Celebrating Palestine returns to the Marcus Performing Arts Center in Milwaukee, Sunday, June 7.

Milwaukee’s first festival celebrating Palestinian culture is back.

Building on the huge success of last summer’s inaugural event, the Muslim Women’s Coalition produces the second annual Celebrating Palestine festival, Sunday, June 7, 12 – 8 p.m., at the Marcus Performing Arts Center, 929 North Water St., doubling its hours and space in its second year.

This year’s rendition offers more entertainment and audience participation, with extended hours and space for well-known Palestinian singers and dabke dance troupes, a fashion show, an expanded cultural display, food-tasting stations from Milwaukee’s popular Palestinian restaurants and a large Palestinian bazaar, featuring authentic Palestinian thobes and cultural products. It will also include dabke lessons and dancing with the famous Chicago-based dabke star Mohammed Darawsha.

“Last year, we would’ve been thrilled with 500 attendees,” said Janan Najeeb, MWC founder and executive director. “We more than doubled our expectations, with almost 1,500 attending.

“This year we are using an additional floor at the Marcus Center, its large Bradley Center, to host the fashion show and musical groups, and to have room for a community dabke,” Najeeb said. “We are excited about Mohammed Darawsha’s training for everyone who wants to learn our lively, traditional Palestinian dance.

“Another thing we’re really excited about is bringing the Palestinian Youth Ensemble, young people who play traditional musical instruments,” she said. “They have chapters around the United States.”

Also new this year, musicians, singers and dancers will perform the zaffe, a wedding march. In Palestinian villages in years past, the zaffe escorted the groom to the bride’s house or the bride and groom to the church or mosque. In modern weddings, a zaffe announces the entrance of the bride and groom to the wedding hall.

For those attending Celebrating Palestine for the first time, Najeeb likens it to the lakefront cultural festivals—Irish Fest, Polish Fest, Festa Italiana and German Fest. “And who knows, maybe down the road, we’ll become a lakefront festival.”

The second annual Celebrating Palestine festival features an expanded cultural area with more educational exhibits.

A family event for all

“I’ll be there in a minute,” Palestinian American Marcia Mihdawi of Milwaukee called out to her daughters during a telephone interview with the Wisconsin Muslim Journal. The Middle School English teacher serves as a volunteer on the Celebrating Palestine organizing committee. “Sorry, the girls are trying on thobes (traditional Palestinian gowns) for the fashion shows. They are participating as models.

“Sorry, hold on,” she said to the reporter on the phone, and then to her daughter, “That fits you so nicely. And the belt works well. Can I take a quick photo?

“Thank you for waiting. So, I think you asked me, ‘What is important about this event?’

“Yes.”

“It’s so important for our Palestinian community. But it’s also really important for the wider community, too.

“I will always remember when my daughters said to me that their favorite thing about the whole event last year was being in the fashion show because they had the chance to meet other Arab and Muslim girls. That was so powerful for them.

“Palestinian people in the diaspora are holding on to memories. This festival keeps history alive in a special way,” she said. 

Mihdawi’s daughter Raya, a Marquette University student who also volunteers at the festival, told WMJ, “I truly enjoyed participating as a volunteer last year, as I got to connect more with my culture and meet lots of different people from all over the city. I can’t wait to volunteer again this year.”

“But this is not an event that’s just for Palestinians,” Mihdawi emphasized. “It’s simultaneously a window for people who may not know much about Palestine and would like to learn. It builds a bridge through food, music and arts, things people naturally gravitate towards.”

“Celebrating Palestine truly has something for everyone,” she said. “For those looking to learn, it offers education; for allies, a space to show solidarity; and for the Palestinian community, a vital opportunity to preserve heritage and pass culture down to the next generation. This family-centered gathering reminds us that celebrating and strengthening our cultural connections is a powerful act of resistance against the erasure of our identity.”

About 40 vendors are expected at Celebrating Palestine on Sunday.

Milwaukee’s own Banat Al-Huriyah Girls Dabke Group will return for this year’s Celebrating Palestine festival.

Marquette University Associate Professor Enaya Othman, Ph.D., a Fulbright scholar, researches the styles and symbolism of traditional Palestinian dress, such as those on display at the Celebrating Palestine festival.

Featured image: April Walker/Unsplash

A federal bill that would preempt hundreds of state food safety laws would weaken protections for consumers from toxic chemicals, critics warn even as backers of the bill argue it would lower food costs and ease supply chain burdens.

The FDA Review and Evaluation for Safe, Healthy (FRESH) and Affordable Foods Act is a “Trojan horse for the food industry” and “a direct attack on the health and safety of our kids” that would eliminate dozens of state food safety laws passed in both red and blue states across the country, Jessie Gabriel, a Democrat in the California state assembly, said during at an April 29 press event organized by the Environmental Working Group.

“This would move the federal government, which for many decades has been asleep at the switch, from inaction to obstruction, to actually getting in the way of public health,” said Gabriel.

In addition to establishing a single federal standard, the FRESH Act would also exclude “common food ingredients” from being regulated as food additives, a category it defines as ingredients consumed or sold as food on or before January 1,1958.

Additionally, the bill would require companies to notify the US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) of food ingredients they use under the designation Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS), which exempts the additives from review – a status companies can currently give their ingredients without informing the FDA.

The FRESH Act, which would amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, also calls for the agency to create a program for assessing the safety of chemicals in the food supply by September 30, 2026 and to publish a list of chemicals to prioritize for risk assessment by September 30, 2027.

The bill was debated Wednesday at a hearing for the US House Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health, which covered 28 different food bills for issues including GRAS reform, infant formula and allergens.

“States across the country are responding and have passed laws banning various chemicals in our food supply,” US Representative Debbie Dingell, a Democrat from Michigan, said at the hearing. “Now we need to follow suit with strong federal legislation to ensure hazardous chemicals are not allowed in or near the food we eat.”

The FRESH Act comes in the midst of a bipartisan wave of food safety legislation, with laws banning toxic food chemicals recently introduced or passed in more than two dozen states. Some bills, such as the California School Food Safety Act, specifical ban additives such as certain artificial dyes in foods served at schools.

While the FRESH Act is being marketed as reform, “it’s really laden with industry favors,” said Natalie Mihalek, a Republican state representative for Pennsylvania said during the press call. “It does nothing to promote transparency or ensure the safety of our ingredients, and that’s exactly what we’ve been doing at the state level.”

The bill’s move to establish a program for conducting safety assessments of chemicals already in the food supply “doesn’t matter when the FDA doesn’t have any funding, when the FDA continues to face cuts to its workforce,” added Mihalek. “I don’t see any language in the bill whatsoever to actually increase the resources needed to conduct any sort of robust assessment of what is in our food supply.”

The FRESH Act’s proposed changes mirror policy priorities set by Americans for Ingredient Transparency (AFIT), a coalition of food giants formed last fall, including Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, General Mills and Nestle. AFIT’s policy priorities call for the FDA to set a uniform standard as the “sole entity setting the floor and ceiling” for food safety assessments, ingredient approvals, registrations, and reporting and labeling requirements, and to pass GRAS reform legislation.

“The current patchwork of food and beverage regulations being enacted across the country will have unintended consequences that negatively impact the entire nation,” says AFIT’s website. “These inconsistent rules confuse consumers and limit their choices, drive up costs, and hurt farmers and small businesses.”

A February 2026 study by the Policy Navigation Group, a lobbying and consulting firm, concluded that recent ingredient disclosure laws passed in Louisiana, Texas and West Virginia would increase the cost of groceries for consumers in these and neighboring states by over $12 billion per year, predicting grocery cost hikes nationwide driven by a “patchwork” of state regulations.

Joe Colalillo, a member of the board of directors for the Wakefern Food Corporation and president of several ShopRite stores in New Jersey, said at the hearing that he supports the FRESH Act since he believes a fragmented, state-led regulatory approach would “drive up costs, reduce product availability and ultimately make it harder for families to afford groceries,” creating confusion for consumers and disrupting the whole supply chain.

For a practicing Muslim, nothing seems more spiritually fulfilling in this month than traversing the streets of Madina, following the footsteps of the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, reliving the story of Prophet Ibrahim, and holding on to the cloth of the Kaba and weeping for Allah to forgive all sins, all while joined by millions of other Muslims.

The Arafah day, the 9th day of Zil Hajj, is crucial to the completion of Hajj. So much so that the Prophet said, “Hajj is Arafah” (Tirmidhi). Without completing this step, Hajj is not valid. It is on this vast plain that all of mankind will be gathered on the Day of Judgement.

