Why doesn’t Emory University have a J Street U?

By Nicole Zelniker May 3, 2016

When Emory University first-year Zoe Robbin got to college, she was upset by the lack of left-wing Jewish organizations on campus. With four other students, she founded a campus chapter of J Street U and set out to become a chartered organization. “We wrote a constitution … according to the college’s charter rules exactly,” said…

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Not your average Brooklyn hipster: Meet Meir Kalmanson

By Samara Abramson May 2, 2016

  At first glance, you might think Meir Kalmanson is just another 25-year-old hipster filmmaker from Brooklyn. But if you take a closer look, you’ll find that he’s far from typical. Kalmanson was born into the Chabad Lubavitch movement, which is a sect of ultra-Orthodox Hasidism — and the largest and fastest-growing Jewish organization in…

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When rabbis fail

By Amram Altzman April 28, 2016

When Rabbi Steven Pruzansky released a column on his personal blog at the end of March, he claimed that the solution to college campus rape culture is abstinence. If more women abstained from sex, he wrote, as his Judaism warrants, then campus rape culture will magically vanish. I am grateful to have seen so many…

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Max Kessler: Adam Sandler character, or doppelgänger?

By Samara Abramson April 27, 2016

  Max Kessler looks exactly like Adam Sandler. The name of Adam Sandler’s character in his new movie is Max Kessler. This is wild. And it’s already gone viral on Reddit. Meet the one, the only, The Real Max Kessler.   Samara Abramson is a graduate student at Columbia University.

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IfNotNow’s protest at the ADL ended with 17 arrests — and stronger connections to Judaism

By Chloe Sobel April 22, 2016

IfNotNow’s “Liberation Seder” in New York on Wednesday began with a march from Bryant Park to the lobby of the Anti-Defamation League’s office building, and ended with the arrests of 17 protesters. The New York action was one of five that took place from April 19-21 held by the Jewish anti-occupation group. IfNotNow was founded…

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Why progressive Jews should be outraged about Hasidic schools

By Amram Altzman April 12, 2016

When news broke back in September of the systematic and egregious lack of regulation of secular studies curricula in Hasidic and Haredi schools, there was little outcry from the rest of the Jewish community over the fact that a large segment of our population — already growing up cut off from the rest of the world…

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Stanford student: Saying Jews control banks isn’t necessarily anti-Semitism

By Chloe Sobel April 6, 2016

  At a meeting of Stanford University’s Undergraduate Senate last night, a student senator said the idea that Jews control “the media, economy, government and other societal institutions” is “not anti-Semitism.” According to the Stanford Daily, Gabriel Knight was questioning the language of a resolution to support the Stanford Jewish community against anti-Semitism. The bill was…

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It’s time for Jews to become intersectional

By Amram Altzman March 25, 2016

“Is _________ good for the Jews?” This question seems to be asked any time a major political development is revealed, especially in the Diaspora. One might ask, for example, if Canada’s new Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is good for the Jews; many asked if Obama’s election in 2008 was good for the Jews; and there…

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Jewish pluralism — and its limits

By Amram Altzman March 15, 2016

The Jewish community has always been in the project of negotiating itself — what people are part of the Jewish community, what opinions are acceptable, and what are not. We also have a tradition of ideological pluralism which dates back centuries — indeed, to some of the earliest rabbinic literature. Throughout all that tradition, some…

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Intermarriage isn’t the problem

By Amram Altzman March 9, 2016

Ever since the Pew Report was released in late 2013, intermarriage has been a constant topic of Jewish conversation. It’s been over two years and it hasn’t stopped. Since the report was released, there have been any number of blog posts, op-eds, and long-form pieces on the best ways to counter and combat intermarriage, and…

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Dear fellow liberal Zionists: The establishment doesn’t want us

By Abe Silberstein March 1, 2016

Three weeks ago, I attended a small lunch event at Hunter College’s Roosevelt House featuring spokespeople from the New Israel Fund and Breaking the Silence, as well as the Israeli human rights lawyer Michael Sfard. Given the recent tension at my alma mater between student supporters of Israel and members of Students for Justice in…

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Why I choose to be queer — and why that’s inseparable from being Jewish

By Amram Altzman February 23, 2016

I am queer — and my decision to be queer is a conscious decision. There were times in my life when I wasn’t queer, but it’s been a process through which I have grown into my identity as someone who identifies not as gay, but primarily as queer. And, as I’ve grown into it, that…

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Radio Jewce’s second episode tells an artist’s story in audio form

By Chloe Sobel February 9, 2016

  In the Pacific Northwest, Radio Jewce has turned its looking glass from a goat farm to a young artist. The second episode of Radio Jewce, a podcast focused on Jewish life in the Pacific Northwest, was released three weeks ago and is the first in a “Student Short Series.” It focuses on Elizabeth Goldsmith,…

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Racism isn’t just for fraternities

By Amram Altzman February 8, 2016

Here at New Voices, we’re no strangers to the questions of Jews and race. And while it seems like we’ve done a good job of beginning a very much needed conversation on the complicated relationship that we American Jews have with race, ethnicity, and privilege — and we’re nowhere near the end of this conversation…

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At Brown, Alpha Epsilon Pi becomes Beta Rho Pi over dissatisfaction with treatment of non-Jews, sexual assault

By Chloe Sobel February 5, 2016

On Nov. 3, 2015, near the end of a year in which rape on college campuses became a national conversation, the members of Brown University’s Alpha Epsilon Pi chapter voted to disaffiliate, in part due to the national fraternity’s handling of sexual assault education. After the disaffiliation vote and expulsion from the international fraternity —…

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