Nice Jewish girl seeks same for legal wedding

By Chloe Sobel June 26, 2015

On October 11, 2009, I woke up in my best friend’s apartment at 5 a.m. We had a bus to catch to D.C. We were going to the National Equality March. Before that, though, we had something to do. Together we’d decided we would come out on Facebook, in honor of the march and National…

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Do Jews need to worry about the RFRA?

By Jackson Richman June 24, 2015

Does a kosher bakery have the right to refuse to bake a wedding cake for an intermarried couple? If the bakery is in Indiana, the answer might be yes. Indiana’s passage of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) in March caused an uproar, especially among LGBTQ rights activists, who argued that it could encourage discrimination…

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Jews must say “Je suis Charleston”

By Jackson Richman June 22, 2015

In light of last week’s shooting at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C., we need to extend the same solidarity to Charleston that was given to the victims of January’s Charlie Hebdo and Hypercacher attacks. The phrases “Je suis Charlie” (“I am Charlie”), for the satirical Parisian newspaper, and “Je suis Juif”…

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BirthWrong explores Jewish culture outside Israel

By Nicole Zelniker June 18, 2015

In May, BirthWrong gave students the opportunity to travel to Spain to learn about communism, the Spanish Civil War, and Jewish culture outside of Israel. BirthWrong was founded by the left-wing British organization Jewdas as a response to Taglit-Birthright Israel, an organization that takes Jews aged 18 to 26 on a free trip to Israel….

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Gay Christian Palestinian looks for salvation in Canada

By Jackson Richman June 12, 2015

In the 16th century, Protestant theologian John Calvin fled France amidst violence against Protestant reformers. Now, in 2015, the life of his gay Christian Palestinian namesake is in danger. Born under a different name into a West Bank pro-Hamas family, John Calvin is the grandson of former Muslim Brotherhood leader Said Bilal, who oversaw Hamas…

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Student journalism is no joke

By Chloe Sobel June 11, 2015

Two Jewish nonprofit employees walk into a Christmas store. Then what? This isn’t the set-up for a joke. There’s no punchline here. If you’re me, you walk around feeling divided between a sense of familiarity and a feeling of foreignness. If you’re my predecessor Derek, maybe it all just feels foreign. But it doesn’t matter…

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Let’s All Be Traitors

By Jonathan Katz June 4, 2015

Treason has been on my mind a lot the past few weeks. In the Jewish world, the website Canary Mission – which seeks to create a “blacklist” of pro-Palestinian activists – has caused a controversy. Many of those profiled on the site are Jewish – including New Voices contributor Tom Pessah; those of our brethren…

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Life as a Jew at Catholic U

By Sherilyn James June 3, 2015

Choosing a college was the first big choice I had ever made. I knew Seton Hall University gave away good scholarships, was close, and I figured I had nothing to lose. Two months later, I was accepted to their six year B.S.E. Elementary/Special Education/M.S. Speech Pathology program. The first time I set foot on campus,…

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Jewish Students Will Not Stand Idly By

By Taylor Gleeson June 2, 2015

American students are more likely to die from gun violence than car accidents. It seems as if we serve as potential targets wherever we go. The horror that occurred at Sandy Hook Elementary School is still remembered around the world, but perhaps the most tragic thing about it is that almost 100 school shootings have…

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Modern Orthodoxy: Stop Appeasing Orthodoxy

By Amram Altzman June 1, 2015

 In January 2014, Rabbi Avi Weiss’s conversions were called into question by the Israeli Rabbinate. At the time, this was the most prominent example of the differences between the Orthodoxy’s left and right wings, as well as the growing gulf between American and Israeli Jewries. This gulf widened last week when news broke of the…

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