Journalism by Jewish college students, for Jewish college students.
When I’m in a cypher, I don’t have time to plan my rhyme, I don’t even want to use that part of the brain. I start thinking about your rhyme scheme, or even consciously formulate a rhyme and I lose the beat– and the beat is everything. A rapper who establishes a rhythm with their…
When ABC canceled its long-running soap operas All My Children and One Life to Live, not only did it remove its historic daytime programming, but it also took away numerous characters to whom thousands of people related. Moreover, daytime brought a new kind of diversity to television, still represented to some extent on modern soaps,…
It has been buzzing in the news for awhile, and today we all got our confirmation: the PLO and Hamas agree to a “historical Palestinian reconciliation deal“. After years of bitter rivalry and disagreements, they have come together to begin to form a “unity government”. And even though Abbas has more or less told Israel to…
International House Hunters. Seen it? Every week, I will watch repeat after repeat of couples looking houses in different countries. From multi-million dollar beach houses in Costa Rica to villas in Italy, I would like to think that I live vicariously through these individuals. Always making my top choice of the three home options they…
I am not what you would call a naturally confident person. In fact, I go out of my way to put myself down, in the hopes that I will not only seem a more approachable person, but that someone will tell me that I am wrong. The only problem is I have stopped believing those…
It’s a hard life. And not just because of these new and strange diet restrictions, which frankly I’ve quelled by replacing my usual fare with a lot of chocolate and Passover cake. No, something much more tumultuous is brewing. I keep thinking back to my conversation with a certain head of the local RCA chapter,…
I’ve heard about it at two Passovers now, both the one at home in L.A. and the night up in San Francisco with some Israeli friends, the fog playing Elijah as it floated in wisps all around us, a constant yet absent presence. Somehow or another the topic of Mel Gibson arrives. Deep breaths are…
I have no idea why, but the Obama administration has been very warm toward the Syrian regime, calling the dictator/son of a dictator Bashar al-Assad a “reformer”. This leads to the obvious question, what does that make Pol Pot? While Syrian police have been killing protesters en masse, the US has been silent. In fact,…
Netanyahu Looking Like a Wreck This has dragged out too long. Just shut down the settlement expansion. I have to admit, I am a Religious Zionist. Not all RZs support settlements, but most do . . . and but I do. The settlements actualize the imperative to settle the country. If the land is bought…
Three big events happened for the first time this week. One, I went to my first Seder spoken completely in Hebrew. Two, I tried gefilte fish for the first time. Three, I baked without giving anyone food poisoning. OK so maybe I want to brag about the last two events, but I really want to…
Passover is one of the most commonly practiced Jewish holidays, and yet, I’m pretty sure it’s one of the holidays we qvech about the very most! For many, eighth days without chameitz is a nuisance. But, I really enjoy a week without bread and other such foods. It helps me renew my appreciation for the…
Last week, spurred on by an excellent article, I mentioned the whole “Jews are the chosen people” thing. This week, Rabbi Donniel Hartman wrote about this same topic, albeit within the context of Passover. It’s short but sweet, definitely worth the read. I am continually impressed by Hartman’s writing because he conveys meaningful messages with…
On Saturday April 10th UC Santa Cruz hosted the first intercollegiate Macabiada games, sponsored by the Israel Center of the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco. It was modeled after the international Jewish sporting event, the Maccabia Games. 120 students from the Hillels of UC Santa Cruz, UC Davis, UC Berkley, San Francisco State, Chico…
There is an old man at my synagogue who really enjoys gossiping about anyone and complaining about anything. I recently learned I got in his crossfire, and a few days ago when I wasn’t there, he seized the moment and started gossiping about me! I didn’t think that anyone could have any ammo against me,…
It was small stuff, but it bothered me. At 3:45 PM, I was waiting for the bus, hoping I wouldn’t be late for work. It was Sunday afternoon, sunny out—I couldn’t find my ipod before I left my apartment so the wait was killing me. You know, playing tetris on my phone, texting people I…