The Prophet also explained the significance of the first ten days of Dhul-Hijjah.
“There are no days in which righteous deeds are more beloved to Allah than these ten days.” The people asked, “Not even Jihad for the sake of Allah?” He said, “Not even Jihad for the sake of Allah, except in the case of a man who went out, giving himself and his wealth up for the cause (of Allah), and came back with nothing” (Bukhari).

But for those of us for whom Allah hasn’t planned Hajj this year, how can we reap the benefits of this blessed month, these blessed ten days, and most importantly, the Arafah day?

1. Fast

Growing up, most of us probably witnessed our elders fasting during the first nine days of Dhul-Hijjah, and especially on the Arafah day. According to a Hadith, one who fasts sincerely on the day of Arafah will receive forgiveness of his/her sins for the previous and following year.

Avoiding food, drink, useless activities, and focusing on your relationship with your Rabb, for at least one day, seems like an extremely good bargain in return for two years of forgiveness.

But one crucial aspect to keep in mind is to not ritualize any act of worship, as is common in many cultures. This applies to any sincere act we do in this life, but especially for fasting on this day, make sure that you keep your full intention to please Allah, and educate yourself of the significance of this action, and not just to continue any ongoing tradition.

2. Make Dhikr (remembrance of Allah)

On this blessed day, any act of worship you do will result in more good deeds, so step up your remembrance of Allah, which you can do at any time of the day, during virtually any activity.

Repeat the specific Dhikr prescribed in the Sunnah. An especially blessed phrase is, “SubhanAllahi wa bihamdihi, SubhanAllahil Adheem” (Glory be to Allah and all praise is due to Him).

Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, said: “Two words (subhanAllah wa bihamdihi) are light on the tongue, weigh heavily in the balance, and are loved by the Most Merciful One.”

3. Recite/study/listen to the Quran

Not one day should go by that we forget about the Quran, and especially on this day, we should at least make an effort to open the book and drink up some wisdom.

If every good deed is multiplied, then just imagine how many good deeds you’re getting by just making an intention to listen to the words of your Rabb?

You can even listen to lectures of Tafseer. There are countless videos on YouTube, even small, two-minute videos, that you can benefit from.

4. Be a people person

You don’t need to embark on a humanitarian mission. Just visit your neighbor and ask how they’re doing. Bake a pie for them. Or better yet, invite them over for Iftar. Just don’t overdo the dishes, or else you’ll lose the spirit of the day. Just serve what you would eat on an average day.

If you have the energy while fasting, check out local volunteer opportunities that aren’t physically draining.

Don’t forget those at home. Spend time with your family. Have productive discussions, share something new that you learned, teach the youngsters, and just listen to what they have to say.

If you haven’t called a specific relative in many days, make a short, five-minute call. Don’t make it long and end up wasting your time and theirs. Keep it sweet and simple, ask how they’re doing, and share something beneficial.

The possibilities are quite endless. Be creative and just keep the intention of pleasing Allah in your mind.

5. Get in touch with nature

What better time to enjoy the creations of Allah than this season of colors? Step outside and witness the fall foliage. Worship is not limited to sitting inside and praying all day. Soak in the beauty all around you and glorify Allah.

And please, keep that phone in your pocket. Pictures accumulate in our devices, and we rarely even look at them again. Immerse yourself in the experience directly with your eyes, not through the camera lens.

These are all suggestions, and you may think of countless more ways to make this day more productive. Just don’t allow yourself to regret that you wasted time and missed out on two years of forgiveness, thousands of good deeds, and not to mention a rejuvenation of the body and soul.

And as with everything else, make this day meaningful.

The IRC Summer Reading Program encourages children to read more during the summer break while discovering new interests through fun educational events.

Imagine you are building your dream home and one day, you discover that somehow, a fourth to a third of the building – your beautiful kitchen and dining room – has suddenly disappeared. Would you be concerned? Of course you would! Losing that amount of progress would be a serious setback. This is analogous to the losses your school-age child can experience over the summer break.  

Numerous studies have shown that the average student loses between 17 to 28 percent of their school year gains in English language arts (reading and writing) and between 25 to 34 percent of their math gains. Many children work hard all school year to build the academic skills that will support their future learning and earning. If they lose those skills it puts them behind their classmates in the fall.

Statistics show importance of reading throughout the year

Children who do not read over the summer experience the “summer slide” on their reading and math score and standardized tests, decrease after a summer spent without reading.

One especially concerning fact about summer learning loss is that it is cumulative – every summer of falling behind is added to the previous years putting those students further and further behind their classmates. 

Fortunately for parents, it is easy to ensure that your children do not fall behind. Participating in summer reading programs and doing simple, real-life learning activities at home can be enough insurance to keep their academic “house” standing. Spending a lot of money on expensive tutoring at learning centers is usually not needed unless your child’s teachers have recommended it. 

Many parents are aware of the importance of summer reading and enrichment activities with almost half the parents in one survey saying they wished their children could have attended summer programs or participated more than they did. Almost a third of the parents shared that financial barriers prevented their children from attending. 

Keeping kids engaged

In order to serve community families, the Islamic Resource Center (IRC) offers an annual no-cost summer reading program designed to keep kids reading, learning and discovering new interests.  Educational and entertaining events keep kids curious and a fun, interactive summer reading challenge encourages students to read and do other character building activities.  

Children earn small prizes and raffle tickets for larger prizes by completing the weekly activities.

In 2025, of the 130 children registered for the IRC Summer Reading challenge, 55 completed at least 3 learning logs, 39 completed five and 18 kids did all seven logs! 

Experts agree that children should read a minimum of 20 minutes a day to maintain their reading skills but more is always better! 

Families can find a great selection of books at the IRC featuring Quranic stories, Islamic values and Muslim characters.

The IRC monthly circulation statistics showed students checked out a record 171 books in July. We are hoping to surpass that amount this year!

In addition to curling up in a comfy chair and getting lost in a book on a hot summer day, children can expand their school skills with fun, hands-on activities that allow for natural, child-led learning.  

Summer Reading and Activity programs designed to educate, engage and inspire

The IRC has a strong line up of educational presentations for school age children and ideas for creating a summer environmental camp.  Planned activities include visits by Wehr Nature Center, Milwaukee Public Museum, Schlitz Audubon Center, as well as many more. 

At last year’s LEGO building activity, kids explored engineering concepts, creativity, collaboration and problem-solving skills.  

As well as structured programs like those here at the IRC, parents can grow curiosity and learning with trips to the park – look at plants and animals (science!) or the city (architecture, engineering, transportation), visiting museums and historical sites (social studies, reading, background knowledge!), listening to live music (art and math), building with blocks and Lego (creativity and engineering), making art (creativity and fine motor skills), cooking (science and math!), and trips to the grocery store (writing, budgeting, planning and math!)  

Hands-on learning with real-world experiences is a deeper, richer, and more memorable way of learning than doing worksheets or spending time on a tablet.  When children engage in active learning through real-life experiences using their mind, hands and bodies they understand and retain more information.  

Visiting Naturalists from Wehr Nature Center teach summer programs about insects and reptiles to increase children’s understanding of the natural world.

There are some good math apps and other learning apps but summer should not be an excuse for unlimited screen time. Screen time can be educational but must be monitored. Pediatricians recommend limits for screen time to prevent a host of negative consequences. Creativity grows when kids are a little bit bored!  

As an educator who has spent over 25 years helping kids learn over the summer months, kids love learning when it is something they are interested in and excited about, and when they can follow their own curiosity. I encourage families to invest in their children’s learning during the next few months.  

Recommendations for other fun, hands-on summer learning

Build Math Minds – summer ideas

Islam 4 Kids – stories, some free printables, and more.

From Scholastic – “101 Easy, Free, and Fun Ways to Keep Kids Learning Over the Summer”

Tons of great science and nature content from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources

Recipes and Cooking Tips from Cooking With Kids -yummy!

Fun and easy at home experiments from the Children’s Science Lab in Virginia

Itamar Ben-Gvir’s actions led to widespread condemnation, including from the US ambassador, usually a staunch ally of the country. Photograph: Erik Marmor/Getty Images

Israel has said it has deported all the foreign activists it seized from a Gaza-bound flotilla, after a global outcry over their treatment in custody that led the UK to join other countries in summoning Israeli diplomats for a formal dressing down.

More than 430 activists from countries around the world had been placed in detention in Israel after they were intercepted at sea on Monday while making the latest in a string of attempts to break the blockade of the Palestinian territory.

The activists were put on planes and landed in Istanbul on Thursday evening, reportedly flashing two-fingered salutes and chanting “Free Palestine” as they descended stairs to the runway on arrival, with some appearing to be limping.

