Journalism by Jewish college students, for Jewish college students.
My mom lights the Shabbat candles as she covers her eyes with the palms of her hands. The room is dark except for the light in the kitchen, a lamp in the dining room, and the yellow glow from the flames. “Baruch atah Hashem,” she recites the prayer alone, my sisters and I sitting in…
There’s a good reason Jews are referred to as the “people of the word.” Our focus on texts is a long-standing tradition that encourages respect, even reverence, for the written word. Words are meaningful, powerful. They can create entire worlds. I highly appreciated this concept even as a child when I used to create fictional…
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:…
Full there is a deep breath resonating through the walls and I am coming closer to catching it not concerned with lasting concerned with now not before but because of arriving not leaving made-up not fantasy there is a deep breath resonating through these paper walls not calm but…
This poem was inspired by this article in Tablet Magazine about the anti-Semitic poet Amiri Baraka (born LeRoi Jones) and his Jewish ex-wife Hettie Jones (née Cohen). I was born to be swept off my feet by a hip brotha, poetic justice and a tight beat. I was bred Ashekenzi on borscht, vodka…
סְבִיבוֹן סוֹב סוֹב סוֹב Sevivon Sov Sov Sov… This is what my Safta used to sing to me, safe on a kibbutz somewhere in Israel, breathing in the desert air, the palm trees and the smell of olive oil illuminated my hair. It was my Mecca when I met a very handsome IDF soldier then…
Tupac, Anne Frank, & Hannah Szenes – Poetic Justice Of Beshert In this shtetl known as life, I wonder if I will see a brighter tomorrow when everyday seems darker than night. I wonder if heaven has a shtetl, and if I will go there tonight to escape another hate filled day for a brighter…
Yesterday, I reviewed Hoaxocaust!, a new play performed and written by Barry Levey that satirizes Holocaust denial simply by putting the arguments of some of its biggest proponents, Arthur Butz, David Irving, Robert Faurisson, and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in context. I saw the show the night of September 11 (coincidentally), then on September 12, I caught…
2 Poems by Sophie Katzman: Descendant’s Blessing Zadie. Zionist. Yellow stars. Young and old yearning for years passed. Yahrzeit. Yiddush: lyb, sholem. War. Woody Allen. Leaving notes on the Western Wall. The V’ahavta. U-blessed by the Orthodox Union. Torah. Tzedakah. Tikkun Olam, we repair the world. Shabbat. Sternberg Sewing. Samuel’s Metal Shop. Schlep. Shylock….
The 7th Annual Other Israel Film Festival, ending today at the JCC of Manhattan, presents films focused on the stories of the other 20% of Israel’s population such as Palestinians and other Arabs and Druze. The message of these films is powerful: There’s a whole other Israel out there than the one you see on…