Journalism by Jewish college students, for Jewish college students.
Syria Captial: Damascus Population: ~22,000,000; 70% Sunni Arab, large minorities of Kurds, Christians, Druze and Alawite Muslims President: Bashar al-Assad Former President: Hafez al-Assad __________ The revolutions that started in North Africa are creeping into Israel’s domain. The Levant – the eastern coastline of the Mediterranean Ocean that is home to Israel, the Palestinian territories,…
One of the musicians told me Divine Sparks didn’t have as much rehearsal time as they thought they needed. From the second balcony of the Berklee performance center, the sound mixing seemed uneven, the guitar close to inaudible. Despite these kinks, this was one of the more interesting concerts I’ve gone to, to say the…
Rabbi Richard Jacobs, the spiritual leader of a large Reform congregation in Scarsdale, NY, was just tapped to lead the Union for Reform Judaism next year–effectively making him the top rabbi of America’s largest denomination. According to the JTA, Rabbi Jacobs wants to make the movement a “big tent with its flaps wide open and…
I was sitting in the Ministry of the Interior office in the center of town in Jerusalem, I was applying for my Israeli passport. I was sucked into a fairly successful game of angry birds on my ipod. I looked up, the “take a number” board listed 32, only 10 more numbers until it was my turn….
Halloween gives you candy. Purim gives you Hamantaschens. After slowly recovering from the ODing on poppy seed hamantaschens, and getting the noise of groggers out of my head, I look back on this past Purim and describe it in one word: scandalous. Every year, my congregation puts on a Purim Spiel. The play tells the…
I admittedly know little about Yiddish. My great-grandmother spoke it. My grandma can understand it. I used to get called a chazer (pig) on account of my messy room. But I had to pause when I saw this interview with K. David Harrison. A linguistics professor at Swarthmore College, he had this to say about…
You don’t know me, but my name is Laura and I’ve found my way here from my everyday blog. We can’t go on until I tell you a secret, though. I’m converting. I hate saying it, not only because it leads into telling my whole life story, but because it’s rather deceptive. It implies that I’m…
This week, we asked our bloggers, “Purim, St. Patrick’s Day and Spring Break all came around the same time this year. What was your craziest experience from one of the three?” Carly Silver: I ran into a boa constrictor. My craziest spring break experience didn’t involve Purim or St. Paddy’s day, but it did have…
Sarah Palin is in Israel this week. And she’s shocked, shocked, to find out how hard it is to get to Bethlehem from Jerusalem. [Tikun Olam] Meanwhile, the Republican Jewish Coalition is in tizzy because Palin organized her trip through an organization other than the Republican Jewish Coalition. [JTA] In other bad-for-hasbarah news, Katsav was…
Baking has always been a huge part of my family’s Jewish identity. In my household, each holiday and Shabbat requires some sort of sugary confection, be it brownies for an ordinary Friday night or sufganiot for Chanukah (P.S. I don’t recommend making these if you don’t like oily doughnuts). Lucky for me, my spring break…
Over the course of my (nearly) four years attending Hillel services on a near-weekly basis, I have had many different experiences. My first week of college, I was appalled by the un-spirited service-attendees and minimalist ultra-Reform service my Hillel offered. It worked for a few, but not for me. The following year I was thrilled…
In New Voices’s first installation of the new Bloggers’ Round Table feature (props to Ben and David for this, I think it’s a great idea), I and several other NV bloggers offered our thoughts on the propriety of Brandeis Hillel’s rejection of the campus JVP chapter. You should read it – check out the comments…
Your concerned New Voices editors enjoy reading Jewish news to find out about issues and events involving our fellow MOTs. But even more than that, we enjoy scouring Jewish publications for the occasional reference to the greatest movie–nay, latter-day holy text–of all time: The Big Lebowski. So now, faithful readers, we challenge you: Can you…
On stage, Yemen Blues have a manic energy. On the left side of the stage, Hilla Epstein and Galia Hai play cello and viola, adding stability to a cacophonous sound. On the right side, the horn section of Avi Lebovich, Itamar Borochov and Hadar Noiberg add funk-styled horn blasts and occasional backup vocals. In the…