Israel’s far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, sparked widespread condemnation and diplomatic backlash on Wednesday by posting a video showing the detained activists with their hands tied and foreheads on the ground as he taunted them.

Activists from the flotilla celebrate on arrival at Istanbul airport. Photograph: Murad Sezer/Reuters

The UK has summoned Israel’s chargé d’affaires, and Italy’s foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, said on Thursday he had asked the EU foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, to discuss sanctions on Ben-Gvir, “for the unacceptable acts committed against the flotilla, seizing the activists in international waters and subjecting them to harassment and humiliation, in violation of the most basic human rights”.

Alessandro Mantovani, an Italian journalist detained with the flotilla activists and deported before the others, told reporters at Rome’s Fiumicino airport on Thursday that he and others had been “taken to Ben Gurion airport in handcuffs and with chains on our feet and put on a flight to Athens”.

“They beat us up. They kicked us and punched us and shouted ‘Welcome to Israel’,” he said of his treatment by Israeli security forces.

Another Italian activist, Dario Carotenuto, a lawmaker from the Five Star Movement, said he had been punched in the eye and kicked while detained.

Miriam Azem, from the Israeli rights group Adalah, said: “One of the activists was forced to strip naked and run while guards were laughing.” She added that Israeli authorities had fired rubber bullets that hurt some activists as they intercepted the flotilla.

Israeli minister Ben-Gvir posts video taunting detained Gaza flotilla activists – video

The Israel Prison Service dismissed Adalah’s allegations as false and designed to portray systematic unlawful conduct.

Poland’s foreign ministry said it was calling for a ban on Ben-Gvir entering the country over the video showing the far-right minister taunting detained flotilla activists who were handcuffed and kneeling.

Britain’s Foreign Office issued a statement denouncing the treatment of the arrested activists.

“This behaviour violates the most basic standards of respect and dignity for people. We are also deeply concerned by the detention conditions depicted and have demanded an explanation from the Israeli authorities. We made clear their obligations to protect the rights of all those involved,” it said.

Human rights groups have documented widespread, systemic torture and abuse of Palestinians in Israeli prisons and detention centres during Israel’s war in Gaza, prompted by the Hamas-led attacks on 7 October 2023.

But the humiliating treatment of the Gaza flotilla activists has drawn unusually strong international condemnation of Israel, reflecting growing frustration with the country’s policies in Gaza, Lebanon and in its joint war with the US against Iran.

Far-right Israeli minister condemned for taunting detained Gaza activists – The Latest

Greece on Thursday also called on Israel immediately to release its nationals, the government spokesperson Pavlos Marinakis said.

The European Council president, António Costa, said he was “appalled” by the way Ben-Gvir had treated aid flotilla members attempting to enter Gaza. “This behaviour is completely unacceptable. We call for their immediate release,” he said.

Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, demanded an apology for the activists’ treatment and what she called Israel’s “total disrespect” for Italy’s requests.

The backlash has also prompted criticism within Israel and from the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who defended the interception of the flotilla but said Ben-Gvir’s treatment of the activists was “not in line with Israel’s values and norms”.

Netanyahu said on Wednesday that he had instructed that the activists be deported “as soon as possible”.

Despite Netanyahu’s comments, Israel has a history of intercepting vessels at sea trying to reach Gaza, including with lethal force. In 2010, nine activists on the MV Mari Marmara were killed when Israeli commandos stormed the ship. A 10th person later died of their wounds.

On Wednesday Gideon Saar, Israel’s foreign minister, criticised Ben-Gvir over the treatment of the activists, saying he had harmed Israel in a “disgraceful display” and undermined the work of Israeli soldiers and diplomats.

“No, you are not the face of Israel,” Saar wrote on X.

The US’s ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee – usually an uncritical supporter of Israel – also made a rare criticism of Ben-Gvir, saying that while the flotilla was a “stupid stunt”, Ben-Gvir had “betrayed the dignity” of Israel.

The Israel-based legal advocacy group, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, also known as Adalah, said on Thursday that all of the international activists were in transit to a civilian airport near the southern Israeli city of Eilat for deportation.

The group said one participant, Zohar Regev, was in a court hearing in the southern city of Ashkelon on charges of illegal entry into Israel and unlawful stay. Regev, who holds Israeli citizenship, has taken part in previous flotillas to Gaza.

Ben-Gvir was appointed security minister by Netanyahu despite a number of convictions, including for incitement to racism and support for a proscribed Jewish terrorist organisation.

The activists’ boats set sail from Spain to Gaza in April, with organisers saying they wanted to draw renewed attention to the conditions for nearly 2 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Israel stopped 20 vessels from the group on 30 April near the southern Greek island of Crete and forced most of its activists to disembark there.

Ghayasuddin Siddiqui at his office in west London in 2004. He was also an active member of the Stop the War Coalition. Photograph: Independent/Alamy

When Malcolm X arrived at Sheffield University in December 1964, it was a young Pakistani student activist, Ghayasuddin Siddiqui, who had arranged his passage. That detail tells you much about my father, who has died aged 86.

Ghayasuddin went on to co-found the Muslim Institute, one of Britain’s earliest Muslim organisations, and the Muslim Parliament of Great Britain, of which he became leader in 1996. Upon taking this role he threatened a campaign of civil disobedience unless the government passed legislation protecting British Muslims. The new Labour government of 1997 took on and implemented many of his demands – funding Muslim state schools and passing equalities legislation.

What distinguished Ghayasuddin from many contemporaries was the willingness to turn that same critical gaze inward. The Muslim Institute led campaigns against forced marriages, child abuse and religious extremism, producing reports such as the child protection in faith-based environments report (2006) and the “model Muslim marriage contract” (2009), granting equal rights to both partners.

Born near the city of Meerut, just east of Delhi, in pre-partition India, Ghayasuddin was the son of Muhammed Saeeduddin, a civil servant, and Batool Fatima. Partition in 1947 was a traumatic experience for the family, who resettled in Sukkur, now in the newly created Pakistan. He and his brother decided to take the surname Siddiqui.

Ghayasuddin Siddiqui with Malcolm X in 1964

After attending a local school, Ghayasuddin gained a degree and master’s in chemistry from Sindh University in Jamshoro in 1962. He taught chemistry in Karachi before securing a place at Sheffield University in the UK to do a PhD.

Arriving in 1964, he soon became assistant secretary of the Federation of Student Islamic Societies, and as such organised the visit of Malcolm X to Sheffield. Ghayasuddin would recall praying together at the student union before Malcolm’s lecture that evening.

He finished his PhD in 1970, the same year that he married Talat Anis, also a teacher, and the pair moved to Corby, Northamptonshire, to teach at local schools. In 1973 he co-founded the Muslim Institute with Kalim Siddiqui (no relation), and in 1978 the family moved to Chesham, Buckinghamshire, for my father to join the institute, based in London, as a full-time staff member.

In 1992 he and Kalim also co-founded the Muslim Parliament of Great Britain. Following the death of Kalim in 1996, Ghayasuddin became director of the institute and leader of the Muslim parliament. He helped to establish the Halal Food Authority in 1994, and British Muslims for a Secular Democracy in 2006.

Ghayasuddin was also vocal on the world stage. In 1999 he publicly supported British Muslims detained on terrorist charges in Yemen, arguing against a presumption of their guilt. He campaigned against the genocide in Bosnia, the war in Chechnya, and, as a founding member of the Stop the War Coalition in 2001, spoke out against Britain’s involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq. He believed, then as always, that Muslim and non-Muslim voices were stronger together.

In 2009, he relaunched the Muslim Institute as a fellowship society promoting thought, debate and community empowerment. My father never fully retired, but passed the baton of leadership on in 2010.

He is survived by Talat, their children, Faiza, Uzma, Salman and me, and 11 grandchildren.

University of Wisconsin Assistant Professor Srishti Sardana (left) has just returned from Burundi, where she works with HealthNet TPO and others to bring mental health care to refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Srishti Sardana, Ph.D., an assistant professor of psychological and brain sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, collaborates with the Muslim Women’s Coalition on a program to serve refugee and immigrant girls as they adjust to their new lives in Milwaukee. And that’s just one tip of the iceberg. 

A quick scan of Dr. Sardana’s professional profile reveals impressive academic credentials. She earned her doctorate degree in clinical psychology in 2023 at Columbia University, where she was selected commencement speaker for the Counseling & Clinical Psychology and Human Development departments at Teacher’s College, Columbia’s graduate school of education and psychology. She was a fellow at Duke University School of Medicine and worked at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She had trained as a medical health professional and a corrections officer in India before pursuing clinical psychology in the United States and becoming one of the few South Asian global mental health clinical scientists in the world.

