The Kvetch-Up: Everyone wants a vote in student government

By Chloe Sobel February 29, 2016

  Welcome to the revival of our weekly news round-up, where we try our long-winded best to summarize the Jewish news of the week, with bonus pop culture stars at the end. If you read something here that you want to say something about, get in touch: editor@newvoices.org. Students at McGill University in Montreal voted against…

Read More...

Perspectives on Syrian refugees: Is the Holocaust comparison inappropriate?

By Jackson Richman February 26, 2016

Read the first part in our series of Jewish perspectives on Syrian refugees, “Finding commonality in Jewish history.“ For the last few months, I’ve seen the comparison of today’s Syrian refugees to the plight of European Jews during the Holocaust trending on social media. This is an ignorant comparison with no real critical analysis behind it….

Read More...

Keeping the faith: Young adults unite at DC Interfaith Leadership Summit

By Michele Amira February 25, 2016

On February 7th, over 150 young adults of religions ranging from Jewish, Muslim, and Catholic to Sikh, Hindu, Baha’i, and humanist, gathered together at the Howard University School of Divinity for the DC Interfaith Leadership Summit. Hosted by the InterFaith Conference of Metropolitan Washington as part of World Interfaith Harmony Week, it was a celebration…

Read More...

“Got Chutzpah?” A note to my mother

By Michele Amira February 24, 2016

February is Jewish Disabilities Awareness and Inclusion Month. Since kindergarten, due to my learning disabilities, social anxiety, and battle with anorexia, I’ve had to have a lot of chutzpah. With anxiety, one needs to be a fighter. I’ve had the most amazing coach in my corner, worthy of Joe DiMaggio. My mother, a guardian angel:…

Read More...

Why I choose to be queer — and why that’s inseparable from being Jewish

By Amram Altzman February 23, 2016

I am queer — and my decision to be queer is a conscious decision. There were times in my life when I wasn’t queer, but it’s been a process through which I have grown into my identity as someone who identifies not as gay, but primarily as queer. And, as I’ve grown into it, that…

Read More...

What Kitty Genovese teaches us about Donald Trump

By Samantha Levinson February 17, 2016

When my Rabbi first told me about Kitty Genovese, it was my sophomore year of high school. After that, he would often invoke the story of how she was murdered while witnesses stood by. He would use Kitty to make a point about personal responsibility, or accent a story about not standing idly by, or…

Read More...

Stop analyzing Bernie Sanders’ Jewishness

By Amram Altzman February 16, 2016

A few weeks ago, I wrote about how Bernie Sanders makes the decision to talk about his Jewishness, specifically how it contrasts starkly with the ways in which Donald Trump talks about Jewishness. Since then, Bernie Sanders has gone on to nearly tie the Iowa caucus with Hillary Clinton and, last week, defeat her in…

Read More...

Radio Jewce’s second episode tells an artist’s story in audio form

By Chloe Sobel February 9, 2016

  In the Pacific Northwest, Radio Jewce has turned its looking glass from a goat farm to a young artist. The second episode of Radio Jewce, a podcast focused on Jewish life in the Pacific Northwest, was released three weeks ago and is the first in a “Student Short Series.” It focuses on Elizabeth Goldsmith,…

Read More...

Racism isn’t just for fraternities

By Amram Altzman February 8, 2016

Here at New Voices, we’re no strangers to the questions of Jews and race. And while it seems like we’ve done a good job of beginning a very much needed conversation on the complicated relationship that we American Jews have with race, ethnicity, and privilege — and we’re nowhere near the end of this conversation…

Read More...

At Brown, Alpha Epsilon Pi becomes Beta Rho Pi over dissatisfaction with treatment of non-Jews, sexual assault

By Chloe Sobel February 5, 2016

On Nov. 3, 2015, near the end of a year in which rape on college campuses became a national conversation, the members of Brown University’s Alpha Epsilon Pi chapter voted to disaffiliate, in part due to the national fraternity’s handling of sexual assault education. After the disaffiliation vote and expulsion from the international fraternity —…

Read More...

Mourning Alan Rickman: It’s not complicated

By Hannah Rozenblat February 2, 2016

On January 14th, I woke up to a slew of notifications on my phone. Two friends had re-shared on Facebook an old picture a few of us had taken with Alan Rickman at the stage door after seeing him perform in Seminar in January 2012. Another couple of friends had messaged me condolences, saying they…

Read More...

Talking about not talking about Israel: Or, addressing the Israel problem

By Amram Altzman February 1, 2016

  We, the American Jewish community, have an Israel problem, and we need to talk about it. It’s not the fact that Israel exists. It’s not the fact that it’s a politically fraught topic to discuss — although that’s certainly part of it. It’s the mere fact that Israel and Zionism as abstract concepts are…

Read More...