Review: “These and Those” Tests The Limits of Jewish Safety
A new play by Ruth Geye paints a critical, intimate portrait of a modern orthodox student Shabbat lunch, asking, “how much are we willing to mutilate our souls in the pursuit of safety?”
Journalism by Jewish college students, for Jewish college students.
Article Archive
“God of Vengeance”: A Seminal Script in the Fight to Reclaim Jewish Identity
A play written by Sholem Asch in 1906 hasn’t stopped being relevant to questions of Jewish identity – especially for queer Jews.
Tevye at Temple Sinai: Past as Prologue in ‘Fiddler on the Roof’
Recently, I participated in one of our people’s most sacred customs: I went to see Fiddler on the Roof. I was psyched. Fiddler has been a part of my life from time immemorial (meaning, I literally cannot remember a time when I did not know it nearly word for word). I’ve seen the movie countless…
How to Become Successful in Playwriting (While Really Trying)
At 19, NYU freshman Jake Rosenberg is already one of the most accomplished young playwrights in the country, getting his plays put on around the country and winning multiple awards. After seeing his latest play, Muse of Fire, a comedy about Auschwitz inmates putting on a farce about the Dreyfus affair, New Voices editor Derek…
‘Muse of Fire’ Imagines Comedy in Auschwitz
It was already maybe the smallest stage I’ve ever seen, and much of it was taken up by black spray painted stepladders with boards between them and black theater blocks; the wall behind it painted to look like a brick wall with shadows of barracks on the sides. The woman seated next to me remarked…
Bringing Holocaust Denial to Campus: Interview With ‘Hoaxocaust!’ Star Barry Levey
Yesterday, I reviewed Hoaxocaust!, a new play performed and written by Barry Levey that satirizes Holocaust denial simply by putting the arguments of some of its biggest proponents, Arthur Butz, David Irving, Robert Faurisson, and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in context. I saw the show the night of September 11 (coincidentally), then on September 12, I caught…
Holocaust or ‘Hoaxocaust!’?
It’s 9/11 in New York and I’m commemorating by seeing a Holocaust comedy. Though Barry Levey originally wrote Hoaxocaust! written and performed by Barry Levey with the generous assistance of the Institute for Political and International Studies, Tehran for the New York Fringe Festival, I became aware of it during its second run at the…
When Esther Met Frank-N-Furter
Halloween gives you candy. Purim gives you Hamantaschens. After slowly recovering from the ODing on poppy seed hamantaschens, and getting the noise of groggers out of my head, I look back on this past Purim and describe it in one word: scandalous. Every year, my congregation puts on a Purim Spiel. The play tells the…
I Heart…
New York? Pittsburgh? Hamas? Didn’t see that third one coming, did you? Me neither. I’ll admit, there are certain taglines or catchphrases that seem timeless. “Got milk?” is one that lends itself nicely to variations. And the “I heart (or I love…)” may be even more timeless. It’s certainly provocative. I don’t know many people…