At UWM, Sardana teaches psychology courses for graduate and undergraduate students and operates the mhSEVA Lab (mental health Scientific advancements and Empowerment initiatives of Vulnerable people Anywhere in the world). The lab partners with global agencies, governments and non-profit organizations, including the Muslim Women’s Coalition, to help design, deliver and disseminate mental health services to most-in-need and high-risk populations globally. 

Sardana is also an adjunct faculty member at Columbia University and a visiting faculty member at Ashoka University in India, where every summer, she teaches short, intensive classes. 

Her research reveals an interest in serving some of the most marginalized and vulnerable. Titles include: “Counseling interventions for suicide prevention in Africa,” “Factors explaining the will to live among rural and distressed family farmers,” “Mental health needs of sex trafficking survivors in New York City,” “Factors affecting mental health and well-being of asylum seekers and refugees in Germany,” and “Narratives of violence, pathology, and empowerment: Mental health needs assessment of home-based female sex workers in rural India.”

Columbia University Teacher’s College Magazine featured her in an article headlined Human Rights Focused Alumni You Should Know. It said her “dedication and passion” for her work “stems from a formative experience in her teens, living on the streets with sex workers (in India) and tutoring their children as part of volunteer projects.” Since then, her research has aimed “to build culturally appropriate and contextually valid mental health interventions for at-risk populations, including refugees, displaced and stateless people, genocide and trafficking survivors and sex workers.” While a graduate student, Sardana conducted the first systematic mental health evaluation of sex workers in India. 

In another article about her work, Sardana’s mentor at Columbia University, Lena Verdeli, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology and education, said, “Srishti brings iron self-discipline, high intelligence, creativity, knowledge in psychosocial support, and a visceral understanding of different cultures. She is our rock.” 

On her UWM bio page, Sardana wrote:

I seek to answer two questions in my research, clinical practice and teaching: 

1) How do we build systems of care that meet the increasing mental health treatment gap in low- and middle-income countries as well as in high income countries with low mental health resources, and 

2) To explore who, what, where, when and how do we collaborate and synergize in domestic and international regions to learn together and build efficient capacity in adaptation and delivery of evidence-based mental health and psychotherapy resources around the world.

Working to improve global mental health

When I contacted Dr. Sardana last week, she was just back from Burundi. “It’s a forgotten humanitarian emergency,” she said. “It’s at the edge of the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the DRC has been at war for a while.

“The DRC is also declared to be the most unsafe country in the world for women and girls because women and girls have been used as weapons of war. We don’t see that very often now. It used to be an old strategy of battle, but in the Congo, it’s very alive. The DRC is up on the mountains and right at the foothills of the mountains is Burundi, which is a small Francophone African country.

“One of the things we were doing was to establish the first coordinated effort for the mental health response for refugees who are coming in from Congo and resettling in Burundi quite rapidly. Burundi, being a low-income country, among the poorest countries in the world, has very little for its own people, and then to absorb about 200,000 refugees in a matter of a year has created a significant resource constraint.”

In her UWM lab, Sardana focuses on “providing evidence-based, mental health care for vulnerable people anywhere in the world.” As she explained, vulnerability is measured in different scales. It could be at the individual level, “like I’m being vulnerable in talking with you right now.” It could also be at the country level, “where people have a home one day and, overnight, they are forced to flee.” Also vulnerable are “rural elders living in Wisconsin without much social support and limited mobility, living with diseases and without proper access to care when they need it.

“I’m a global mental health scientist. I always say the globe includes the U.S. We often forget that. My work with the Muslim Women’s Coalition is testimony to focusing on global health in my own backyard.

“I’m best described as a humanitarian scientist or a humanitarian psychologist. My strengths, what I have done for 20 years now, since I was very young, is that I go where people are enduring conflict.

“Sometimes conflict is at a smaller level—domestic violence within our homes, like partner violence and violence against children.  Violence and conflict also can be suicide and homicide. And then there’s violence at the country level where there’s displacement and war zones.”

Finding the opportunity that fits

Sardana was born and raised in a very small village in India. “It was an innocent and isolated part of the world. I didn’t learn to speak English until I was in sixth grade,” she recalled. “I grew up with my grandparents. When I ultimately moved to the city, there were very few options for girls. You would get married off pretty quickly. Child rearing and homemaking were very prominent roles.

“If you were lucky—you were good in your academics and you had a little bit of support at home—then you had to become a doctor or an engineer or an attorney. It was pretty fixed.”

Sardana studied medicine in India but became disenchanted with it when she noticed poor people could not access the best medical care. “I witnessed a type of poverty where the worth of human life is minimal. It really shaped my early thinking about what to do with myself.”

She won a scholarship and landed in New York at Columbia University, home of a World Health Organization-sponsored global health training program. “It’s one of the few universities in the U.S. where there is a concerted effort to train doctors, psychologists and other health professionals in doing global health work,” she explained. She enrolled in a clinical psychology program that aligned with her values.

Sardana trained with Verdeli, “a living legend in global health work,” she said. “She was among the first people to go to Geneva, to the WHO, and make a strong case for bringing evidence-based mental health care to low- and middle-income countries around the world. She’s also the co-developer of a highly cost-effective psychotherapy called ‘interpersonal psychotherapy, or IPT.’ The main tenet of IPT is that distress and disease are relational; when communities fall apart, there’s disease. That resonated with me and what I had seen in my previous life.”

From there, Sardana had the opportunity to train with some of the best global health institutes, including Columbia, Hopkins, Harvard and Duke Universities. Her work took her to Southeast Asia, the Middle East and North Africa. “Wherever there was war, I had the opportunity to train in caring for people in humanitarian emergencies,” she said. “I knew the closer I am to the people on the ground, the more useful I am.”

As she considered her next career move, she noticed “the trends of the refugee movements from North Africa and the Middle East to the U.S. and the opioid crisis and the homelessness crisis in the U.S. at the time, the people living in chronic poverty, the prevalence of domestic violence. I realized the same poverty and desperation across the world exists here at home, that it’s part of the global experience.

“I also noticed that even in the U.S., many people would want the opportunity for access to education. I started looking for universities that had some commitment to bringing students like me to a university setting, at least opening the first door. I saw the Midwest has been absorbing the highest number of Middle Eastern and North African refugees in the last decade, so I started looking here.”

When Sardana discovered at UWM over 65% of the students are first generation university students—refugees, immigrants and commuters, she decided, “this is the kind of student pool I want to teach. I have a dad in my lab who walks to campus and brings his son to lab meetings. These students are close to communities I deeply care about.”

She also found UWM’s Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, with its combined psychology and neuroscience department, “has been doing work in disparity and poverty for years. They are very prolific. I met colleagues with values very similar to mine, and I loved Milwaukee. I felt I had found my home.”

Dr. Sardana’s team held its first workshop for Rohingya adolescent girls with the Muslim Women’s Coalition in 2025. 

As she considered her next career move, she noticed “the trends of the refugee movements from North Africa and the Middle East to the U.S., the opioid crisis and the homelessness crisis in the U.S. at the time, the people living in chronic poverty and the prevalence of domestic violence. I realized the same poverty and desperation across the world exists here at home. It’s part of the global experience.

“I also noticed that even in the U.S., many people would want the opportunity for access to education. I started looking for universities that had some commitment to bringing students like me to a university setting, at least opening the first door. I saw the Midwest has been absorbing the highest number of Middle Eastern and North African refugees in the last decade, so I started looking here.”

When Sardana discovered that at UWM over 65% of the students are first-generation university students—refugees, immigrants and commuters, she decided, “This is the kind of student pool I want to teach. I have a dad in my lab who walks to campus and brings his son to lab meetings. These students are close to communities I deeply care about.”

She also found UWM’s Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, with its combined psychology and neuroscience department, “has been doing work in disparity and poverty for years. They are very prolific. I met colleagues with values very similar to mine, and I loved Milwaukee. I felt I had found my home.”

Providing opportunities for others

In interviews with Dr. Sardana’s graduate and undergraduate students, WMJ heard appreciation for the many opportunities she opened up for them, the exceptional technical training she provided and, most of all, the personal interest she holds in the success and wellbeing of each of them individually.

Angele Paredes Montero, a first-year clinical psychology Ph.D. student, was completing her master’s degree at Columbia University when she first met Dr. Sardana. “She was the shining star doctoral student in the final stage of her program before leaving for an internship,” she recalled in an email to WMJ. “Even though I only worked under her mentorship for about two years, she trained me with remarkable rigor and exceptionally high standards. More importantly, she planted the seed that I belonged at the academic table.

