Arts & Culture

Elfbar Ideology, Dialogues: Levi Pierpont

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Levi Pierpont reached out to me after I cited his Guardian Op-Ed in my own piece about the death of his friend, Aaron Bushnell. We ended up having a conversation about his experience in the Air Force and the involvement of Buddhism in his decision to become a conscientious objector (i.e. leave the military due to moral principles). We also discussed Palestine and how the Philippine languages reflect an imperialist component to language diffusion. This is that conversation, continued.

Arts & Culture

The Oscars: Glazer’s Speech

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Somebody was going to mention Palestine. This we knew. After all, the Academy asked a room of cynical film executives and incisive artists to celebrate themselves in front of a live television audience. What more could we expect than a spitting contest of performative agendas? We should concede, first, that the Oscars have always been a charade.

Arts & Culture

Hatikvah: Israel’s History and Hope 

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Hatikvah, which translates to “the hope” is the national anthem of the state of Israel. Officially adopted as the national anthem in 2004, Hatikvah was created over a century prior to its installation. It has been said that “few words are as well-known to Jews around the world as the lyrics of Hatikvah.” 

History 

Hatikvah was first written as a nine-stanza poem by Naphtali Herz Imber. Imber was born in 1856 in the town of Zloczow (then in the Galician region of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, now part of Ukraine). In 1882, Imber came to Ottoman-ruled Palestine as part of the First Aliyah.