Envisioning Jewish Safety Beyond the Nation State

By Drew Perkoski June 1, 2021

On escaping antisemitic violence through community building, not nation building.

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“Jerusalem, Drawn and Quartered” Drew Me in as a Young Jew

By Lev Gringauz April 10, 2018

Jerusalem has long been the center of the world in Jewish life, but not since the time of King David has the city felt so personal and laid bare as it is in Sarah Tuttle-Singer’s new book “Jerusalem, Drawn and Quartered.” Interwoven with the fighting, love, loss, and the longing of a mother, it speaks…

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The Western Wall Taught Me a Lesson – And It Wasn’t What You’d Expect

By Elizabeth Zakaim October 14, 2016

There it was – the Western Wall, hakotel hama’aravi.  The sun was hanging over the top of the wall, reflecting off the stones at my feet. As I stood in front of the holiest sight in Israel, I realized I was waiting for something, some reaction to the realization that I was finally at the…

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Yes, Orthodoxy is still to blame

By Amram Altzman July 31, 2015

Yesterday, I was reminded that the world in which I grew up — the Orthodox world — is one toward which I feel a sense of affinity, but also fear. The stabbing at Jerusalem Pride, carried out by a man who committed a similar crime a decade ago, confirmed this for me. I can love…

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Reanalyzing That Damn Survey Again…Again

By Amram Altzman May 18, 2015

  “American [Jew]s are fleeing organized religion.” This was the big takeaway from the Pew Report in 2013 (I feel a not insignificant embarrassment that we are still quoting it) and another report released last week on the state of American religion in general, both of which found that many Americans are affiliating less and…

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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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What’s Behind Israel’s Veil?

By Evan Traylor February 10, 2015

For so many young Jews in North America, the idealistic images seen on particular trips with organizations including NFTY, BBYO, Young Judaea, USY, and especially Birthright, come to define our views of Israel. After my first trip to Israel, when I spent 4 weeks exploring Israel with my camp and NFTY friends, I immediately felt…

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Is a 10-Day Trip to Israel Really My Birthright?

By Amram Altzman January 19, 2015

Israel has always been a concept — a country, a culture, a history, a memory —I was always intimate with, but it remained aloof. I grew up surrounded by Hebrew and Israeli culture, singing “Hatikvah” alongside the “Star Spangled Banner.” I’d been to Israel only one time before going on Birthright, and since then, my…

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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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How I Can Still Hope for the Future, in America and in Israel

By Derek M. Kwait December 4, 2014

This was a bad week for people who believe in human progress. Whether you imagined America was on its way towards becoming a post-racial society or that residents of the Levant could maybe learn to live peacefully side-by-side someday soon, the better dirt of our nature has again graffitied and burned down our delusions. What…

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Reconciliation – The Only Way Forward

By Hannah Monius November 24, 2014

Last week, two Palestinian cousins, armed with a meat cleaver and a gun, attacked worshipers at Kehilat B’nei Torah synagogue in Har Nof, Jerusalem, killing four Israelis. This is the most devastating attack Jerusalem has seen since 2008 and it is now, more than ever, imperative that people start thinking about the religious and cultural…

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Popping New York’s Jewish Bubble

By Jonathan Katz September 9, 2014

I grew up in the New York area: capital of the world, city of no rival, the Fourth Rome (defeating the Third, and there shall be no Fifth). True, I could note that this place – city and suburbs thereof – is overconfident, maddeningly arrogant, and rude to a horrifying degree. Yet it was a…

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“Even Jacob Went Down to Egypt”: On Shmemel’s “Berlin” and Israeli Out-Migration

By Jonathan Katz September 3, 2014

The Israeli band Shmemel recently released a controversial, tongue-in-cheek video single entitled Berlin(English translation and annotation here, courtesy of The Forward). In the song, the band sings a ballad of Israelis leaving the country – for economic opportunity, for the madness of living in a state of constant war, or for a better and more…

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Why the Search for Aaron Sofer Matters

By David G. August 27, 2014

On Friday, August 22, Aaron Sofer was taking a shortcut through the Jerusalem Forest with his friend. The two became separated when his friend wanted to try hiking up a hill, and later that evening when the friend returned home, he discovered that Aaron was missing. When I came online Saturday night, I learned about…

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