“Dr. Sardana is a woman with a mission and will find a way, or a million ways, to get that mission accomplished,” she wrote. “She holds herself and her work to extraordinarily high standards, the kind that would feel unrealistic for almost anyone, and yet she consistently overdelivers without a single complaint.

“She challenges people to grow into levels that can sometimes feel scary or even unnecessary. With her, you are expected to pursue excellence, both personally and professionally. All her projects are trying to develop scientific knowledge with the people, not only within academic circles.” 

Melina Hollis, senior from Waukesha double majoring in psychology and sociology, said working with Dr. Sardana has helped confirm her career path. “I knew I wanted to continue working in the field of psychology but I wasn’t sure what that would look like. I’ve decided to pursue clinical psychology. Seeing Dr. Sardana facilitate the Bloom Beyond Borders session was a big part of that. The narrative group therapy I observed doesn’t look like therapy. It just feels like an environment of care and connection.

“One of the most valuable things I’ve gotten from Dr. Sardana’s mentorship is experience in a multitude of contexts. I’ve had so many opportunities to do a variety of work.

“The world of academia can be extremely intimidating,” she continued. “The encouragement and the healthy environment she created makes me feel I have a place and I’m contributing meaningfully to it. It feels like it would be impossible for me not to flourish.”

Rafia Mahboob, a sophomore in public health and is also working on a certificate in healthcare informatics, also works in Dr. Sardana’s lab. Mahboob grew up in Dhaka, Bangladesh and came to the U.S. to start her bachelor’s degree in January 2025. 

In her second semester, she contacted the UWM Office of Undergraduate Research and they suggested she reach out to Dr. Sardana. “Our interest in global health aligned,” she said. She began as a volunteer in Dr. Sardana’s lab. In Spring Semester 2026, Mahboob received the SURF (Support for Undergraduate Research Fellows).

As a research assistant, she is working on two projects: 1) A research review and data analysis on the mental health needs of low- and middle-income countries and 2) Bloom Beyond Borders with MWC.

A group photo with Dr. Sardana (far right) at the 2026 Bloom Beyond Borders at the Islamic Resource Center in Greenfield

“I’m learning a lot—how to search different databases, how to screen articles, do data analysis, a lot of technical skills,” Mahboob said. “We also meet with Dr. Sardana and our teammates every week and talk. We learn a lot from each other. In the process, I’m learning professional skills, like how to communicate with team members and work in a professional environment.

“This is my first time working in research and Dr. Sardana is my first research mentor. I’ve learned how to do research posters, submit them and present them. We did one as a team for a conference at Duke University and I did one individually for the UWM Research Symposium.

“Dr. Sardana encouraged me every time, telling me, ‘You’ve got this.’ When I had to do my first presentation, I was really hesitant. She helped me a lot and so did all the lab members.

“She understands I have only been here a year, that this is a migration period for me. She lets me know I can share my struggles with her. She asks us if we are taking time off, getting rest. She cares about our wellbeing.”

When Mahboob went home to Bangladesh in January, Dr. Sardana contacted the Asian University of Women and arranged for Mahboob to visit the center there that collaborated with UWM on research, a project Mahboob had worked on her first semester. “It was a great opportunity to visit with them and meet the students in person,” she said.

These academic experiences are great opportunities for her, Mahboob said. “With Dr. Sardana, it’s not just about working for her. I know I’m doing something impactful.”

In recent years, the climate has intensified further because of fierce debates surrounding Palestine, opposition to war, criticism of Israeli government policies, and rising global polarization. In some circles, even expressing concern for Palestinian civilians has been enough to invite accusations, hostility, harassment, or public demonization. Online propaganda ecosystems — including some extremist Zionist, Christian nationalist, white supremacist, and Hindutva-oriented networks — have contributed to an atmosphere where Muslims are increasingly portrayed as enemies within. This rhetoric may differ in language and political framing, but it often converges around the same dangerous outcome: the dehumanization of Muslims.

Michael Margolin leads a Shabbat service at the Cornell University Gaza Solidarity Encampment on April 23, 2024, in Ithaca, NY. (Photo: Caleb Kaufman)

The ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza that began in October 2023 has killed at least 72,000 people according to the Gaza Health Ministry, and an internal Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) database suggests that 83% of those killed were civilians. This indiscriminate violence has drawn international condemnation of the Jewish state for its treatment of Palestinians, and many of the same organizations that have concluded Israel’s actions in Gaza constitute genocide have also described the conduct towards Palestinians both inside Israel and in the occupied West Bank as a system of apartheid. As the world has witnessed and come to understand the systemic nature of Israeli violence against Palestinians, support for Israel has dropped to historic lows across the West, including among Jews. 

This has had a profound impact on Judaism around the world, but perhaps nowhere as much as the United States, which is home to the most Jews of any country in the world, and Israel’s most important ally. The genocide in Gaza and increased scrutiny of Israel’s actions in the occupied Palestinian territories have led to a considerable growth of anti-Zionist and non-Zionist Jews, especially among younger Americans. These Jews no longer view the state of Israel as an integral aspect of their religion, and some want to completely disassociate from it. 

Ithaca, New York, a small college town home to Cornell University and Ithaca College, is one place where the effects have rippled throughout the Jewish community. The small city’s sizable Jewish collegiate population and progressive political tendencies have created the conditions for small segments of anti-Zionist Judaism to pop up, perhaps showing what Jewishness could become in the next decades if support of Israel continues to decline. The following are the stories of the Ithaca Jews hoping to make this change a reality through religion, politics, and activism.

Michael Margolin

Michael Margolin listens to students at a B-Mitzvah preparation class on Oct. 22, 2025, at Tikkun v’Or Temple, in Ithaca, NY. (Photo: Caleb Kaufman)

Michael Margolin walks a fine line. He is a Rabbi in training and a spiritual leader at the Tikkun v’Or Reform Temple in Ithaca, New York. He’s also a staunch anti-Zionist. Those two identities don’t always mesh. “Most synagogues would have never let me through the door,” Michael said, chuckling.

I met Michael in Spring 2024. He joined the students protesting against the genocide in Gaza at the Cornell University encampment, part of the student pro-Palestine movement popping up on campuses around the country. Michael led a shabbat service on the second night of the encampment, when many feared a police raid, although it never materialized. Michael had a warm personality that seemed to calm the students’ anxieties, and he had a deep knowledge of Jewish history that allowed him to relate current day struggles to the past. He explained that over and over again, Jews have been on the front lines of fighting for racial, economic, and social justice. He saw the contemporary Palestinian liberation movement as no different. In his mind, it was even more imperative to speak up at this moment because Israel oppresses Palestinians in the name of “Jewish safety.” 

This was what made Michael an unlikely hire at most Jewish institutions. A long track record of publicly speaking up for Palestinian human rights while engaging in direct action that was highly critical of the Jewish state. And yet, through some luck and an exceptionally progressive board of directors, Michael had served at Tikkun v’Or for nearly a decade.

While Israel could be sidelined in the past, after October 7th, it became inescapable. For Michael, this created intense internal conflict. He didn’t know how to handle “being asked to lead a calm service” with “the backdrop of a genocide.” “It doesn’t make sense to remain calm,” he told me. But Michael works hard at the long term process of centering Judaism around justice at Tikkun v’Or. “I don’t have room in my heart for Zionism, but I have room in my heart for people,” he told me, including those who considered themselves Zionists. He acknowledged, while Israel was an obvious moral contradiction for him, it wasn’t for many at his congregation. He had to remain open-hearted while not shying away from uncomfortable topics. 

Michael Margolin a Rabbi in training and spiritual leader at Tikkun v’Or Reform Temple writes his Yom Kippur sermon on Sep. 26, 2025, at his home in Ithaca, NY. (Photo: Caleb Kaufman)

Yom Kippur is the Jewish day of repentance. In 2025, it carried a new meaning for Jews like Margolin. He said he could not honestly worship without confronting the destruction of Gaza by Israel. He spent weeks carefully crafting the sermon he was set to deliver to his congregation, writing over twelve iterations until he got the wording perfect.

Margolin delivered his speech in the packed nave of Ithaca’s United Unitarian Church, where Tikkun v’Or held their Yom Kippur services to accommodate the large crowd.“Even after the worst harm, teshuva is possible” and it begins “by facing the harm,” Michael said, using the Hebrew word for repentance and repair. He continued, “what has been done in our name? What have we allowed to happen?” The congregation was silent as Michael spoke, grappling with his words. “If we tried to read the names of the babies [in Gaza] who never reached their first birthday, it would take longer than our entire service,” Michael exclaimed. As he said this, a woman in front of me began to weep. With a keffiyeh wrapped around her neck, she held her hand over her mouth as her shoulders shook. Alone in her row, there was no one to comfort her.

