The Jews Who Celebrate Christmas
As the assimilation dilemma grows, an obsession with “continuity discourse” may be creating more barriers for Jews often shamed for multi-traditional upbringings.
Journalism by Jewish college students, for Jewish college students.
As the assimilation dilemma grows, an obsession with “continuity discourse” may be creating more barriers for Jews often shamed for multi-traditional upbringings.
“Remember, post-Soviet Jews are here and we are writing our own stories.” Kolektiv Goluboy Vagon’s zine explores post-Soviet queer Judaism, envisioning a transformative diasporic world.
Photo credit: Josie Krieger. Lior Sternfeld wants you to judge his book, “Between Iran and Zion: Jewish Histories of Twentieth-Century Iran,” by its cover. Depicting the Tomb of the prophet Daniel in Susa, Iran, its movement and color speaks to the relationship between Iranian Jews with other Iranians – and other Jews. The fluid and…
Gift-giving on Chanukah is so popular a custom that we rarely stop to think about it. Why do we do it? Are we just copying Christmas, or is there some Jewish tradition present in the act of gift-giving? (No pun intended.) To find out how gift-giving became such a prominent aspect of Chanukah, we have…
When I was little, I looked forward to the day in December when my dad asked us to dig the “Chanukah box” out of the attic. Out came the electric menorah to put in our window, the glitzy blue and silver garland of dreidels and Jewish stars to hang on our bannister, several rolls of…
Ever since the Pew Report was released in late 2013, intermarriage has been a constant topic of Jewish conversation. It’s been over two years and it hasn’t stopped. Since the report was released, there have been any number of blog posts, op-eds, and long-form pieces on the best ways to counter and combat intermarriage, and…
There are few things in this world about which we can be absolutely certain. However, despite the year’s many disagreements and altercations, there is one thing on which we can all agree: The “Fantastic Four” movie this past summer was absolutely, unequivocally dreadful. One could go so far as to call it fantastically awful, pun…
“American [Jew]s are fleeing organized religion.” This was the big takeaway from the Pew Report in 2013 (I feel a not insignificant embarrassment that we are still quoting it) and another report released last week on the state of American religion in general, both of which found that many Americans are affiliating less and…
Much of Europe’s political toolbox for facilitating multicultural policies is rusting. One of its biggest and strongest remaining tools, call it the hammer, is the Council of Europe (CoE). This hammer is trying to nail down a web of legislation working towards more recognition for Europe’s diverse cultural heritage. Expanding on the tool metaphor, the…
In Matthew Vaughn’s 2011 movie X-Men: First Class, Professor Charles Xavier tries to stop his friend Magneto—controller of all things metal—from killing American and Soviet navy servicemen during the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis by telling him the sailors were just “following orders.” Magneto then delivers arguably the best line of the film: “I’ve…
One familiar thing about the United Kingdom for me is that I frequently hear South African accents. Here in the colonial heartland, I have met a lot of folks like me: born to South African [Ashkenazi] Jewish parents abroad, raised abroad, and with varied ties to South Africa. Some, like me, maintain citizenship in South…
Recently, I participated in one of our people’s most sacred customs: I went to see Fiddler on the Roof. I was psyched. Fiddler has been a part of my life from time immemorial (meaning, I literally cannot remember a time when I did not know it nearly word for word). I’ve seen the movie countless…
Hanukkah gets a bad rap. It is seen as the most Americanized of the Jewish holidays and as the Jewish pinnacle of consumerism and indulgence. On top of that, when looking closer at the Hanukkah story, we see a radical, anti-assimilationist militant group that, in reality, ended up embracing the Hellenism they had worked so…