Nice Jewish girl seeks same for legal wedding

By Chloe Sobel June 26, 2015

On October 11, 2009, I woke up in my best friend’s apartment at 5 a.m. We had a bus to catch to D.C. We were going to the National Equality March. Before that, though, we had something to do. Together we’d decided we would come out on Facebook, in honor of the march and National…

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Do Jews need to worry about the RFRA?

By Jackson Richman June 24, 2015

Does a kosher bakery have the right to refuse to bake a wedding cake for an intermarried couple? If the bakery is in Indiana, the answer might be yes. Indiana’s passage of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) in March caused an uproar, especially among LGBTQ rights activists, who argued that it could encourage discrimination…

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The Jewish Leviathan: Considering Israel with Rabbi Thomas Hobbes

By Evan Goldstein February 11, 2015

What do we call a society where you have to gain state permission before you can travel a few miles in order to marry? Perhaps it seems that we are searching for an “-ism,” some grand unified theory that nobody without the letters Ph.D. after their name cares about. But as the New York Times…

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The Value of a Chained Woman

By Rivka Joseph November 18, 2014

Deuteronomy 24:1 states, “If a man takes a wife and possesses her and she fails to please him because he finds something obnoxious about her, he writes her a Bill of Divorcement, hands it to her and sends her away from his house.” Based on this verse of the Torah, the entire decision to divorce…

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What About Non-Zionists?

By Tom Pessah January 20, 2014

In an interview with New Voices last week,  Jewish educator David Harris-Gershon expressed his support for Swarthmore’s Hillel brave declaration, and recounted his own experiences of being banned from speaking at the UC Santa Barbara Hillel chapter for his political views. In the interview, Harris-Gershon recognized students’ “right to a space free of anti-Israel activity,”…

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Personalizing the Ramifications of the Israeli Rabbinate

By Amram Altzman January 13, 2014

It’s old news that the Israeli rabbinate rejects those who are not Orthodox, especially in regards to immigration or marriage. What was recently revealed, however, was exactly how this process of rejection or acceptance happens, in light of the Israeli Rabbinate’s recently calling Rabbi Avi Weiss’ status as an Orthodox rabbi into question. This was…

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Seattle’s Rap Miracle: How D Black Saw the Light

By Eric Steitz December 17, 2013

To the Jewish world, the name Damian Black means very little. He was a rapper from outside of Seattle, with his own music label and growing popularity. Unfortunately, as many can attest, success can make others feel threatened and force a response. Another rapper in the community did just that. He threatened D Black, as…

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Let’s Queer the Jewish Legal Tradition

By Amram Altzman December 16, 2013

I had the honor of speaking at the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance’s Voices of Change conference last week, where I, only for a day, became a high school student once again and spoke on a panel about navigating relationships and sexuality in high school as a feminist. While speaking, the topic of Shemirut Negi’ah, or…

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Self-Loathing “Jewtopia”

By Derek M. Kwait September 30, 2013

Jewtopia features Tom Arnold as a gynecologist. That could be the review right there; any further commentary seems superfluous. Yet I will go on because in truth, I have a lot more to say, or at least vent, about this movie. Its central plot concerns the unlikely friendship between Christian O’Connell (Ivan Sergei) and Adam…

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Find Out Who Your Friends Are

By Simi Lichtman October 15, 2012

Imagine your birthday party. You plan something, you have some beer, and people come. Before said people come though, when you are sitting at home alone with the lights dimmed and a 30-rack of bad beer, you get kind of anxious. Will people even come? Going to parties is such a responsibility at this age,…

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Hathaway Hitches Into Da Tribe

By H. B. Rubin October 2, 2012

And she’s at it again. After making headlines last Monday for her quick smooch outside a Los Angeles Jewish Community Center, Anne Hathaway is back in the spotlight. But this time, she got married. Former cat seductress Anne Hathaway tied the knot this past Saturday night with Jewish fiancé Adam Shulman, much to everyone’s surprise (okay, by…

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20 and Pregnant (and Married) [Modern Unorthodox]

By Simi Lichtman April 19, 2012

I walked into my high school classmate’s wedding last week and was unexpectedly overwhelmed with babies. Apparently, since our class’ last wedding/reunion (that is what they really are, after all), half my classmates had gone and gotten knocked up by their husbands. I still don’t feel mature enough to be choosing our country’s next president…

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Israeli border security detain Harvard students; interfaith marriage; sharing an ex-frum story; and more. [Required Reading]

By John Propper March 16, 2012

Israeli security detain Harvard students… wait, what? [The Harvard Crimson] 55 Harvard students were detained Tuesday by Israeli border security during a trip to the West Bank. The students were visiting a Palestinian town. Afterwards, the trip’s guide was apparently arrested. And for what? That’s all a bit unclear. The Harvard Crimson reports: “‘There was…

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The Reading List: Do Jews Like to Date Jews?

By Ben Sales December 10, 2010

So says the Maryland Mitzpeh, which put out some strong new content this week. According to a poll of almost 100 students, a majority would not date outside the fold, which is surprising given soaring intermarriage rates. [Mitzpeh] Marriage in college? Check it out. [Mitzpeh] Here’s some bad romance: A Columbia professor — who I…

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