Journalism by Jewish college students, for Jewish college students.
The Great Schlep begins again [Forward] After a successful 2008 campaign to encourage young Jews to talk to their elders about voting for Obama, the follow-up (again called The Great Schlep) has grown by leaps and bounds. The Jewish Daily Forward reports: “The group, called the Jewish Council for Education and Research, ran a high-profile campaign…
We received an odd letter here in the New Voices office last week: A single piece of paper with a collection of magazine covers featuring some classic money-Jews (Madoff, Greenspan, etc.) and the words “WALL STREET JEWS” in large letters followed by “…OCCUPY WALL STREET” in smaller letters. I guess it’s kind of true, in…
As a recent high school graduate, I can safely say that figuring out what to do with your summers can be a minefield. Going to camp is fun, but doesn’t look that great on college applications. Taking classes at a college can be education, but you don’t really want to spend anymore time in school….
At the University of Chicago Hillel the students aren’t the rebellious ones. The Jewish federation of Chicago fired the professional head of the U. Chicago Hillel along with its entire board on March 30, the Forward reports (written by former New Voices editor Josh Nathan-Kazis). There’s a whole lot of weird in this story: What…
I was in stats class when Twitter and Facebook exploded with rumors that Rick Santorum was bowing out of the presidential race. So of course I stopped paying attention to standard deviations and confidence intervals. Indeed, despite mass confusion when Washington Post denied rumors that they reported Santorum’s forfeit, other media outlets, including CBS, FOX…
Carly Silver explores her family’s ancestral haunts in Brooklyn.
Meet a Jew for Jesus… err, the first Jew for Jesus [Forward] Ever wanted to meet the founder of Jews for Jesus? (Hey, where’d everybody go?) Moishe Rosen is a curious personality whose life and theology are being explored in a new biography. This article from The Jewish Daily Forward explores highlights of Rosen’s life…
Jews have a long and healthy relationship with the West’s pop culture forms. In particular, there’s a laundry list of famous Jews making great music. And let’s face it: Bob Dylan is a tough act to follow. So how do we one-up ourselves? Frum Jews riffing on pop music: rock, R&B, even rap. Matisyahu is probably most famous…
I have spent, or rather squandered, countless hours pouring over Facebook. And every few months, usually in the midst of a particularly stressful work week in which I solemnly vow to stay focused, I consider removing myself from its vacuum and just going offline. However, in today’s age, deactivating your Facebook is like dropping off…
Focusing on Community College [USA Today] Community College is no longer the subject of the hilarious NBC sitcom above. New government funding and a dearth of skills in several expanding areas has led to increased enrollment in community colleges offering technical and vocational skills that some view as crucial in today’s job market. However, focusing…
There’s a lot of talk about personal modesty as it applies to the religious life. Religions around the world often encourage a codified form of dress to distinguish their practitioners from “the rest of us.” Fights over the Muslim hijab are excellent examples of the firestorms sparked by the modesty question. For Jews, recent events…
“We need to talk about Beit Shemesh” [Sh’ma] In this article from Sh’ma, Laura Frank explores the connections between true modesty (an ambiguous idea) and the misogyny of many ultra-Orthodox Jews. Can a balance between inner and outer appearance, and the implications of “legislating” dress as a form of social control, be reached? “As a…
The other day, we brought you this editorial about the endlessly expanding list of flora you can add to your seder plate. Now the Rebbetzin Hadassah Gross (actually Storahtelling founder Amichai Lau-Lavie in one of his alter-egos) has this charming video encouraging us all to add an apple to our seder plates. Why? As the…
Jewpacabra Get More: SOUTH PARKEric Cartman,Leopold “Butters” Stotch,more… South Park does Passover [SP Studios] Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the guys behind South Park, have a reputation for injecting religious commentary into their work (see: “The Book of Mormon“). Now in the 16th season of South Park, they take on Passover. And who better to…