Journalism by Jewish college students, for Jewish college students.
Here’s something interesting: Among my different groups of friends (or should I call them “circles” of friends now?), it’s my Jewish friends that have taken to Google+ most readily. And it’s not just my Jewish friends, but it’s my camp friends, the most far-flung, geographically disparate circle of friends I know. This made me think…
The Reading List is back! Albeit with less regularity. And it’s the summer. So it’s Summer Reading. Israel has a hockey team? Ice hockey? And they win things? [Tablet] Once again, republicans are predicting Jews are going to leave the Democratic party in droves–for real this time! And once again, they’re dead wrong. [Philadelphia Inquirer] Once…
Jeremy Ben-Ami, founder and president of J Street–the self-proclaimed “Pro-Israel, Pro-Peace” lobby–has faced a lot of flak since his organization arrived on the scene three years ago. Facing controversies from the left and right, on and off of Capitol Hill, J Street–and Ben-Ami–have at times struggled to get their message across.
“A New Voice for Israel,” Ben-Ami’s first book hits the shelves tomorrow. The book describes Ben-Ami’s personal and professional journey to the helm of J Street, the issues Israel faces and why he thinks the American Jewish conversation on Israel needs to change. Ben Sales spoke with Ben-Ami about the book. Here are some of the lobbyist’s thoughts on students’ place in J Street, Jewish organizational dynamics and that other Israel lobby–AIPAC.
With pretzels and cold beers waiting on a fold-up table, guests were greeted upon arrival at DeLeon’s rooftop release party with a warm welcome and the and a copy of the band’s new CD. But behind the excitement and rush of energy were the frowns and blank stares that gave away that last night’s event wasn’t just a concert–it was the beginning of a sad goodbye.
JDub Records announced last week that the Jewish record label will “wind down,” eventually closing its doors for financial reasons. For one year short of a decade, JDub’s mission was to “discover, curate, and promote unique, proud Jewish voices and role models in the mainstream,” according to the July 13 press release that first revealed the bad news.
Earlier this week, in my video eulogy for JDub Records, I wrote about the impending loss of JDub as a loss of some measure of honestly come by culturally Jewish coolness: Perhaps the saddest thing about it is that the official Jews try so hard–and fail so spectacularly–to market Jewishness to us as the epitome…
In the world of fiction, from “Hellboy” to “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” Adolf Hitler and the Nazis are often given to fantastical machinations. In the world of Scott Kenemore’s new work of not-at-all historical fiction, “Zombies vs. Nazis: A Lost History of the Walking Dead,” the Third Reich sends three of their best agents to Port-au-Prince, Haiti to uncover the mysteries of the undead.
Kenemore is the author of five other semi-historical zombies novels, including “The Art of Zombie Warfare” and “The Zombie Pirate Code.” “Zombies vs. Nazis” is a short series of letters between the Nazi agents and their superior, known as Obergruppenfuhrer (a high paramilitary Nazi rank of the SS). The letters tell the story of how these agents discover successful Voodoo zombie rituals in Haiti. The agents’ leader, Gunter Knecht is both arrogant and sadistic, having proudly strangled a cat during SS training. With him are the more human, curious Inspector Gehrin, and the incompetent and fearful Inspector Baedecker. Together they pose as Jesuit lepidopterists from The University of Bonn.
I actually gasped out loud when I read the press release this morning: I’m writing to let you know that after almost 9 years in operation, JDUB’s Board of Directors has decided to wind down the organization. There are Jews all over the place creating brand new pieces of Jewish art and culture, but very few…
This story may sound familiar: On a free summer trip to Israel, a group of college students visited the Western Wall, drank in Tel Aviv, met with Israeli soldiers and had an encounter with a group of Bedouin in the Negev. But this story has a twist: This trip was not funded or organized by Birthright–this trip was provided by J Street U, the college arm of J Street, a lobby that describes itself as, “The political home of pro-Israel, pro-peace Americans.”
J Street U’s first summer Israel trip ran from June 13-23, taking its 14 participants to many of the standard stops for a Birthright trip, but also gave participants a look at a side of Israel that Birthright trips are barred from seeing.
Benjamin Netanyahu was wise to immediately recognize the new Republic of South Sudan over the weekend. Some analysts saw it is as a convenient way to show Israel off as a consistent, ethical country. Recognizing a state which won its independence through negotiations is apparently the right message to send as it argues against Palestinian…
Somewhere in her flight from New York to Los Angeles, Fran Drescher forgot her Yiddishkeit. When Fran flew from Flushing to LA, she left behind New York Jewish humor in favor for a lighter, gayer, less cynical brand of humor. Is it possible that Fran Drescher is becoming a shiksa? Or is she merely adjusting to new expectations for Jewish television stars? The star of the hit 90s comedy “The Nanny” has to adjust to retain her composure as a Jewish icon, while appealing to a much broader audience. To do this, Fran takes a lesson from her younger Jewish counterparts.
The occasion is her new sitcom, “Happily Divorced.” A show based on her life, its premise is simple: One night Drescher’s husband comes out as gay. She plays herself, with John Michael Higgins as her husband Peter. While the plot is gay-friendly, its dialogue is decidedly “feh.”
Summer means less for you to read at New Voices. But it also means more for you to write. Or edit. Or take pictures of. Or blog about. Or…
Amid all of the hullabaloo over the closing of the Yale Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Anti-Semitism, and its resurrection as the Yale Program for the Study of Anti-Semitism, what’s been missing from most of the coverage are student voices. In its statement on YIISA’s closing, Yale said that it had ceased funding the…