Rina Shamilov

Dec 18, 2024 | newvoices.org | Rina Shamilov

This piece is featured in our New Beginnings series, exploring the emergent ideas, emotions, and social upheavals of a new era of progressive Jewish culture. We are writing for a brighter future, while honoring our past. More to come. Going to graduate school was supposed to be exciting and liberating, but the Indiana-bound-New York train ride with my mother was filled with crying.

Aug 26, 2024 | momentmag.com | Rina Shamilov

When I was 18, in 2020, I followed the footsteps of many other Modern Orthodox students in my high school: I attended a gap year program in Israel meant to foster Jewish connection and intellectual growth. One of the unique experiences of the program was hearing from a Palestinian who came to talk to us about his experiences living in the West Bank. He told us, for instance, about the expulsion of his grandmother from her home when settlers moved in.

Jun 3, 2024 | newvoices.org | Rina Shamilov

Photography by Yoav Rahamim You could hear the neighbor’s violin strumming from the end of the road. He was always playing at this hour, just as the sun was setting, The quietest part of the day. The usual chatter of Modiin was long dead. People were crawling back into their crevices. I stood on the living room balcony watching the sunset. It had been a few weeks since we got here, and the suitcases stood in unceremonious heaps on the deck. The sky was beautiful. Haunting. The air was cold.

Apr 17, 2024 | newvoices.org | Rina Shamilov

High noon in Washington was cold, and I was sitting on the yellow grass, shivering while speaking with my friends. I could barely hear them over the boom of the speakers in Washington’s National Mall. Various students and speakers spoke passionately about the Israeli cause, “Bring Them Home Now” chants filling the air. As a Yeshiva University student, it may have looked like I fit in seamlessly at the march. But inside, I was deeply questioning my place within the conflict.

Dec 1, 2023 | yucommentator.org | Rina Shamilov

Yeshiva University's 99th Annual Hanukkah Dinner, YU’s largest fundraising event of the year, will take place Sunday in The Ziegfeld Ballroom in Midtown, and will focus on garnering support for Israel in its war against Hamas. The dinner’s program, mostly unreleased, will include performances by Ishay Ribo and The Maccabeats. The dinner was originally intended to highlight the achievements of Stern alumni, along with Mordecai D. Katz and Dr. Monique C.