Chanukah: the festival of anti-assimilation? [Long-Range Israel]

By greback December 9, 2011

It’s been a while since there has been a good bit of controversy about Jewish assimilation, but thankfully American Jews and Israeli politics are out of sync just enough to justify talking about it again. The latest blip, I think, challenges American Jews much more than any other public effort since the spread of the…

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Jewish Stereotypes in Your Favorite Sitcoms [20,000 Leagues From Hillel]

By Carly Silver December 9, 2011

Network television shows have long played upon various Jewish stereotypes. Several of these conventions were alive and well in prominent 1990s television situation comedies, or “sitcoms,” such as Will and Grace and The Nanny. Both shows frequently invoked stereotypes about Jewish women in relation to culture and religion. Characters rarely accessed their Jewish heritage outside…

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YU Beacon story explodes, editor resigns [Parsing]

By David A.M. Wilensky December 9, 2011

Updated, 2:20 p.m., 12/9/11: I added a bit about Failed Messiah’s piece on the story. On Wednesday, New Voices broke the news that the YU Beacon, a student newspaper at Yeshiva University was in hot water over an anonymous article about a sexual encounter. Then The Jewish Daily Forward‘s Sisterhood blog had a short post about…

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