As tragedy strikes again…

By hdilman March 13, 2011

On September 1st, 2010 I blogged about the tragic terrorist attack that took the lives of four people. Last night, as I turned on my computer after Shabbat, I went straight to the news, wanting to find out about Japan’s quake/tsunami. However, I was shocked by something else: another terrorist attack that took the lives…

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Preview: #Boston #Jewish music festival

By mekeisler March 3, 2011

I was going to drop some Pulitzer-worthy coverage of Boston University Students for Israel’s peaceful protest for Israel/against anti-semitism, but this inhuman cold-flu hybrid left me stuck in bed. It’s not a good look in my apartment; I’m too dizzy to clean up my room, but enough kvetchink. Sunday marks the beginning of the Boston…

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J Street Conference: Clapping for Hate?

By Ben Sales February 27, 2011

There’s a plenary going on right now at the J Street Conference that’s exploring the present democracy movements in the Middle East. Good stuff. Something everyone–and especially the peaceniks here–can get behind. The first two panelists gave unsurprising speeches supporting democracy and the peace process, which elicited some token cheers from a mostly silent crowd….

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The Reading List: The blind, African-American man at Hillel

By Ben Sales February 24, 2011

A feel-good story from our friends at Penn. [The Jewish Exponent] And if you want a (rare) feel-good story from Israel, check this out: The Chilean miners just landed there. [YNet] How can American colleges affect the Middle East situation? [Chronicle of Higher Ed.] Alliteration is alive! Mini Me visits the Western Wall! Extremely Excellent! [Heeb] Rahm…

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Canadian and American Jews: Who is more liberal?

By mmoncaster February 23, 2011

Tucked away in a comment on my blog post last week was an interesting question that got me thinking. It read: Do you feel like the Canadian Jewish community is on the whole further to the left than the American Jewish community? I have been living in Vancouver for over a year now, and honestly,…

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The Reading List: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Birthright Sex But Were Afraid to Ask

By Ben Sales February 21, 2011

Kudos to Jewlicious on this amazing post: an unofficial guide to whom you can and cannot have sex with on Birthright. “Bus Driver: No. Are you insane???” [Jewlicious] Israel has appointed an openly gay judge. [YNet] Students at Columbia are calling on their president, Lee Bollinger, to resign from the board of Kaplan University because…

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“Israel is a place where real people live”

By Ben Sales February 17, 2011

An amazing blog post by Dr. Sarina Chen at the Jerusalem Post encapsulates the central problem with how many people–and many college students–talk about Israel. Some, particularly those who have been on Birthright, see Israel as a spiritual wonderland where everything is perfect and the state is infallible. Others, conversely, view Israel solely through the lens of the…

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The Reading List: Uncle Leo Z”L

By Ben Sales February 17, 2011

Uncle Leo, beloved uncle of Jerry Seinfeld on the classic sitcom, has passed away at 88. [JPost] The former editor of the Jerusalem Report will head Hillel’s new Israel Engagement Center. [JPost] A story we kind of missed: It’s not just the Maccabeats: Jewish a capella rises at college. [Forward] Students at a Haredi yeshiva…

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Tzfat Klezmer Festival (part two)

By mekeisler February 17, 2011

Read part one here The sounds were piercing sometimes, shrill even, hitting high dissonant tones that were mocking any tacked-on western harmonies. This wasn’t strummy guitar music, or beery St. Patricks day music. This was realer than that. Klezmer straddles the line between Eastern and Western. Usually it has the harmonic chords and 4/4 feel…

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The Reading List: Should You Even Be Going to College?

By Ben Sales February 16, 2011

If it’s costing this much, maybe not. [USA Today College] The Israeli press is all over Hillel. [Hillel Blog] The head of a right-wing Israeli activist group worked for a company that does business with Iran. [Ha’aretz] Day schools need a different approach to teaching Israel, writes Gary Rosenblatt. [JW] Archaeologists have found what may…

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Hillel spams us, pouts and asks for money

By David A.M. Wilensky February 11, 2011

Tim Cohen, senior VP of Hillel, wants you to know that the Jews are under attack. Beware, there are protestors. And, apparently, their most disruptive tactic is to tape their mouths shut and sit in their seats–then walk out. Also, Hillel needs more money. We at New Voices got one of those annoying form fundraising…

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The Reading List: Proof that Vatican II Is Working

By Ben Sales February 10, 2011

Maybe we’re not so different after all. Apparently it’s just as hard to be a friendly, amiable and polite person at church as it is at synagogue. [Cartoon Church] Here’s a moving series of short biographies about the Jewish servicemen and servicewomen who have given their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001. One of…

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Tzfat Klezmer Festival (part one)

By mekeisler February 10, 2011

It’s really striking just seeing Tzfat– there’s nowhere else like it. It’s so old looking, city walls and stone arches, but then you see the bullet scars in a wall and you remember the whole city was evacuated just five years ago. Despite that, it’s peaceful. For all the talk about the divisions in Israel…

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The Return of the Reading List: A Jewish Student in Cuba

By Ben Sales February 9, 2011

A Northwestern student visits the Jewish community in our socialist neighbor. [Schmooze] While a student at Maryland works for social change during an Alternative Spring Break. [JewMD] And a student in Israel finds out what it’s like on the other side of the Jordan River. [Pink Pangea] Kids at a Hebrew charter school in New…

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On the Kibbutz

By jcohen February 8, 2011

Despite the area’s controversial standing, a kibbutz in the Golan Heights was my favorite part of Israel. On the kibbutz, the air was damp and sweet with the scent of clay. Sun-baked mountains surrounded us and a few were even dusted with powdery-white snow. Each morning we would rise from our beds and walk through…

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