Squeezing the Torah, Flattening Our Selves

By David G. January 31, 2014

When it comes to tedious Torah portions, this week’s,Terumah, has few equals. It trucks on repetitively as Moses describes for us in intricate detail every step necessary for making the Ark of the Covenant, and then the Mishkan, or the Tent of Meeting where the Ark will be held. Every object that will be kept…

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UCSD: Please Stop “Accommodating” Me.

By Zev Hurwitz January 30, 2014

This piece originally appeared in the University of California San Diego Guardian in response to a new University of California policy of avoiding conflicts between  Jewish holidays and move-in week by cutting a week out of winter break. This decision was made without any student input.  It is being reprinted with permission of the author….

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SermonSlam Rocks Brooklyn with Torah

By Derek M. Kwait January 30, 2014

“Sanctuary.” That was the theme the roughly 135 energetic young Jews of all backgrounds and beliefs huddled together  in a wallpapered synagogue ballroom on a below-freezing late January night in Brooklyn to hear sermons about. Better, to hear sermons slammed about. SermonSlam is as it sounds: Slam poetry, but for sermons. Each participant gets exactly…

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Bedbugs, Jewish Mothers, and Other Myths

By Dani Plung January 29, 2014

I begin this piece with a massive thank you and apology to the University of Chicago housing staff. A few weeks ago, shortly after returning to school and before the work for the grading quarter had become intense, while absentmindedly perusing the UChicago Housing policy book , I came across the section concerning bedbugs. I…

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Costa Rica Defends its Jewish Record Against…?

By Zach C. Cohen January 29, 2014

I am blessed to have had the opportunity to travel extensively in the last six months. Following a four-and-a-half month stint in Costa Rica studying at la Universidad Nacional in Heredia, I traveled in Israel on Birthright provider Kesher. After leaving those travels, I had a lot of thoughts on what it means to be…

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No, I Will Not Stop Criticizing Israel on Facebook

By Jonathan Katz January 28, 2014

I post a lot of things about the Holy Land on Facebook. I mean, I post about a lot of things – South Africa, migration politics, tasty coconut-based desserts – but also a lot about Israel and Palestine. And many of the things I post are not terribly adulatory of Israel. In fact, they’re starkly…

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In Search of True Egalitarianism

By Amram Altzman January 27, 2014

  Growing up in the early 2000’s means I watched copious amounts of Arthur, Cyberchase, Pokémon, and Yu-Gi-Oh!; I knew the dance to “Soulja Boy,” played on my Gameboy obsessively, and ate Go-gurts (or the kosher equivalents thereof) on the school bus ride home. Growing up in the 2000’s also meant that I saw men…

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First Things To Teach Freed Slaves

By David G. January 24, 2014

In last week’s Torah portion, at Sinai, we accepted the need for a community, and the special place of awe-inspired individuals within such a community. God gave us some basic rules for this community, the 10 Commandments, and everything is finally looking pretty bright for the Jewish people on their journey from Egypt. Even if…

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From Costa Rica to Israel

By Zach C. Cohen January 23, 2014

San José is an ugly city. The streets are lined with storefronts due for a paint job. Trash and dog droppings line the sidewalks. Every afternoon, like clockwork, the tropical weather brings in a rainstorm that puts most Sunday showers stateside to shame. At night, drug dealers and (legal) prostitutes roam the streets. In this…

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Yes to Debate on Israel, No to Open Hillel

By Sam Hantverk January 22, 2014

I am livid. I am enraged with the Open Hillel campaign and its disagreement with Hillel International’s Standards of Partnership. The audacity of Open Hillel to think that Hillel International will sanction the use of its resources for programming that aims to boycott or delegitimize Israel is outrageous. Such behavior would be contradictory to a…

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Me and Mein Kampf

By Dani Plung January 22, 2014

    For the past few weeks I’ve seen from various sources on Facebook, and most recently on Tablet, a growing concern about a potentially frightening new trend:  Featured on several Amazon.com best-seller lists are e-book editions of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf. The first responses I’ve seen have been understandably negative, coming from some reasonably…

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Eat the Food Without Drinking the Kool-Aid: How to Get the Most out of Orthodox Outreach Programs

By David G. January 21, 2014

When I first started to attend a local Orthodox shul, I approached with what could be considered a strong level of trepidation. I grew up mainly Conservative, and considered myself as falling somewhere between the lines of Conservative and Reform. When I thought of Orthodoxy, I thought of my Pop’s narrow-minded uncle who never struck…

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What About Non-Zionists?

By Tom Pessah January 20, 2014

In an interview with New Voices last week,  Jewish educator David Harris-Gershon expressed his support for Swarthmore’s Hillel brave declaration, and recounted his own experiences of being banned from speaking at the UC Santa Barbara Hillel chapter for his political views. In the interview, Harris-Gershon recognized students’ “right to a space free of anti-Israel activity,”…

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Uniting Against the Rabbinate: A Call for Pluralism in American Jewry

By Amram Altzman January 20, 2014

  Just a few days after my blog post from last week ran, the Israeli rabbinate decided that it would, indeed, accept Rabbi Avi Weiss’ testimony as legitimate for people he vouched for as Jewish. This is a step in the right direction for the Israeli rabbinate, which had previously called Rabbi Weiss’ validity into…

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Sacred Individuals, Holy Nation

By David G. January 17, 2014

]Often when I read the weekly Torah portion, I find myself struggling over something that I’m usually pretty sure has a simple answer. Sometimes the question might be a little out there too, like when I found myself obsessing over the word “good” in Bereishit, the first chapters of Genesis. This week, in Parshat Yitro,…

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