Gay Dads, Kosher Nightclubs, Zionists, and Pat Robertson – New Vices

By Derek M. Kwait April 8, 2014

Sheldon Adelson Makes Gov. Chris Christie Apologize for Living in Reality The Daily Show Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Indecision Political Humor,The Daily Show on Facebook   Whether they know it or not, Jon Stewart and Samantha Bee are having the same conversation all Jewish communities are having now, and, like all good satire, the…

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Coming of Age as South Dakota’s Token Jew

By Andy Engelmann March 26, 2014

Two calls, a text, and three Facebook messages, all in less than a week.  That was how I learned about B’rith Shalom, South Dakota’s first Jewish student culture club at South Dakota State University.  You see, for years, I had been known as “The Jew.”  Growing up in the middle the Sioux Empire, we were…

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Why the Jewish College Student Survey Matters to You

By Derek M. Kwait March 25, 2014

For all its hype, the Pew report missed a lot of college-aged Jews, and therefore might have missed a lot about us. Two professors from Trinity College in Connecticut, Barry Kosmin and Ariela Keysar, hope to get the true picture of who we are and what we want by creating an online survey accessible here…

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Hart Levine Brings Grassroots Judaism to Campus with the Heart to Heart Project

By H. B. Rubin March 13, 2014

It all started with Chanukkah caroling. Late one night, in the midst of finals week stress, a few male Modern Orthodox University of Pennsylvania students decided to carol some Channukah songs at the doors of their Jewish friends. As they walked down the hallway, snapping their fingers and singing in a loud messy harmony, they…

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Fighting B.D.S. on Campus is a Waste of Time for Jewish Advocates

By Zev Hurwitz February 27, 2014

Scores (if not hundreds) of Jewish and Pro-Israel students spent Tuesday night in a crowded ballroom at UCLA to advocate against the student government’s proposed passage of a divestment resolution. I, on the other hand, sat at my computer 125 miles away, wearing sweatpants and drinking Coke Zero with lemon watching the USAC divestment meeting…

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In Defense of Labels

By Amram Altzman February 24, 2014

I recently published my first op-ed in the Jewish Press. In it, I made the claim — contrary to the beliefs of the far-right wing publication —that those of us who were raised in the left-wing Modern Orthodox world  are not, actually lost to secularism, but are instead, re-imagining the world of traditionally observant Judaism…

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In Search of True Egalitarianism

By Amram Altzman January 27, 2014

  Growing up in the early 2000’s means I watched copious amounts of Arthur, Cyberchase, Pokémon, and Yu-Gi-Oh!; I knew the dance to “Soulja Boy,” played on my Gameboy obsessively, and ate Go-gurts (or the kosher equivalents thereof) on the school bus ride home. Growing up in the 2000’s also meant that I saw men…

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From Costa Rica to Israel

By Zach C. Cohen January 23, 2014

San José is an ugly city. The streets are lined with storefronts due for a paint job. Trash and dog droppings line the sidewalks. Every afternoon, like clockwork, the tropical weather brings in a rainstorm that puts most Sunday showers stateside to shame. At night, drug dealers and (legal) prostitutes roam the streets. In this…

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Herring. Yum.

By Jonathan Katz January 7, 2014

I will never forget the day I brought herring sandwiches to school. There I was, an awkward little seven-year-old, eating a vinegary and odorous pickled herring sandwich on brown bread in the middle of the lunch room. A delicious and very filling lunch for a first-grader. And there were the faces of my (mostly Jewish)…

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On Non-Binary Jewish Identities and the Future of Traditional Judaism

By Amram Altzman January 6, 2014

I have a hard time answering the question, “So how do you identify? Like, Jewish-ly?” On the one hand, I grew up in a Modern Orthodox home and attended Modern Orthodox schools since kindergarten, but, for most of my life so far, was part of a haredi community in southern Brooklyn. On the other hand,…

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Happiness is…Judaism at Hillel

By Sam Hantverk December 27, 2013

A good deal of time passed in my life where Judaism was very far back in my mind. Jewish life for me used to just mean meeting up with extended family and friends for the holidays, and here and there Friday night dinners with my family were made a little more special by turning them…

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Snottiness Be Gone: Or, Walking the Tolerance Talk

By Jonathan Katz November 7, 2013

There is quite a lot of talk about denominational unity. “Let’s draw together as a Jewish community!” “Let’s build cross-denominational ties!” “Denominations are irrelevant and we live in a post-denominational era!” It is almost as if we, the eternally factional and rather divisive Jewish people have discovered a magic, unified, cohesive land beyond the rainbow,…

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Waffle Cone + Pizza = A Glimpse of the Kosher Future

By Derek M. Kwait November 1, 2013

For a kosher-keeper like me, Kosherfest 2013 was almost too good to be real. A huge room full of free food I can actually eat coming at me from every direction, the longer I stayed, the further my train of thought devolved to the level of a dog in a sausage factory: I see they’re…

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Meet Steve, Sarah, Eliana, and Jonathan.

An Inter-Everything Conversation About the Pew Survey

By Derek M. Kwait October 28, 2013

Part 1 in a 3 part series.   We might just be the last Jewish organization to respond to the big bad Pew Survey and we’re fine with that. It seems like every response so far is other people telling us what how we need to feel about it, whether we should be scared,  take…

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Bagel-Chasers: On the Problem of Jewish Fetish

By Jonathan Katz October 9, 2013

I don’t generally date non-Jews. I’m not snotty about genealogy, I think the treatment of those who intermarry is barbaric and exclusionary, and I would not be upset if I ended up marrying a non-Jewish man. That said, I do usually end up falling head over heels for young Jewish men who can understand things…

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