Hannah Shvets and Sam Poole

A young Jewish anti-Zionist socialist is entering the halls of power in Upstate New York. Or, at least the halls of Ithaca City Common Council. 

Hannah Shvets, 21, is a Junior at Cornell University and, as of November 4th, the Alderperson-elect for ward five of Ithaca, NY. Shvets’ decision to run for common council was mainly to address the economic problems many of Ithaca’s residents are facing. There is an “affordability crisis in every city, including Ithaca,” she told me. Shvets gained the endorsement of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), a progressive political group she has been a member of for years. 

Hannah Shvets walks past a campaign sign as she canvasses on Oct. 19, 2025, in Ithaca, NY. (Photo: Caleb Kaufman)

Ward five, the district Shvets ran in, is a mix of Cornell students renting off-campus and older homeowners. And while these groups are sometimes seen as adversarial, Shvets thinks they have more in common than some believe. “Both these groups are struggling with housing affordability, eviction, and not being able to pay rent,” said Shvets. She hopes to change that by opting Ithaca into the Emergency Tenant Protection Act, a New York state law that allows localities to opt into rent stabilization for certain properties. This is Shvets’ “first priority” because it is working within existing legislation and “there’s a lot of precedent for it.” 

Despite Shvets running for a local office, her history as a vocal critic of Israel has had an impact on the race. Shvets says she advocates for “the rights of all vulnerable people” in Ithaca for the same reason she engages in the Palestinian solidarity movement. She believes all people should be safe from “imperialism and capitalist violence.” “So, it’s all kind of part of the same struggle to me,” said Shvets. 

Hannah Shvets talks to campaign volunteers after a get-out-the-vote canvassing event on Oct. 19, 2025, at Cornell University, in Ithaca, NY. (Photo: Caleb Kaufman)

Shvets’ campaign was run by another young anti-Zionist Jew at Cornell: 19-year-old Sam Poole. In addition to being the campaign manager for Hannah Shvets, he is also working for NY state rep. Anna Kelles and is a delegate for the national Young Democratic Socialists of America, the DSA’s youth branch. Perhaps due to his hectic schedule, Poole seems to be in a constant state of multitasking, internal and external. Yet, he seems to handle the pressure well. “I still have above a 4.00 GPA, thank goodness,” said Poole. 

Shvets and Poole both view their victory as part of a larger movement of new progressivism in the US. And like fellow DSA candidate and New York City Mayor, Zohran Mamdani, these progressives are harsh critics of Israel and are not shy about it. “In New York City, it might just be one mayor, but he’s united millions of people around a better vision for both national and local politics” as well as “international action,” said Shvets. According to Shvets and Poole, this movement is being driven in a large part by young American Jews who view Israel as counter to their progressive ideals. “Jewish Americans are starting to doubt what we’ve been kind of told our entire lives,” said Shvets, adding, “now we’re running more on the values that Judaism teaches us rather than a kind of blind support for Israel.” Poole feels that “safety can’t be contingent on oppression,” which is why he thinks young Jews “need Judaism without Zionism.” 

Hannah Shvets and Jorge Defendini pose with a cardboard cut out of Zohran Mamdani after winning their City Council elections on Nov. 4, 2025, at their watch party in Ithaca, NY. (Photo: Caleb Kaufman)

Jacob Berman

Jacob Berman is a tall and soft spoken Senior at Cornell University, studying anthropology. He is also an active member of Chavurah, the non-Zionist religious organization at Cornell. 

Berman’s perceptions of Israel began to change in high school as he attended an event hosted by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a pro-Israel lobbying group, in Washington D.C. At the event, Berman remembers being coached on “talking points” about “how to defend Israel,” and discussions of Palestinians being “barbarians.” “That [didn’t] seem very resonant with my own Jewish experience and my own experience with Zionism,” Berman told me. Then, during the Black Lives Matter protests, Berman became further disillusioned with Zionism, as protesters drew connections between the oppression of Black Americans and Israeli oppression of Palestinians. 

When the October 7th attacks happened in 2023, Berman said he “left the Jewish community” at Cornell altogether as he felt his viewpoint was not wanted. This led to Berman and a few others creating a Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) chapter, a national Jewish anti-Zionist organization, at Cornell a few months later. Berman and other members of JVP would go on to participate in the Cornell encampment protests in the Spring of 2024. 

Berman continued engaging with pro-Palestine actions at Cornell. This would eventually lead to his temporary suspension due to his involvement at a protest against arms manufacturers’ presence at an university career fair. Berman said that the university’s Office of Student Conduct accused him of “assaulting a police officer.” “I didn’t push a cop,” Berman told me. However, he decided to make an “Alternative Resolution” deal with the university rather than fighting his case and risking a harsher punishment. As part of his suspension, Berman was not allowed on campus, including to attend shabbat services. After failing to appeal to the administration, JVP moved their shabbat services off-campus to accommodate Berman and others who were suspended. “I think it goes to show that universities and the administration, of course, do not care about Jews,” Berman said of the situation. 

Since returning from suspension, Berman has needed to stay in the good graces of the Cornell administration. This includes not attending protests except between “noon to 1:00” and “after 5:00 pm.” “If I get caught breaking the code of conduct, I’m instantly suspended for two years,” he said. This has led to Berman participating more in the religious aspect of anti-Zionist Jewish groups, like Chavurah, and volunteering at Tikkun v’Or. His experiences with these religious groups has also solidified his desire to go to rabbinical school, adding to the growing trend of American rabbinical students with more critical views of Israel. “I want to be a rabbi. I want to have a community like this,” Berman said. 

Jacob Berman sets up the candles for a Chavurah Shabbat service on Oct. 17, 2025, at Cornell University, in Ithaca, NY (Photo: Caleb Kaufman)

Berman thinks that American Judaism is going to see a large change in the coming decades and the current Jewish institutions will need to adapt. A lot of congregations are “still ignoring the fact that there are a lot of young Jews [who] are … going to leave Judaism if they are not allowed space in,” he said. In his view, American synagogues will have to “accept the fact that anti-Zionist Jews are a contingent of the broader national Jewish community.”

Quincey Fireside

Quincey Fireside (right) organized a silent protest against Uriel Abulof’s participation in a Hillel “side by side” talk discussing the Israel-Palestine conflict on Feb. 6, 2024, in Ithaca, NY. Fireside thought Abulof, an associate professor at Tel Aviv University, downplayed Israel’s oppression of Palestinians. (Photo: Caleb Kaufman)

Since October 2023, Quincey Fireside has been busy as the president of the pro-Palestine organization Ithaca College Students for a Free Palestine (ICSFP). Fireside, who uses they/them pronouns, has organized many protests, held several educational events, and sent demands of Israeli divestment to the Ithaca College administration. So far, the administration has not responded. Fireside’s latest action was protesting an Ithaca College “Policy Breakfast” with congressman Josh Riley. Riley had recently taken an all-expenses-paid trip to Israel sponsored by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) affiliated group, a move Fireside found morally reprehensible given the ongoing Israeli destruction of Gaza. They quickly organized a protest, posting online graphics on Instagram depicting Riley and others attending the event next to splatters of blood. Due to the pressure and “safety concerns” Riley canceled the event. Fireside held a vigil for the Palestinians killed in Gaza instead. 

Nine people showed up for the vigil, Fireside said, while Ithaca College sent “around twenty” campus police officers to observe the event. “They treat us like we’re a terrorist organization,” said Fireside, elaborating that ICSFP has never advocated for violence. Despite this, the college often has heavy police presence at events organized by the group. “I wish I was as influential as they thought,” Fireside remarked. The Ithaca College administration recently gave Fireside a student conduct violation for the event, citing a noise complaint. Fireside finds this reasoning unlikely given the sparse crowd. 

Being the president of ICSFP and its main organizer has caused some personal conflict for Fireside. “There is a perception I’m a self-hating Jew and I want everyone to die,” they told me. This has led to conflict with some Zionist Jews on campus. In late 2023, Fireside was called into a meeting with a representative of Ithaca College Hillel. The representative told Fireside that they could not be both Jewish and anti-Zionist. “You have to pick one,” Fireside recalled them saying. They have also experienced conflict with members of Ithacans for Israel (IFI), who Fireside says have harassed them. “It’s all the stuff you can’t prove,” they said. Shoulder checks in the hallways, unknown callers, and plenty of anonymous complaints to the college can all likely be traced back to students from IFI, Fireside suspects. 

