BREAKING NEWS: J Street U Birthright Trip Canceled

By Ben Sales January 31, 2011

New Voices has just confirmed that the planned J Street U Birthright trip has been canceled. On Jan. 25, J Street U, the campus arm of J Street — the pro-Israel, pro-peace lobby in Washington, announced that it would be leading a Birthright trip called “Explore Israel: Progressive Zionism and Social Justice” this summer. The…

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Multilingual, Orthodox rapper Y-Love

By mmoncaster January 31, 2011

Shyne received some much deserved love from the New York Times a while back. And at this point, I would guess that virtually everyone knows Matisyahu. But not everyone knows of Y-Love. A convert to Orthodox Judaism, Y-Love first gained an interest in the faith after seeing a commercial for a Jewish festival on television…

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Looking for a Jewish Job?

By Ben Sales January 31, 2011

Are you a senior in college? Are you looking for a Jewish job? If so, we want to hear about you! New Voices is partnering with the Jewish Daily Forward to report on Jewish students looking for work in the Jewish world. If you or a college student you know wants a job with a…

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This … Is … Jewish Identity!

By Carly Silver January 29, 2011

What if Helen of Troy was Jewish? Is it possible that Greek myth’s most legendary beauty was an MOT? That proposition is a bit far-fetched, but ancient sources record that the Spartans and Jews may have been related. Is that tale even true, though, or is it a product of later political impositions? According to…

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Breaking News: Yiddish Lives (for now) at Maryland!

By Ben Sales January 28, 2011

Yesterday, we published a story about the final semester of Yiddish classes at the University of Maryland, College Park, and about the general decline of Jewish communal interest in academic study of Yiddish. We have just confirmed with Director Hayim Lapin, however, that the Meyerhoff Center for Jewish Studies there recently secured $120,000 in funding…

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Lessons of the Holocaust

By hdilman January 27, 2011

Today is International Holocaust day, but I wonder what is the point of such a day? I  suppose it’s appropriate to have a set date for the world to remember the Holocaust. Instituted by the UN in 2007,  its purpose was to remember “the Holocaust, which resulted in the murder of one third of the…

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Yiddish Dies at Maryland

By Judah Gross January 27, 2011

It was once the mother tongue of Jewish households across Europe. Now, Yiddish courses will not even exist at the University of Maryland, home to over 6,500 Jewish students. Yiddish professors and students reflect on the decline of the “mamaloshn” on campus.

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The New Voices office used to be a brothel

By Ben Sales January 26, 2011

No. 114 W.26th St. is a ladies [sic.] boarding house, kept by Mrs. Moultrie. It has five lady boarders. The above quote is an excerpt from “A Gentleman’s Directory,” which the New York Times calls “A Vest Pocket Guide to Brothels in 19th-Century New York for Gentlemen on the Go.”  The book purports to “point…

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Exorcists, dybbuks, demons, oh my!

By akinman January 26, 2011

Earlier this week, Yossi Chajes, author and senior lecturer in the Department of Jewish History at the University of Haifa, was asked to lead a mini series at the University of Florida’s Hillel called “The Kabbalah Unveiled: A Mini Course on Jewish Mysticism.” Not your typical Hillel crowd, the audience was mostly comprised of older…

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OMG J Street Has a Birthright Trip!

By Ben Sales January 25, 2011

Here’s yet another sign that the self-proclaimed “pro-Israel, pro-peace” group — despite claims that it’s a terrorist-funded, anti-Israel, Hamas-loving shill — might actually be pro-Israel: It’s sponsoring a Birthright trip. OMFG!!!! We’ll post some thoughtful analysis of this announcement soon, but in the meantime here’s an excerpt from the press release and some quick thoughts…

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The Saltine Blues

By jcohen January 25, 2011

Over the last two weeks Knox has become an incubator for what we jokingly call “The Knox Plague.” Everywhere you turn, noses are red and stares are vacant &#8212 the indicators of a supremely nasty cold. Despite my constant consumption of vitamin C, I joined the ranks of wheezing classmates, making for a particularly nasty…

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Was Karl Marx Dreaming of Mashiach?

By mmoncaster January 24, 2011

In a literal sense, no. Karl Marx, philosopher and socialist-extraordinaire, most likely refuted Jewish eschatology — if he was even aware of it at all. In his public writings, Marx seemed more concerned about the role of Jewish people in the capitalist system than with their religious doctrine. And it is these writings that have…

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Getting the Message Out

By Carly Silver January 21, 2011

For some of you, this news may be a bit stale, but, to me, it’s fresh and I’m ready to get to the core of this mystery. When I found out that CNN reporter Rick Sanchez got fired for saying Stewart was a “bigot” and Jews ran the media, I naturally wanted to spring to…

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Frum Fashion Takes Haute Couture by Storm

By jmerkin January 21, 2011

Or maybe that’s overstating things a little. However, in the last three months, there has been multiple coverage of frum attire catching on: Today in Jewcy, Merisa Fink writes about Urban Outfitters (the once hipster now mainstream clothing company) selling tichels, headscarf style worn by many married frum Jewish women, especially popular in Israel. The…

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Questions about a gay Jewish wedding in Amsterdam

By David A.M. Wilensky January 19, 2011

JTA posted an 88-word article about the first gay Jewish wedding in the Netherlands. We know when and where it took place. We know that the Council of Rabbis of the Dutch Union of Progressive Synagogues authorized the ceremony. We know that gay marriage was legalized in the Netherlands in 2001. We do not know…

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