petition calling for her resignation has received more than 21,000 signatures. However a spokesperson for Goldsmiths' student union said not enough students had signed in order to trigger a referendum to vote on Mustafa's job.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Lawmakers in California are currently working to pass three separate bills aimed at addressing campus sexual assault which, if enacted, could severely restrict students’ rights.

Less than a year after the Golden State legislature unanimously approved a “yes means yes” law that redefined sexual consent to require “affirmative, unambiguous and conscious” consent from each party, lawmakers are making efforts to expand administrators’ power dealing with campus sexual assault at state community colleges.

Article here. Excerpt:

"Chances are, if you move in feminist circles, you will have at least one friend who has a "Male Tears" coffee cup, "Misandrist" nameplate necklace, or is a regular user of hashtags and GIFs of the #maletears variety.

"Ironic misandry", as Slate's Amanda Hess summarised last year, emerged as "a clever tactic for furthering the feminist agenda", whereby identifying as an over-the-top man-hater (a typical skewering, by certain men, of almost any feminist) helps feminists avoid the extremes of in-fighting while beating certain critics to the punch.

Podcast and discussion here. Excerpt:

'The mother of a four-year-old son, Heather Hironomus, tearfully signed an order allowing for the circumcision of her boy, so that she could be released from prison. The event has stirred a national debate about the necessity of circumcision, and the question of whether all children should be allowed the right to bodily integrity.

Hironomus was imprisoned after she fled with her son, attempting to avoid the fulfillment of an agreement with the boy’s father that would see him circumcised. She’s now taken center stage on the issue, with anti-circumcision activists rallying to her cause, raising $50,000 in legal bills to defend her son, Chase Hironomus. The father wishes to circumcise the boy so that he looks like him.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'It took over 70 years of determined, dogged and dedicated effort to gain the right for women to vote in the United States. Seventy years. The women and men who initially campaigned for universal suffrage didn’t live to see the passage of the 19th amendment.

Susan B. Anthony was jailed, chastised and ridiculed. She nonetheless remained faithful to the eventual success of her vision. “Failure is impossible,” she stated, energizing the younger activists who would pick up the mantle after her death.

Failure is impossible

A great deal has changed since Anthony’s time. Women can now own property, initiate divorce, vote, and serve as lawyers, judges, and on a jury. We take these basic rights for granted and easily forget that a few generations ago they existed only as illuminating ideas held true by a handful of “fringe” activists. For example, my paternal grandfather was born in 1918, before any of the aforementioned rights were legal.
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I am an intactivist.

I firmly support the right to genital integrity for all children. I uphold the rights of individuals, upon reaching the age of consent, to choose whether or not they want to permanently alter the most private parts of their bodies -- be it for religious, cultural or personal reasons.