In Which the Wall Spits Back My Prayers

By Nesha Ruther January 31, 2019

  In my hollowest moments I wish my mother named me after a breathing thing a name with a voice to choke it over I pray for RachelRebeccaLeah, nice Jewish girl names that never die bonded to a land we bulldozed to make our own, but a man calls me the new Josephus curses me…

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Vaybertaytsh and the Language of Exile

By Jonah Lubin January 30, 2019

Yiddish holds an extraordinary place in Jewish history. From a Middle High German lexical and syntactic base, Yiddish was shaped by the conditions of Jewish life in Central Europe. It adopted words and syntax from Romance and Slavic languages, and, of course, was heavily influenced by the Hebrew and Aramaic of traditional Jewish learning. The…

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Dear Canary Mission, If You’re Reading This, I’m Not Afraid of You

By Zoe Jasper January 17, 2019

When I first saw my profile on Canary Mission, I felt a sense of violation and fear that I had never experienced before in student activism. My hands shook as I washed the dishes at my campus cafe job, and I mulled over who could have taken the time to hunt me down online and…

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Going on Birthright? Here Are Some Questions to Ask.

By Lucy Berman January 15, 2019

A few weeks ago at JFK airport, I huddled with fellow Brown University students and members of IfNotNow near the El Al check-in line. The airport was crowded that night. It was filled with anxious travelers of all sorts, including dozens of young Jewish adults searching for their Birthright groups. As they wandered the airport,…

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Judaism’s “First Reformed” Moment Is Here

By Ariel Wexler January 9, 2019

The central question of “First Reformed,” Paul Schrader’s film about a pastor reckoning with climate change, is, “Can God forgive us for what we’ve done to this world?” It’s a good question for American Protestants, and for all of us living between skeptical optimism and righteous despair. It’s high time for Jews to have our…

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Has Ramah Taken #YouNeverToldMe to Heart?

By Lev Gringauz January 3, 2019

It’s off-season for the Jewish summer camp world. But the conversation about including Palestinian perspectives in Israel education, started by IfNotNow earlier this year with their #YouNeverToldMe campaign, will continue to haunt institutions like Camp Ramah, the Conservative movement’s camping arm. As any camper, counselor, or camp professional knows, last summer defines what next summer…

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