Opinion: Demonizing Each Other Hurts Us All

By Rebecca Raush December 7, 2023

“I am choosing to allow for my discomfort because dialogue is important to me, and I believe that peace will always begin with a commitment towards understanding.”

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Students share how the Israel-Gaza war is affecting life on campus

By New Voices October 23, 2023

“To ignore my emotions would be to ignore the empathy I have for Israelis and Palestinians who are being driven from their homes and who are being killed as collateral damage.”

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“Israelism” Review: The Dangers of Pro-Israel Indoctrination

By Daniel Kushner September 6, 2023

“In declaring that the only way for Jews to be safe is for Israel to be safe, the safety of Jews everywhere else has effectively been compromised.”

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A Day in the Life of Gedenkdiener

By Raquel G. Frohlich July 3, 2023

“My grandpa was in the Hitler Youth—now I’m doing a very different thing.”

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Anxiety, Trauma, and Judaism in the Trump Era

By Sarah Asch July 16, 2019

A few months after the Pittsburgh shooting, I had my first panic attack. It was triggered by something inconsequential, but my anxiety had been one the rise since that Shabbat. I could feel it in little moments—a rush through my chest, a clench in my stomach, a film behind my eyes.

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Red Line Rebellion

By Jess Schwalb July 9, 2019

Though JOOOT-affiliated independent groups lack the financial resources and name recognition of Hillel International, they offer students a powerful invitation: create the Judaism you want to be a part of. Kahn believes that JOOOT’s impact will extend far beyond the campus. “We’re giving people a taste of what the potential of radically inclusive Judaism can be,” he says.

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Semantics Don’t Matter. Shutting Down ICE Does.

By Sophie Hurwitz July 8, 2019

In Elizabeth, New Jersey, when I shouted “Close the camps!” and sang “Which Side Are You On,” a song I remembered from the Ferguson rebellion in my hometown of St. Louis when I was young, I meant it.

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On Shutting Down ICE as a Trans Jew

By Daniel Holtzman July 4, 2019

For me, being out as a trans person and standing in solidarity with others are not choices. They are ways of living that allow me to access the fullness of my own humanity and history, and that of others.

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Ariana Katz Weaves Her Mark Into Jewish Podcasting with “Thread”

By Ariella Markowitz June 27, 2019

“If the only thing this podcast accomplishes is to have someone resist saying even one time ‘I’m a bad Jew’… then it will have been a success. Rule #1: there is no such thing as a bad Jew.”

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Non-Required Reading for Summer Break

By Rebecca Tauber June 19, 2019

If, like me, you find yourself with a bit more free time on your hands (and hopefully a comfy hammock or other great reading spot), here’s a list of books I’ve enjoyed recently– some new and some old, some Jewish and some not– that are all worth a read.

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Revelation and Renovation: A Shavuot Zine

By Rena Yehuda Newman June 4, 2019

This zine was created by Rena Yehuda Newman, who is a 2019 fellow with New Voices and Judaism Unbound. It was originally published on Judaism Unbound’s website.

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New Voices’ Jewish Student Journalism Conference Helped Me Reclaim My Narrative

By Bentley Addison May 30, 2019

Two and a half years ago, I read a piece that changed my life. NPR’s Leah Donnella penned a deeply personal essay about being both Jewish and Black…I felt like she was speaking directly to my own experiences.

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Mah Jongg at Jason’s Deli: A Surprising Jewish Tradition

By Vanessa Rodriguez May 28, 2019

Four women sit around a table. Playing cards are laid out in front of each player and tiles are shuffled. Laughter and friendly chit-chat fill the air. The game begins; phrases that might seem foreign to bystanders replace the chit-chat, and off they go. Four Crak! Two Bam! Three Dot! Around the table it goes…

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And The Sages Said Let Him Die

By Nesha Ruther May 15, 2019

the day i bit my fingers a biblical red i found an excerpt from the Talmud; a man becomes deathly ill with love for a woman i can count the number of men my body trusts on one hand the doctors say; he will have no cure until she engages in sexual intercourse with him…

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Jewish Ritual as Rebellion

By Naomi Rose Weintraub May 9, 2019

הִנֵּה מַה טוב ומַה נָעִים שֶבֶת אַחִים גַם יָחַד Hineh Mah tov umah na’im shevet achim gam yachad. Here! What good! What sweetness! Siblings, friends and comrades sitting together! When we embrace ritual, we stand in the threshold between community and isolation, sacred and profane, this moment and our history. Ritual is not just a…

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