Journalism by Jewish college students, for Jewish college students.
This article has been edited to reflect a correction: Student leaders of the procession protesting Professor Petersen-Overton’s curriculum have met with Brooklyn College’s administration to discuss their concerns. Previously, this article implied that those meetings had not yet taken place. I take great pride in calling myself a Zionist, but I take greater pride in…
Remember Tamir Goodman, the Orthodox high school basketball phenom? Now he’s in Beachwood, a Jewish suburb of Cleveland. [Cleveland Jewish News] Are you liberal? Do you love Israel? Things are looking up! [Ha’aretz A Special Place in Hell] Jews love to save money, so here’s a list of places where you can get discounts with your student…
I recently came across Pilate’s Wife, a novel by Antoinette May about the wife of Pontius Pilate, the procurator of Judea who allegedly prosecuted Jesus. As a religion major fascinated by ancient history, I started researching this figure and what I found made me wonder about the Judaism of today vs. the days of yore,…
In my last blog, I discussed the possibility that the future Princess Kate Middleton was Jewish. That conclusion was found to be false, but there are plenty of other royals out there who have political connections, or lack thereof, to Israel. I was particularly curious about Queen Rania of Jordan, whose parents are Palestinian. Rania…
On October 21, the Cambridge Union Society held a debate on the motion that “Israel is a rogue state.” According to the Balfour Street blog, “the proposition was defeated, but the event proceeded with an unusual twist. It seems one of the members of the side in favor of the proposition, a student who was…
Dear Mr. President, I want to thank you for your column in the New York Times today, on the anniversary of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination. Your exhortation to “take up the cause for which Yitzhak Rabin gave his life” is as pressing now as it was in 1995, and your grounded determination for peace…
The Jewish Federations of North America and the Jewish Council for Public Affairs are teaming up to launch a national campaign against efforts advocating boycott, divestment and sanctions of Israel, according to an article by the JTA: The JFNA and the rest of the Jewish federation system have agreed to invest $6 million over the…
Surprise, surprise. The bill proposed and backed by the ultra-orthodox hasn’t garnered a majority in the Knesset. And why should it? Instead of helping incorporate the ultra-orthodox into mainstream Israeli society, it encourages unemployment and separatism. This idea of separatism is not new to the ultra-orthodox. They thrive on it. For instance, in order to…
Here is a tidbit of some of what is going on our Northwestern-New Voices website: A review of the Chicago Festival of Israeli Cinema by Abraham Benson-Goldberg. Howdy y’all! ABG here, checking in with some good suggestions for the NU Jew community. Arts and culture! As you know, if you know me, I’m a film…
I am paranoid. The more I understand about law, the government, advertisers and the Internet the more freaked out I become. I believe that anything sent via text, posted on the Web or said on a cell phone conversation is being recorded by someone. A corporation, the government, the police, I don’t know who but…
Anyone who wants to make an intelligent contribution to the discourse on the proposed Israeli loyalty oath should know that drunk 18-year old Americans are not a representative sample of Israeli or Jewish society. Jenny Merkin knows that. I’m pretty sure Brandon Springer knows that too. I’m not sure that Max Blumenthal knows that. In…
Yesterday, Jenny Merkin posted Max Blumenthal’s recent video of mostly young Jewish internationals in Jerusalem swearing allegiance to the State of Israel via a loyalty oath crafted by Blumenthal in the spirit of the Führereid, you know that oath the Nazi Wehrmacht swore to ze Führer. Astonishingly, most of Blumenthal’s subjects proudly swore the oath…
As I said in the post I wrote about a half-hour ago, I support the right of American Jews to critique and comment on events in Israel. I do not, however, support exaggerated, disrespectful and trivializing statements like this one, which appeared in a recent column by Julie Weiner in the Jewish Week: With the…
Browsing New Voices today, I see that I am not the only one that is seriously concerned by the legislation that passed the Knesset on Sunday. Since BrandonSpringer delved into the issue already (and it’s worth a read), I will skirt the politics as much as I can, and will instead focus on a more…