TESTIMONIALS
At the Narrow Bridge Project, receiving feedback and engaging in productive conversation is central to the work that we do. If you would like to get in contact with us about our work, please do not hesitate to do so by emailing us at narrowbridgeproject@brown.edu or by clicking “Get Involved” above and reaching out to us through the form linked there. We look forward to hearing from you.
If you would like to read about how participants have been impacted by our work, please check out the student testimonials below.
Student Testimonials
“I came to NBP with little to no knowledge of Judaism/Zionism/Israel-Palestine and I am leaving the cohort with a preparedness to discuss topics more intellectually based on facts rather than opinion alone. Particularly when it pertains to Zionism, I am much more knowledgeable of it as a concept and its relation to Judaism and Jewish peoplehood.”
“From the first meeting to the last, I felt much more articulate in my views. I learned to speak my mind, respectfully listen, challenge others, and be challenged. Each meeting was a little bit different, but I always felt mentally exhausted when it was over. This was perhaps the only constant to the experience. You never got the benefit of maintaining prior beliefs without someone asking you why. This was the room of 'why.' The experience was one that inspired learning, purely for the sake of learning. Even though we're at college, this can be very difficult to achieve and is something that students normally do not find in the classroom.”
“NBF helped me to grow both in my Jewish identity and my understanding of Israel/Palestine. While the main focus of the program was on the intersection of Antisemitism and Zionism, the conversations about Jewish identity and internalized antisemitism were also incredibly rewarding, and made me interrogate my Jewish identity in a way I had not before. As I’m sure was intended, these conversations about Jewish identity and values also helped me to contextualize my personal relationship to Israel, allowing me to better understand my own assumptions and investment in the state, land, and people.”
“Before this program, I never had the opportunity to study Judaism in an academic context. But over the course of a few weeks, I was exposed to the diversity and strength of the Jewish experience. In my local community, Jewishness is relatively homogeneous - everyone goes to the same synagogue and thinks about Israel in similar ways. NBP helped expand my horizons and form solidarity with the Jews on Brown's campus. I now feel better equipped to articulate my own relationship with Judaism, as well as understand others'.”
“I appreciated having a space to explore questions about Israel in a deep way where I knew it was okay for my answer to be "I don't know." Rabbi Dardashti encouraged us to ask "real questions," or questions that didn't just prove we were smart or knowledgeable, but rather that actually made ourselves vulnerable because we were genuinely trying to figure out the answers.”
“The environment created by the organizers and the students is one that relies both on critical discussion and education. Often when discussing Israel-Palestine, one of these two aspects is missing; however, taking both into consideration has been a key part of the group. The willingness of everyone to share their entire opinion, knowing that others will disagree with it, is an amazing dynamic that I haven't experienced in other places, but the fact that everyone is down to argue ideas and ideology is amazing.”
“Often I feel boxed in to my position in these discussions, or I feel that finding nuance is somehow compromising my beliefs. This space was different - this in and of itself was huge for me. The space really encouraged meaningful conversations and has given me the tools to have more of them.”
"I really value the relationships I built in NBF and the people I got to know who I never would have known otherwise. ... I also feel like all of the bad-faith conversations I was seeing about antisemitism over the last year were leading me to approach any discussion of antisemitism with cynicism/suspicion, and engaging with other Jews who wanted to hash these issues out in a good-faith setting helped me shed some of that cynicism and re-invest in fighting antisemitism when I see it."