Can a Fully Feminist, Fully Traditional Jewish Space Exist? A Dialogue

By Avigayil Halpern May 12, 2015

AVIGAYIL HALPERN: When I was fourteen and just beginning to explore what it would mean to me to be a halakhic, or Jewish-law-abiding, Jewish feminist, I was delighted to stumble across a blog called Star of Davida. The blog’s author, who went by the name “Talia bat Pessi,” explored her own beliefs and experiences as…

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Why I Love Yom HaAtzmaut Anyway

By Derek M. Kwait April 23, 2015

We’re usually pretty hard on Israel here at New Voices, and though more forgiving than some, I’m no exception. Yet, I find that in the midst of all my anxiety over the results of the last election or railing against the settlements, Yom HaAtzmaut provides the ideal opportunity to step back and remember why I…

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My Life as a Gay Fratstar

By Anonymous March 31, 2015

Being gay in a fraternity has not been the easiest experience. I joined Alpha Epsilon Pi as a wandering, socially inept freshman. I was at lunch at Hillel and one of the brothers of the fraternity, a fellow psychology major, took an interest in me. He brought me out to a party, and after meeting…

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‘Hillel 2.0’ at Amherst College

By Isa Goldberg March 12, 2015

It was my first college Shabbat and I was beginning to doubt that I was in the right place. Where was everyone? I glanced back down at my watch. It was definitely 6:30. Surely I could not have been the only mildly observant Jew on campus. I had just returned from a three-day orientation hike….

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The ‘Two-Station Solution’ for Campus Conflict

By Zev Hurwitz March 3, 2015

If we are to believe that there is truly a growing anti-Semitic presence on all college campuses these days, then what you’re about to read won’t make sense. Last May, I walked in front of the Israel “Apartheid” Wall at my campus during Justice in Palestine Week, wearing my yarmulke, and a member of Students…

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Recovering from Anorexia is [Eating] a Piece of Cake. And Then Another One.

By Jourdan Stein February 26, 2015

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…

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How to Make Your Campus Jewish Club More Accessible

By Ethan Ulanow February 24, 2015

You walk across the quad to your next class, take the stairs up to a second level and sit down in a standard school-sized seat. Sounds typical, right? You don’t even think about things like walking, climbing steps, and sitting comfortably down among others. February is Jewish Disabilities Awareness Month. The purpose is to recognize…

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The Language of Angels

By Josh Morrel February 5, 2015

  As I sit across from her over a plate of chocolate chip cookies and a cup of dark coffee in the newly renovated faculty cafeteria, I think to myself: “I have so much respect for her.” Truth be told, I have so much respect for all of my colleagues because they’ve been doing this…

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The Real Scandal of Open Hillel

By Rachel Sandalow-Ash January 22, 2015

In the fall of 2011, Yeshiva University demanded that The Beacon, a student-run publication, remove a ‘scandalous’ story about premarital sex from its website. The student editors fought back, but the administrators threatened them with sanctions if they did not comply with the Orthodox university’s perceptions of modesty. Ultimately, the editors decided to sever ties…

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A Convert’s Christmas in Southern Oregon

By Megan Dyer January 5, 2015

The span from Thanksgiving through New Year’s is generally a hectic time for me. A week after trying to wrest control over half the Thanksgiving menu from my mother and sister while debating internally if it’s even worth trying to keep kosher on such a day before inevitably stuffing myself to the gills either way,…

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Be the Light

By Miriam Roochvarg December 25, 2014

As I got ready to light the menorah for the last time this year, I could not help but think about the meaning of the shemash, or head candle, amid all the other candles. Each night a new candle is added to the menorah and the light spreads. Come the end of Chanukah, you have…

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5 Ways to Make Jewish Life Less ‘Clichéd’ from an Actual Millennial

By Amram Altzman December 15, 2014

  I am a Millennial. I say this proudly. I dance around Jewish tradition, modernity, and practice in a way that Millennials do. I whole-heartedly enjoy my status as a Generation Y’er. At the same time, however, I really don’t like how much of the conversation about how to engage my peers is fundamentally had…

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Mourning Far From Home: A Jew in the Motherland

By Jonathan Katz December 9, 2014

My father (z”l) died quite suddenly last month. He was young, 57, and had appeared so happy and so healthy. During his final hours, I got the call to come home. I went back to the States for the funeral and shiva. It’s been tough. I was really close with my father – he was…

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Is College Compatible With Orthodox Gender Laws?

By Talia Weisberg November 19, 2014

As an Orthodox person who attended an all-girls high school, single-sex spaces basically defined my life for four years. Keeping with the general attitude of the right-wing Orthodox community toward gender relations, students at my school were actively discouraged from associating with boys, who were considered temptations that could only lead us down the wrong…

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The One Wish Project is Coming to a Campus Near You

By Derek M. Kwait August 20, 2014

I think all of my friends are amazing people. But every now and then, some friends do such incredible work that you just want to shout about it from the highest mountaintop. But absent a mountaintop, profiling them in your magazine is the next best thing. Joseph Shamash and Andrew Lustig are two of those…

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