And recently, when Fireside tabled for ICSFP at a club fair in September, they were repeatedly called a “kyke” by several students, who Fireside believes were Jewish Zionists. All this “comes with the territory,” says Fireside.

Yet, Fireside has no plans of slowing down. “I’m firm in my beliefs,” they said, “I know genocide is bad, and I know this is genocide.” In fact, they have grown more religious since they began their activism, and plan to get B-mitzvahed in the Spring, preparing with help from Michael Margolin. “The genocide,” Fireside said, can push one “further or closer to [their] faith,” and they chose the latter. For Fireside, activism is important and necessary while their religion “is a form of self care.”

The future of American Judaism

The rise in anti-Zionism among Jews in Ithaca mirrors a situation playing out across the nation. American Jews represent a small fraction, around 2%, of the nation’s populace, making it difficult to identify broad trends among the diverse population spread out across a vast country. However, the available data suggests that American Jews’ skepticism towards Israel is growing, but its most vocal critics are certainly not in the majority. According to a 2025 survey by the Jewish Federation of North America (JFNA), 15% of American Jews identify as anti-Zionist or non-Zionist, compared to the 37% who identify as Zionist, with 48% identifying as “not sure” or “none of these.” But the same JFNA survey also shows that 88% believe Israel has the “right to exist as a Jewish, democratic state,” showing Zionism’s flexible definition in the current political environment. But negative views among American Jews towards Israel’s military actions have never been higher. A 2025 survey from the Washington Post states that 61% of American Jews believe Israel has committed war crimes in Gaza, and 39% believe it has committed genocide. 

Israel, a nation created in the shadow of one of the most infamous genocides in history, a nation created with the motto of “never again,” has come to a breaking point. How can a state built to prevent future genocides from occurring be perpetrating one itself? For some American Jews, the contradiction is too much. They believe the project of Israel, of Zionism, has failed and want it out of their religion. 

The future remains murky for Judaism in America. Will anti-Zionist and non-Zionist synagogues, yeshivas, and non-profits begin to form around the country, causing a religious schism along political lines? Will this recent burst in anti-Zionism fizzle out as the years go by, or will opposition to Israel become a majority position? 

For Michael Margolin, the answer is clear. He believes that when future generations of Jews look back on this part of history, they will be appalled. “We are living in empire Judaism,” Margolin tells me. For Michael, the only solution is the complete end of Zionism. “Zionism needs to die, and we must be a part of its death.”

Photo by Mouna Rashid

Janan Najeeb, is the founder and executive director of the Muslim Women’s Coalition, Wisconsin Muslim Journal, Milwaukee Muslim Film Festival and the Islamic Resource Center.  She is also founder of Wisconsin Muslim Civic Alliance.

This week there was a congressional hearing branded “Sharia-Free America,” it was not a serious constitutional threat. It was a modern-day witch hunt, a spectacle designed to manufacture fear, stigmatize an entire faith community, and normalize the dangerous idea that Muslim Americans are somehow alien to the U.S. Constitution they have lived under, defended, and contributed to for generations. This hearing was meant to show that Muslims are outsiders and don’t belong in the United States.

The hearing brought back memories of the many presentations I have been invited to give across Wisconsin, where I have been questioned by audience members about Muslims imposing Sharia law on fellow Americans.  The questions almost always came from people who don’t know any Muslims.  I still recall a middle-aged Caucasian Christian woman, who drove in from a rural area of the state to hear my presentation, Virgin Mary in the Quran.  She stood up and said she was afraid of Muslims, although I was the first Muslim she ever met.  When I asked her why, she said because we wanted to impose Sharia law on Americans. When I asked her to explain what she meant by Sharia law, she couldn’t come up with a single explanation, she just knew she was afraid of it.  I explained the absurdity that one percent of the U.S. population, of which half are probably not practicing Muslims, would overthrow the Constitution and impose another law.  She was not convinced because as she said, it was going to happen based on “the Bible channel.”

For most Muslims, Sharia is a personal moral and spiritual framework that guides everyday life. It commonly manifests through practices such as prayer, fasting during Ramadan, charitable giving, ethical business conduct, dietary choices like eating halal food, family responsibilities, and striving to live with honesty, compassion, justice, and self-discipline according to Islamic teachings.  Similar to Canon law for Catholics and Halakha for Jews, these laws guide personal practices of one’s faith.

At a time when Americans are struggling with rising costs, political instability, attacks on democratic institutions, and escalating extremism, Republican lawmakers chose once again to drag Muslims before Congress as political scapegoats. Led by Representative Chip Roy and members of the so-called “Sharia-Free America Caucus,” the hearing recycled tired and debunked conspiracy theories portraying Islam itself as a civilizational threat.

The hearing’s title alone, “Sharia-Free America: Why Political Islam & Sharia Law Are Incompatible with the U.S. Constitution” reveals its purpose. It was not about public safety or constitutional law. It was about telling millions of Muslim Americans that simply being Muslim makes them suspect, dangerous, and not real Americans.

It doesn’t matter that here is no evidence that Muslims are attempting to impose religious law in the United States. Even the hearing’s witnesses failed to identify any credible systemic effort to replace the Constitution with Islamic law. Yet facts were irrelevant. The goal was fear. The goal was spectacle. The goal was to turn Muslim visibility in American life into something sinister.

Ordinary expressions of Muslim identity; mosques, halal food, Qurans in libraries, Muslim charities, prayer accommodations, student groups, and community organizations, were all framed as evidence of infiltration and extremism. In other words, simply existing publicly as a Muslim became the accusation.

This is not new in American history. Whenever I have been invited to speak about Muslims in America, I always begin by talking about our country’s history of intolerance. Every generation of demagogues chooses a minority to portray as incompatible with “real America.” Catholics were once accused of loyalty to the Pope over the Constitution. Jewish Americans were smeared as disloyal outsiders. Japanese Americans were held in internment camps under the guise of national security. Black Americans were terrorized and continue to be terrorized under laws justified as protecting social order, and Hispanics are stereotyped as illegal and a demographic threat.

Today, Muslims occupy that role in the political imagination of the far right.

What makes these hearings especially dangerous is not merely their bigotry, but their deliberate inversion of reality. While lawmakers obsess over an imaginary Muslim plot to overthrow the Constitution, the actual threat to democratic pluralism is coming from racist extremist movements openly seeking to impose a narrow, exclusionary vision of White Christian Nationalism on the country.

Across the United States, we are witnessing escalating efforts to fuse religion with state power and it is definitely not coming from Muslims. It is white Christian nationalist movements demanding religious control over public education, reproductive rights, voting rights, immigration policy, and the judiciary. It is extremists who openly declare America a Christian nation and seek to erase the separation of church and state. It is politicians invoking Christianity while stripping away the civil liberties of those who disagree with them.

Yet somehow, the target of congressional hearings is a minority religious community that makes up barely 1% of the population.

The hypocrisy is staggering.

Representative Jamie Raskin rightly noted the absurdity of these hearings, pointing out that there are less than a handful of Muslim members of Congress and no evidence whatsoever that they seek to impose religious law. He reminded lawmakers that the First Amendment exists precisely to prevent the government from policing religious belief.

Representative Mary Gay Scanlon dismantled the hearing’s foundation with devastating clarity: Republicans, she argued, had “made up a conspiracy theory about their Muslim neighbors” to frighten voters. Her warning was critical: words matter. When political leaders repeatedly portray Muslims as threats, hate crimes rise, discrimination intensifies, and real people become targets. And that danger is no longer theoretical.

It is amazing how every time Republicans expect challenging elections, they resort to demonizing Muslims to increase their poll numbers.

The rhetoric surrounding the caucus has become increasingly explicit and dehumanizing. Representative Randy Fine was condemned for remarks comparing Muslims unfavorably to dogs. Representative Andy Ogles reportedly declared that “Islam is a religion of violence.” Some caucus members have backed proposals effectively targeting Muslims for exclusion from immigration based on their faith.

This is how persecution evolves, not overnight, but slowly. First comes suspicion. Then exclusion. Then legal discrimination. Then normalization of hatred.

History teaches that democratic societies do not descend into authoritarianism all at once. They do so when elected officials convince ordinary citizens that a minority group is fundamentally incompatible with national identity and constitutional values. The language of “civilizational threats” and “incompatible cultures” has been used repeatedly throughout history to justify exclusion, surveillance, and repression.

That is why civil rights groups, interfaith leaders, and constitutional advocates reacted with such alarm to these hearings.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, called the caucus an anti-Muslim hate group, it was the first time in its history it applied that label to a congressional caucus. The U.S. Council of Muslim Organizations condemned what it described as the weaponization of government against Muslim Americans through “the politics of fear.” Even religious liberty advocates from the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty warned that targeting Muslims undermines constitutional protections for all Americans.

