More Inclusive Jewish Spaces Are Possible

By Derek M. Kwait May 27, 2015

Everyone is awkward when they start college. Eventually, most students find a group they feel comfortable with, build a community, and the awkwardness goes away. For students with special needs, however, that awkwardness can become a social stigma with aftereffects that can last a lifetime. People with special needs often report feeling invisible to others,…

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Queering the Liturgy: To Adjust or to Search?

By Jonathan Katz December 12, 2013

It is a problem that I and many other queer Jewish students face: as religious folk, we want to pray. But how do we – gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans*, queer, and other identities across the “rainbow ” – connect with a liturgy that is often seen as heteronormative, cis-normative, and well, “straight”? Some say, “the…

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Fifty Shades of J Street

By Derek M. Kwait October 21, 2013

It used to be, said a speaker at J Street U’s plenary session during the national J Street Conference, that students were expected to listen to learn from others. Now, he said, with the success of the fights for civil rights, marriage equality, unionizing, and women’s rights—all of which were led by student movements—the world…

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Spiritual High: Rabbi Opens Medical Marijuana Dispensary in D.C.

By Zach C. Cohen September 18, 2013

WASHINGTON – When Rabbi Jeffrey Kahn told his former congregants that he was opening a medicinal marijuana dispensary, they were nothing but supportive. “The cannabis plant was created by God on the second day of creation when God created all the other plants, and touching this one isn’t forbidden,” Jeff said in a June interview….

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Gay Jews Meet AU [NULJS Conference]

By Zach C. Cohen February 20, 2012

Anybody from AU knows that our homonymic nickname is “Gay Jew,” given the University’s large population, and administration and student support of, both the LGBT and Jewish communities on campus. But this weekend at American University in Washington, D.C., the campus got a dose of both in one when the National Union for LGBT Jewish Students…

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