Married, Pregnant, and in College

By Simi Lichtman November 29, 2012

There’s a legend that’s passed around in Stern College for Women of the student who had a baby on Thursday and came back to class the following Monday. This, as it turns out, is a true story—she was in class with my friend. To have a baby in college often means the condom ripped, or…

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Should Palestine Get a Chair at the U.N.?

By Michael Snow November 29, 2012

Mahmoud Abbas, the President of the Palestinian Authority, will speak before the U.N. General Assembly today and present a resolution to upgrade Palestine’s membership to the status of an “observer-state.” Many expect this resolution to pass. What do you think this new status for Palestine in the UN will mean for Israel and the peace…

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Why Cynicism Is Not the Answer: Israel on Campus

By Erica Shaps November 29, 2012

I have a confession to make: I’ve been cynical. While I love Israel deeply, studied abroad in Haifa, and study the Middle East academically, for the bulk of my college career I would not get involved with campus Israel-related activity. It was too polarized, too entrenched, and too disconnected from the nuanced and intellectual conversations…

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Ugly Sweaters: Now for Jews, Too

By Simi Lichtman November 27, 2012

So here it is: I’m That Girl. You know, the one who consciously finds hipster to be cool. The one who shops at the fakest hipster store ever, Urban Outfitters, to look just a little hipster on those few days I can wear some of the expensive hipster clothes I managed to buy without sending…

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Aly Raisman Style

By H. B. Rubin November 27, 2012

They say that nothing goes better together than red wine and pecan-crusted goat cheese. I agreed, until I saw this. That’s right: Gymnamstyle. In this latest parody of the K-pop classic, golden girl Aly Raisman shakes her sequined booty to Psy’s majestic techno-trills. The self-made video is set in a North Carolina hospital’s cancer-unit, and then cuts…

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GJV: Hasbarah Facebook Campaign is Just Slacktivism

By Gabriel T. Erbs November 26, 2012

If you are a Jewish student on Facebook, then your exposure to infographics probably stands at around 500% of normal due to the storm of social media hasbarah meant to buoy Israel’s Gaza operation, called Pillar of Defense. Most people don’t think twice about re-posting these images, confident in their “contribution” to Israel’s safety or happy…

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The Epichorus Blend Faiths and Sounds in Powerful Debut

By Aimee Rubensteen November 26, 2012

Good music calms your brainwaves and massages your emotions. But great music does something else too: It tickles your mind and makes you think. This winning combination of heart and intellect are what world band Epichorus inspires within curious listeners. Initially, you should expect to get lost in the exotic, meditative beats and richly layered sounds on debut album “One…

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An Open Letter to Gaza

By Simi Lichtman November 21, 2012

Gaza, I wanted to be unbiased about Israel. I really did. I went to a Zionist school as a child, and grew up in a Zionist home. My whole life I’d been taught that Israel was right and our haters were ignorant, cruel, and just plain wrong. It was easy enough to believe, and I…

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A Change in the Game

By Eliana Glogauer November 21, 2012

A bus just exploded in Tel Aviv, less than four miles away from where I sit right now, typing this article. Up until now, the current situation has felt more than a bit surreal. Sure, I’ve heard the “tzeva adom” sirens go off, and I’ve spent time sitting in our apartment’s “safe room,” but at…

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We Are The 5 Percent: Being Non-Jewish at American Jewish University

By Sara Gold November 20, 2012

Aside from Israel, there is no question that Jews are a minority in most of world. Whether you are the only person at your office taking time off for the High Holidays or the only house on the block not decorated with Christmas lights in December, most Jews have felt small at some point or…

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I Want To Hear Your Voice?

By Michael Snow November 19, 2012

I recently came across an absurd music video produced by the Office of the President of Israel. The video, released last May, features poppy synth dance loops with President Shimon Peres repeating the refrain “Be my friend for peace – I want to hear your voice.” The (music) video is truly bizarre; I couldn’t believe…

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Not a Normal Day

By Eliana Glogauer November 19, 2012

“Beep… beep… beep… beep.” It is 9.00 am on a Sunday morning, and apparently my week is about to start the same way that any other week starts – with a mad dash to get out the door and to campus on time for my first class of the week at IDC Herzliya. Forty minutes…

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Open Dialogue at Hillel?

By Sandra Korn November 18, 2012

Last week, it became painfully clear to the Harvard College Progressive Jewish Alliance (PJA) that Hillel is moving farther and farther from being “the foundation of Jewish campus life” that it claims to be. As an affiliated group of Harvard Hillel, PJA tries to promote dialogue and discussion between Jews and Palestinians on campus and…

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Too Much Jewish Love for “Young People”?

By Lex Rofes November 16, 2012

Sitting in the opening plenary of the 2012 Jewish Federations of North America’s General Assembly, I was struck by one thing. American Jews are really into college students. Speaker after speaker emphasized the vision they have for the future of American Judaism, and time and time again they spoke of the importance of our “leaders…

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Can Men Bake Challah Too?

By H. B. Rubin November 14, 2012

In college, or at least my college, we learn about gender and sexuality. A lot. We learn of its performative nature, its implications in the underlying structures that we live in, and its complex ties to governance, capitalism, and production. We learn how it is oppressive and offensive and limiting. We learn how the role…

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