Amanda Tyler of the Baptist Joint Committee articulated the issue clearly: when government officials target religious groups with baseless accusations and broad stereotypes, they legitimize discrimination and model bullying instead of constitutional equality.

And that is precisely what this hearing accomplished.

It told Muslim children watching that their faith will always place them under suspicion. It told Muslim professionals, students, immigrants, and families that no matter how much they contribute to society, some politicians will still portray them as infiltrators. It emboldened extremists who already harass mosques, threaten Muslim elected officials, and spread anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian hatred online and in public life.

Perhaps most chillingly, these hearings attempt to redefine religious freedom itself. The Constitution does not protect only popular religions or politically convenient faiths. It protects everyone. The moment the government begins deciding which religions are “compatible” with America, constitutional liberty itself is in danger.

Muslim Americans do not need loyalty tests. They do not need congressional approval to belong. They are doctors, teachers, business owners, soldiers, activists, neighbors, and public servants. They are part of the fabric of this nation.

The real question Americans should ask is not whether Islam is compatible with democracy, but whether politicians exploiting fear and bigotry for power are compatible with the Constitution they claim to defend.

Because a government that singles out one faith community for suspicion is not protecting freedom and the U.S. Constitution. It is actually a threat to both.

Muslim civil rights group debunks anti-Muslim myths about Sharia, notes Islam requires Muslims to obey the law of the land, and in America that law is the U.S. Constitution

(BALTIMORE, Md., 5/13/2026) – The Maryland office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today welcomed U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin’s forceful defense of the Constitution and religious freedom during a heated congressional hearing targeting “Sharia law.”

SEE: At Republican Rerun Hearing on Sharia Law, Ranking Member Raskin Slams GOP’s Unconstitutional Attack on Religious Liberty

Rep. Raskin delivered remarks at a May 13 Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government hearing titled “Sharia-Free America: Why Political Islam & Sharia Law Are Incompatible with the U.S. Constitution II,” which reprised a similar hearing held earlier this year.  

SEE: Rep. Raskin FULL Remarks at House Judiciary Hearing

SEE: ‘Fear mongering & conspiracies, let’s talk then’: Jordan vs Raskin explodes at Sharia Law hearing

During the hearing, Rep. Raskin pushed back against the premise that Muslims pose a unique threat to the Constitution, noting that the First Amendment already prohibits government establishment of any religion while protecting the free exercise of religion for all Americans. He also pointed out the absurdity of suggesting that a tiny number of Muslim members of Congress could somehow impose Islamic law on the country.  

In a statement, CAIR’s Maryland Director Zainab Chaudry said:

“Rep. Raskin’s epic clap back against Islamophobic conspiracy theories was a bold and necessary defense of the First Amendment, religious freedom, and the truth that Muslim Americans are not outsiders to the Constitution. We are protected by it, we respect it, and we proudly contribute to the pluralistic democracy it promises. At a time when the Islamophobic anti-sharia caucus in Congress is reviving decades-old anti-Muslim conspiracy theories to score political points, Rep. Raskin reminded the nation of a basic truth: the Constitution already protects America from the establishment of any religion, while also protecting every American’s right to practice their faith freely.

“Anti-Sharia hearings are not about protecting the Constitution. They are about demonizing Islam and portraying Muslim Americans as perpetual outsiders. That is dishonest, dangerous and harmful. Our faith and our citizenship are not in conflict. We thank Rep. Raskin for standing against fearmongering and for defending the religious liberty of all Americans, including Maryland’s Muslim communities.”

Contrary to myths, Sharia is not a foreign legal takeover plot. It broadly refers to religious and ethical guidance that informs personal acts of worship, charity, family life, honesty, dietary practices, modesty, contracts, and moral conduct for Muslims. It does not override the U.S. Constitution

Islamic teachings require Muslims to honor their covenants and abide by the law of the land in which they live. For Muslims in the United States, the law of the land is the U.S. Constitution. 

CAIR Maryland emphasized that anti-Sharia campaigns often rely on myths that falsely portray ordinary Muslim religious practice as a threat. The organization offered the following clarifications:

Myth: Sharia means Muslims want to replace the Constitution.

Fact: Muslim Americans live under and respect U.S. law. The Constitution is the supreme law of the land, and Islamic teachings require Muslims to honor lawful agreements and obey the laws of the societies in which they reside.

Myth: Sharia is only about criminal punishments.
Fact: Sharia primarily refers to personal religious practice and moral guidance, including prayer, fasting, charity, honesty, marriage, inheritance, business ethics, and caring for neighbors.

Myth: Religious arbitration or faith-based guidance is unique to Muslims.
Fact: Many faith communities, including Jews and Christians, seek voluntary religious guidance in personal matters. Similar to Halacha in Judaism and Canon Law in Christianity, Sharia law cannot override constitutional rights, civil law, or court authority.

Myth: Muslims cannot be loyal Americans.
Fact: Muslim Americans serve as teachers, doctors, lawyers, first responders, service members, public officials, business owners, parents, students, and community leaders. These communities’ religious freedom is protected by the same Constitution that protects every other faith community.

Earlier this year, CAIR National commended members of Congress, including Rep. Raskin, Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon and Rep. Tom McClintock, for making clear during a prior “Sharia” hearing that the U.S. Constitution protects religious freedom and prevents any community from imposing its faith on others.  

CONTACT: CAIR Maryland Director Zainab Chaudry, zchaudry@cair.com, 410-971-6062; CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-744-7726, ihooper@cair.com; CAIR National Communications Manager Ismail Allison, 202-770-6280, iallison@cair.com 

Displaced Palestinian Mustafa Al-Jazzar, 83, who fled his hometown during the 1948 Nakba, sits with his family and grandchildren at a camp for displaced people in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. [Hasseb Al Wazeer/Reuters]

Millions of Palestinians are marking the 78th anniversary of the Nakba – Arabic for “catastrophe” – a term that refers to the mass expulsion and flight of some 750,000 Palestinians from their homes during the 1948 war surrounding the creation of Israel.

Friday’s anniversary is the third Nakba commemoration since Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza began, and comes as more than two million people in the besieged enclave remain displaced and confined to a fraction of their territory.

More than six months after an October ceasefire, Gaza’s population is crammed into less than half of the 40km (25-mile) strip along the Mediterranean coast, hemmed in by an Israeli-controlled zone that encompasses the rest of the territory.

The Nakba refers to the systematic dispossession and displacement of Palestinians between 1947 and 1949, when Zionist paramilitary groups captured towns and villages in what became the state of Israel.

Historians estimate that about 750,000 Palestinians – roughly one-third of the population at the time – were forced from their homes, and more than 400 villages and urban neighbourhoods were depopulated or destroyed to make way for new Jewish immigrants.

Hundreds of thousands of those expelled and their descendants now live in refugee camps in the occupied West Bank, Gaza and across the region, including Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. Many still preserve keys, deeds and documents to homes in what is today Israel, passing them down through generations as symbols of their displacement and of a future return.

Palestinian refugees continue to demand the right to return to the towns and villages from which they or their relatives were forced out.

This “right of return”, enshrined in UN General Assembly Resolution 194, remains one of the core unresolved issues in the long-stalled negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

For many Palestinians, the ongoing war in Gaza and renewed displacement across the enclave underscore their belief that the Nakba is not a single historical event but a continuing process of dispossession.

As they mark the 78th anniversary, activists and survivors say their commemoration is both an act of remembrance and a reassertion of their demand for justice, return and self-determination.

Palestinians carry a giant flag and symbolic representations of keys to homes that people were forced to leave as they rally to mark the 78th anniversary of the Nakba, in Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. [Mohammed Torokman/Reuters]

Palestinian youths play football in front of a mural marking the anniversary, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank city of Hebron. [Hazem Bader/AFP]

Between 1947 and 1949, Zionist military forces attacked major Palestinian cities and destroyed some 530 villages. About 15,000 Palestinians were killed in a series of mass atrocities, including dozens of massacres. [Majdi Mohammad/AP Photo]

Demonstrators carry a large Palestinian flag during a rally in the West Bank city of Ramallah. [Majdi Mohammed/AP Photo]

Palestinians take part in traditional shows, artistic performances and folk dances during an event marking the 78th anniversary of the Nakba in Bethlehem, West Bank. [Mamoun Wazwaz/Anadolu/Getty Images]

Displaced Palestinians shelter at a tent camp in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. More than 70 percent of Gaza’s residents are refugees, with about 1.5 million living in eight crowded camps across the territory. [Hasseb Al Wazeer/Reuters]