For daveners only

By Harpo Jaeger November 18, 2009

At today’s meeting of the Brown/RISD Hillel Shabbat Committee, I restarted a discussion that I began several weeks ago: my hope to create some kind of alternative programming on Friday night for people who’d rather not go to services.  To me, this seemed like a fairly straightforward proposal, but it met some serious opposition, and…

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The Confused Middle

By mmogilevsky November 18, 2009

Last week I blogged about an opportunity to connect to the Jewish community outside of my school. This week I’m switching gears completely to write about a great opportunity I had right here on campus–hearing Yossi Klein Halevi speak. Halevi is a contributing editor of the New Republic and occasionally writes for the Los Angeles…

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The Global Citizen: Remembering Mumbai

By arandel November 17, 2009

  The Global Citizen is a joint project of New Voices and the American Jewish World Service (AJWS). Throughout the year, a group of former AJWS volunteers will offer their take on global justice, Judaism and international development. Opinions expressed by Global Citizen bloggers do not necessarily represent AJWS.                        This Shabbat marks a…

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“Another Campus Leader, Another ‘Anything is Possible.'”

By atedesco November 13, 2009

Last week, the Twitterverse was all a-tweet with buzz from the GA. Live-tweeting by countless people and organizations left those of us at home still able to feel like we had a front-row seat. Just take a look at this post by @EstherK on My Urban Kvetch. Of all the tweets tagged #ga09, I think…

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Israel on Campus: Israeli Flag Discussion Continued

By mmicner November 13, 2009

Last week, I wrote a post about a debate underway within my Hillel chapter. The debate centered around whether or not we should take down an Israeli flag that hangs outside our space on campus. The person who sparked this debate argued that it did not represent Middlebury’s vibrant and diverse Jewish community and that…

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Hang it up?

By Harpo Jaeger November 12, 2009

Hello, world! This is Harpo Jaeger speaking (writing?) I’m a new poster at New Voices, having met Ben Sales at the J Street conference. I’m a freshman at Brown University, and I blog at my own site, as well as at Jewschool. This first post comes at an interesting time in my life as a…

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The Global Citizen: When the U.N. Fails a Litmus Test

By feabdelhak November 11, 2009

The Global Citizen is a joint project of New Voices and the American Jewish World Service (AJWS). Throughout the year, a group of former AJWS volunteers will offer their take on global justice, Judaism and international development. Opinions expressed by Global Citizen bloggers do not necessarily represent AJWS. I believe I’m not the only one…

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JFS in Britain Questions Jewishness

By kseeger November 11, 2009

I am sure you are all aware of the case being considered by Britain’s Supreme Court over the issue of rejecting a student because the mother converted to Progressive Judaism, and not Orthodox at JFS (Jews’ Free School). If not, or if you want to read more details, I have provided several links throughout this…

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Judaism’s Most Wanted

By Carly Silver November 11, 2009

When I think of famous Jews in the world today, ones that would be ideal to visit a conference like the recent Reform biennial in Toronto, who comes to mind? Rahm Emanuel, Joe Lieberman…. and Tony Blair? The reformers brought out some big guns at their conference, pulling a few surprises that may have proved…

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A Part of Something Bigger

By mmogilevsky November 10, 2009

Back home in Dayton, Ohio, the Jewish community is tiny. The only way to engage in that community is to go to services and see the same people over and over again. As for the services themselves, you have three choices–reform, conservative, or Chabad. Here in Chicago, though, it’s quite different. My college campus has…

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The Global Citizen: Far from Zion

By arandel November 10, 2009

  The Global Citizen is a joint project of New Voices and the American Jewish World Service (AJWS). Throughout the year, a group of former AJWS volunteers will offer their take on global justice, Judaism and international development. Opinions expressed by Global Citizen bloggers do not necessarily represent AJWS.   At my school I am…

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The Jewish State

By Ben Sales November 10, 2009

Jews have no homeland; they spread out among the nations and seek to control them through a vast underground conspiracy. This was the central claim of Western ethnically-centered anti-Semitism; the point of Zionism, in the writings of Herzl and practical plans of Ben-Gurion and Begin, was to invalidate that claim by providing a nation-state for…

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The Global Citizen: Watch the Gap.

By dzivari November 10, 2009

The Global Citizen is a joint project of New Voices and the American Jewish World Service (AJWS). Throughout the year, a group of former AJWS volunteers will offer their take on global justice, Judaism and international development.  Opinions expressed by Global Citizen bloggers do not necessarily represent AJWS. “When life itself is at stake it…

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Fictitious Living

By bzalcman November 9, 2009

What is it about our lives that fictional books and movies appeal to us more than non-fiction or real life stories? Why don’t people have enough confidence in their own lives, their own story, that instead they feel that they have to turn to movies and books while hoping that these things would happen to…

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Young Jews’ Attachment to Israel

By mmicner November 9, 2009

While compiling my thesis prospectus this semester, I have come across some very interesting information on American Jewish attachment to Israel. The most contemporary of this research suggests that American Jews have been consistently attached to Israel over time, with older people being more attached and young people being less attached. While this research fails…

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