Journalism by Jewish college students, for Jewish college students.
I’m nervous and shaking. My Hillel rabbi, Isabel, has taken me to a grocery store upon my request; I haven’t gone grocery shopping for about three months and it’s vital to my recovery that I have food around the house that I can eat. The grocery store is one of my least favorite places in…
While Jewish family planning typically includes finding a welcoming community or reputable Hebrew school, one non-profit program hopes more couples will consider genetic screening a step in building a healthy Jewish family. J Screen, an initiative based out of Emory University in Atlanta, is an education and carrier screening program that provides genetic screening kits…
“They tried to kill us, we won, let’s eat.” This is, as my mother and countless other vessels of Jewish wisdom have expressed, the theme of every major Jewish holiday. It is also the theme of my freshman year of college, where “they” is my haywire immune system, and “us” is the royal we. I’ll…
I’ll be the first in line to comment on the policies of the Israeli government, and the first in line to criticize those policies, be they negotiations or the stronghold that the religious right holds on social policies in Israel. I’ve openly stated that I believe that the Netanyahu government’s policies are working against the…
A mother wakes up and prepares for the day. The routine sounds normal: get the children ready for the day, cook, clean and provide for the family. But, what if it took six hours just to get water? This problem is real for Sub-Saharan African communities. It takes the majority of the day just to…
Last week, the Torah introduced us to the plague of tzarat, a skin disease commonly believed to be punishment for the sin of speaking ill of someone. After introducing it, the Torah continues its discussion of tzarat and its cure in this week’s portion, Parashat Metzora. After discussing the sacrifices necessary, and the process of…
As with much of Leviticus, the material found in this week’s Torah reading, Parashat Tazria, can make us, with our modern sensibilities, squirm a bit. With the description of tzarat, a specific skin disease, the text seems to be stating that any who have strange marks on their skin are sinners who must be isolated…
…Continued from Anorexia and Shabbat My first Friday out of my first intensive treatment session for anorexia. I’m supposed to be excited to see my friends, relax, and enjoy the free food that Hillel is serving for Shabbat dinner. I know what’s on the menu for the night, and how now much of each food…
Third grade lunch at Solomon Schechter Jewish Day School. All my friends are sitting around eating Cheetos and sharing sandwiches. Me, I’m staring at the clock waiting for the little and the big hand to both land on the twelve so that I can throw the untouched lunch my mother packed me into the trash…
Now, normally this would not be my ideal dinner-table conversation, as my DNA knowledge is limited to 9th grade biology (and that is light years in the past). But, with the Victor Center’s testing for Jewish Genetic Diseases coming up this Wednesday, this topic is certainly on my mind. I hate to plagiarize, and since…