Lena Dunham Charms My Pants Off, Keeps Hers On

By Simi Lichtman February 28, 2013

Lena Dunham was nothing like I expected her to be in real life, and everything I hoped she would be.  I attended the Jewish Museum’s Purim Ball last night, held in the Park Avenue Armory, where, surrounded by hundreds of rich white people, I felt completely out of my element. I was there to see…

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Supporters wave flags of Jobbik, an anti-Semitic Hungarian political party | CC via flickr user Leigh Phillips

From Comfy U.S. Campuses, Hard to See Anti-Semitism Facing European Peers

By Editorial Board February 27, 2013

It’s popular today to talk about the trouble encountered by Jews on American college campuses. We see it differently: As we wrote recently, there’s never been a better time to be a Jewish college student in America. Most supposed examples of contemporary anti-Semitism on American college campuses are actually examples of anti-Zionism mistaken for anti-Semitism, legitimate debate…

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The Bullies, the Bullied, and Their Permanent Scars

By Simi Lichtman February 27, 2013

If you’ve ever been alive—and the fact that you’re reading this article is a fairly strong indicator that you currently are—then you know someone who’s been bullied, and you probably know someone who’s been the bully. You might even be one—or both—of those people. If you were, we want to know your story. (Keep reading.)…

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You’ll be Old One Day, Hopefully

By Atara Siegel February 26, 2013

“Oh, weaker resistance, slower reflexes, Amycus,” said Dumbledore. “Old age, in short… one day, perhaps it will happen to you… if you are lucky.” – J.K. Rowling, “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” As college students, we often spend the majority of our time around people our own age. Living in dorms, spending Shabbat on…

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Four Decades: Jewish Students ‘Press’ on at UCSC

By David A.M. Wilensky February 25, 2013

New Voices has been around since 1991, but the organization that publishes New Voices, the Jewish Student Press Service, has been around since 1970. In the 70s, as I wrote for last Monday’s edition of Jewniverse, there were hundreds of independent Jewish student publications on campuses all over the country. JSPS was founded as a…

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Being Jewish Used to Be Enough

By Jessica Green February 25, 2013

I recently saw a French film, the title of which translated into The Rabbi’s Cat. This movie, set in colonial Algiers, explored the place of Jews in the world: the place of the Jews among a secular colonial power, among Christians and Muslims of all sorts, and among themselves. Do black Jews in Ethiopia and blonde…

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Among Indian Jews, a Muslim Finds Calligraphy and Kinship

By Gabe Weinstein February 24, 2013

The fenugreek sprinkled into the chicken coconut stew has no significance to the half-dozen diners scattered around the restaurant. But to Thoufeek Zakriya, an Indian Muslim, the plant is not just a staple in Indian cuisine — it is an artifact in the history of Cochin’s Jewry, the long tale of a small community in…

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Purim Pieces Palooza

By New Voices February 22, 2013

Here at New Voices, we’re very excited about Purim, as we’re sure you must be as well (take that as an order). After all, what’s not to like? Baked goods + costumes + alcohol + heartwarming story of good vs. evil = one hell of a good time. So pretty much everyone on our masthead…

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I Don’t Want to be a Slutty Crayon

By Simi Lichtman February 21, 2013

“Halloween is the one night a year when girls can dress like a total slut and no other girls can say anything about it,” says Cady in that memorable scene from Mean Girls (admittedly, pretty much every scene from Mean Girls is memorable). What follows is a parade of high school girls, each clad in…

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Drunk Dialing and Other Spiritual Practices for Purim

By Lex Rofes February 21, 2013

Jon Stewart has occasionally joked about the inferiority of Jewish holidays when compared with our Christian counterparts. He’s lamented the cardboard taste of matzah, expressed his jealousy at the yummy chocolates given out on Easter, and generally represented the sentiments of many Jewish Americans that our calendar of holidays is not quite so fun. Well,…

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Mordecai Unchained: Tarantino, Haman, and the Catharsis of Violence

By John Propper February 20, 2013

Some four years ago, when I left my home in the humid Georgia foothills for college in the snowy Midwest, a member of my family gave me two pieces of advice: “Number one: If someone hits you, or hurts you, you get ‘em back,” they said. “Stand up and don’t let ‘em win. “Number two:…

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Candy Cane Cheese Cake Hamantaschen? Yes.

By H. B. Rubin February 19, 2013

The times that I’ve made Hamantaschen in the past have always been in an affectionate haste around my kitchen table, with my grandmother’s well-worn cookbook pinned down by two generations of elbows and floury fingers. My mother and I flutter around the kitchen in hazy swirls, looking for circle-cutting cylinders, inventive ingredients to ad lib as creative…

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Confessions of a Paperback Reader

By John Propper February 18, 2013

There’s a bit of a dilemma brewing in my brain. Let me unpack it for you. I’m an avid reader: a non-fiction guy. Philosophy, pragmatic thought and ethics. Religion, mysticism, law and queer Torah studies. Politics and liberal theory. History (the American Civil War). Economics, finance and banking. On average, I read anywhere from 25…

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Lead Belly’s Cotton Pickin’ Purim

By Gabriel T. Erbs February 18, 2013

The day-end sea of black-and-white flooding out of Jerusalem’s yeshivas is a lesson in the pleasure of monochrome. At what seems like the same time every afternoon, thousands of frocked and bearded men turn Strauss Street into a conveyor belt of bobbing Borsalino hats. It’s amazing to watch during any day of the year. The…

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From Yeshiva to Public School and Back Again

By Ari Margolies February 14, 2013

In the religious world, non-Jewish schools (all considered “public” in casual conversation) are regarded with such a level of contempt and repugnance one would think that they exist exclusively in the lowest depths of hell. They are reserved for kids who are off the derech, from fucked up families, or got kicked out of yeshiva….

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