Shutting Down Charles Murray Wasn’t a Free Speech Issue

By Sarah Asch March 15, 2017

We’ve made a lot of headlines recently at Middlebury College. Most news coverage of the student protest resisting controversial speaker Charles Murray has been discouraging and demeaning – “Violent Student Mob in Vermont Shuts Down Charles Murray” and “Understanding the Angry Mob at Middlebury that Gave Me a Concussion” and “The Middlebury Protest and Our…

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Boston, Get Ready for a Purim-Themed Protest

By Misha Vilenchuk March 15, 2017

On Purim, Jews celebrate a story of resistance. On Sunday, March 19, hundreds of Jews and Muslims, as well as young adults and students from Boston’s variety of faith and cultural communities, will do the same at #ProjectPurim: Resilience in Unity. Participants plan to flood the Harvard Science Center Plaza to protest racism and xenophobia….

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God Won’t Give Me My Anorexia Back

By Jourdan Stein March 7, 2017

I lie in bed one night praying to God to end my pain. I ask him, “Please either let me die or take this eating disorder away from me.” I was in recovery from my anorexia for about a year and a half. But I unfortunately relapsed and found myself back in treatment. Six months…

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The Middle Ground on Israel Went Missing

By Charles Dunst February 23, 2017

The American political sphere is more polarized than ever – and the discourse around Israel is no exception. The issue has recently become a popular talking point on both the far-left and the far-right, while centrists of both parties are pushed to the sidelines. While the far-left cries of a non-existent, Israeli-committed genocide (see Aljazeera’s…

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My Hillel Neglects Queer Jews

By Noah Strauss February 21, 2017

I came out to myself, and my wider community, during my sophomore year of college. Hillel was the first organization I was involved in on campus, and before I ever entered queer spaces, I came out at my Hillel. The reactions made me reflect on Hillel’s relationship with queer Jews and gave me with a…

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Tu B’Shvat Thoughts: Bringing Mysticism Back

By Hannah Weintraub February 16, 2017

When Tu B’shvat comes around, I roll up my sleeves and prepare myself for the ritual tree planting, garden weeding, and litter collecting that has marked my Tu B’shvats of the past. My less observant, modern Jewish community taught me the holiday’s message of social justice in concrete terms: We plant trees, trees grow, trees…

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Why We Marched on Washington as Reform Jews

By Taylor Gleeson and Jeremy Cronig February 14, 2017

We attend university in Columbus, Ohio, but watching the anticipation for the Women’s March build in our nation’s capital, we knew that this was not a moment in history when we could stand aside and simply watch. Our generation of college students are going to come of age in this era of renewed divisiveness. Soon…

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Jewish Schools, Stop the Statements on Policy

By Jackson Richman February 10, 2017

Although President Donald Trump’s temporary immigration ban has been halted by a federal court in Washington state, Jewish educational institutions shouldn’t be publicly sitting in judgment on issues that do not pertain to the Jewish community or Israel. At the expense of possibly furthering division in the Jewish community, it is best for such institutions…

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Jews and the Muslim Ban – This Time, It’s Personal

By Marc Daalder February 9, 2017

When my great-grandfather left England around the turn of the century, in part due to anti-Semitism, his name was Harris Moses. By the time he set foot on U.S. soil, it had changed to the much more goyishe Julius Harris. Of course, he was not the only immigrant Jew to change his name to better…

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This Jewish “Well-Behaved Woman” Marches

By Hannah Caspar-Johnson February 8, 2017

“Well-behaved women seldom make history.” So read my sign, after several hours of dorm room crafting, not to mention the days of agonizing over what to write for the Women’s March on Washington. My roommate was the first to comment on the irony of my chosen slogan, pointing out that I’m actually a fairly well-behaved…

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In Trump’s America, Open Campus Communities Matter More Than Ever

By Anna Fox January 26, 2017

A few weeks before the election, the Wesleyan Jewish Community, a proud Open Hillel, gathered in our sukkah to discuss the meaning of Jewish values. Students from Cardinals for Israel, J Street U, and Jewish Voice for Peace talked about the complexities that led us to develop our particular beliefs about politics and justice. Inside…

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Media Misrepresents Jewish Students

By Sara Weissman January 25, 2017

Everyone has their morning rituals. I roll over, sleepily grab my phone, and look at my Google Alerts for “Jewish students,” which supplies me with all the day’s news featuring campus Jews. As the editor of New Voices and a nerdy recent grad, this is what one does before coffee. Here’s what this week’s list…

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7 Semester Survival Tips for Jewish Freshmen

By Jillian Gordner January 18, 2017

With the first semester of college behind us, many freshmen are wondering how it went by so quickly. The late-night pizzas, the cram sessions, and the crying sessions all melded together to create the whirlwind that is the first chapter of the “college experience.” Integrating yourself into the campus world can be difficult, but for…

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This Professor Gets the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act All Wrong

By Jackson Richman January 16, 2017

In The Wall Street Journal a couple weeks ago, former Harvard Professor Ruth Wisse wrote about how we need to fight anti-Semitism through the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act, which requires the Department of Education to take the broad State Department definition of anti-Semitism into account when determining if an act can be deemed anti-Semitic in accordance with Title…

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Can I Study God in Graduate School?

By Josh Daniels January 5, 2017

As the New Year passes, I am increasingly aware of the fact that I’ve graduated, and I don’t have a job just yet. Like many recent graduates, my biggest question is what path to take, as I consider a couple major choices on the horizon – in my case, graduate school vs. rabbinical ordination. I want…

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