Wow, My Life Makes a Good Comic

By Laura Cooper May 29, 2011

Since I’m the one who substitutes nonsense I draw for actual pictures, I thought I ought to use my last post for the semester to tell you that there is a method to the madness. Inspired by the fact that every comic I’ve read has at least one Jewish character (although in one case it…

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Iran responds to UK censure of their TV station by quoting “Protocols of the Elders of Zion”

By yrosenberg May 27, 2011

No, really. Earlier this week, OfCom, the official United Kingdom broadcast regulating authority, censured Iran’s state-run Press TV for conducting and airing an interview with Newsweek journalist Maziar Bahari while he was being held captive and was under coercion from the Iranian government, as doing so was (unsurprisingly) against UK broadcasting rules. The Guardian reports…

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Common Cultures

By Carly Silver May 27, 2011

As Jews, we may see our closest genetic relatives in other Semites, often the citizens of the Arab nations surrounding Israel, or in our Jewish cousins scattered across the world. By tracing genetic ancestry of sub-Saharan African peoples, Harvard researchers have determined that Jews are actually more closely linked to the rest of the world…

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Surviving the Israeli Hospital

By Brian Lasman May 26, 2011

Brian Lasman’s problems had only begun when he lost vision in his right eye during a year of study in Israel. What followed was a two-week stay at a hospital, where he got treated, got confidence and learned how Israel really works.

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The Reading List: Majors that Make You Money

By Ben Sales May 25, 2011

Here’s a list of the 20 highest- and lowest-paying majors. [Time] I’m farklemt in my genektezoink! [Forward] Everything I really needed to know I learned in first grade. [JW] Elie Wiesel brings the wisdom at Wash. U. [WUSTL] Want to learn? Don’t go to college, and we’ll pay you. [Chronicle of Higher Ed.]

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Tornado

By jcohen May 25, 2011

I felt the storm before I saw it. The humidity made the hairs on my arms prickle and gave me the impression that I was walking in an oven. Walking outdoors with my friend, I saw massive black clouds run across the horizon. We looked at each other knowingly; each of us felt that there…

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Never Forget

By akinman May 25, 2011

Sixth grade was probably the first time I was exposed to pictures of the holocaust. In religious school, I remember vividly how we watched a movie based on the holocaust and how I was confused as to how that could happen. As I watch my younger sister go through the public school system, it shocks…

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The Palestinians Could Recognize a Jewish State – They Don’t Think They’ll Have To

By greback May 25, 2011

Both Israel and the Palestinians have a precondition for negotiations to continue. The Palestinians want construction in the settlements to stop and the Israelis want the Palestinian Authority to recognize Israel as a “Jewish” state. The fact that these are the two things that the two governments have to declare publicly demonstrates neither side wants…

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A book review and how it relates to my own life etc.

By Laura Cooper May 22, 2011

I’m annoyed (and not just at Obama; I think you’ve got that covered anyway). I’m reading a book called The New Rabbi by Stephen Fried (2002), and it’s not very good. It’s a journalistic log of what happens “when a rabbi is replaced” in a popular, large and prominent congregation, which may or may not…

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Acknowledging Each Other’s Right to Exist

By greback May 22, 2011

One would think that you cannot surrender your moral high ground in the Middle East. To do so is suicide so the thinking goes. It would be a display of weakness. And so no country owns up to its mistakes, much less its crimes. The Arab World that admits it created the Israel they whine…

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Obama Can Still Steal Iran’s Thunder: Support Bahrain’s Shiites

By greback May 22, 2011

President Obama missed a major opportunity last week: to become repressed Shiites’ patron and steal Iran’s thunder. The crackdown in Bahrain, more than any other Arab country, offer a stupendous opening to US foreign policy and the regional balance of power. The United States should consider an aggressive policy against the Bahraini monarchy, solicit the…

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Why JVP Will Never “Move Over AIPAC”

By Ben Sales May 20, 2011

In anticipation of their reactive “Move Over AIPAC” conference this weekend in Washington, DC, JVP has sent out a press release with a few assertive quotations from members of its “Young, Jewish, Proud” youth wing. The statements from YJP, whose members disrupted Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu’s speech at the Federations’ General Assembly in November,…

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I Don’t Think Netanyahu is Mad at Obama

By greback May 20, 2011

There is nothing new under the sun. Nothing Barack Obama said is dramatic. But Benjamin Netanyahu is making it seem so. “He doesn’t get it,” said one Netanyahu aide: Referring to the US president’s Mideast policy speech, a Netanyahu associate said: “He (Obama) didn’t deliver the goods…Obama apparently does not understand the reality in the…

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Lots of Jewish Commencement Speakers: Surprising?

By Ben Sales May 20, 2011

As commencement season draws to a close, I turned the Jewdar on to see how MOTs fared in this year’s roster of commencement speakers. The result: rather well. The most complete list I could find included 47 speech-makers adressing graduates at over 50 universities nationwide, so there’s a lot of data missing. The sample I…

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A Quick Read of Arab Reactions to Obama’s Speech: in English and Arabic

By greback May 19, 2011

Scanning the headlines from Barack Obama’s speech about the Middle East, it is compelling the way different newspapers and online sources decided to interpret his words. You don’t need to read the Arabic to see Arab papers are putting words in Barack Obama’s mouth. Thus far, there is no wide division in the analysis. Barack…

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