On This Very Day, One Pesach Later: A Passover Reader

By Sofia Freudenstein March 25, 2021

After a year of pandemic, one Pesach later, four Jewish students and thinkers have assembled a Passover Seder companion, filled with reflections on a year of plague and visions of redemption.

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‘Hogwarts Haggadah’ Author (and Rabbi) Reveals the Magic Behind His Book

By Josh Weiss April 10, 2017

Other than the mention of holidays like Christmas and Easter in the Wizarding World, J.K. Rowling avoided the topic of religion in her “Harry Potter” books. After all, the complexities and controversies surrounding faith would have felt a little out of place in a young adult series and would have bogged down the momentum of…

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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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On French Anti-Semitism and Conflicting Identities

By Ari Bloom April 8, 2015

My first experience with anti-Semitism was at 6 years old. Someone painted a swastika on the front gate of my school and I remember asking my dad why it upset him so much. I had a limited understanding of Nazism at that age, but I knew enough to understand when he told me simply that…

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The Myth of the ‘Feminized’ Religion

By Amram Altzman March 30, 2015

I have written in the past about my experiences with gender, privilege, Jewish ritual, and the need to find new and creative ways to engage both men and women ritually. Women, I’ve argued, should be encouraged to try out more traditionally masculine rituals, and men should be encouraged to try out more feminine rituals. There…

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New Years 2013 Was a Lifetime Ago

By Dani Plung January 8, 2014

Well, by the Gregorian calendar, we have officially lived in the year 2014 for a week. For one thing, this means I will spend about three more weeks dating assignments “2013,” only to see autocorrect bluntly demonstrate the error of my ways.  For another, this means that both the Jewish and secular seasonal winter holidays…

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Racist Moms, Russian Spies, and Chabadniks: The Latest Sensations from Israel

By Catie Damon November 11, 2013

For 12 weeks I dated an Israeli. The majority of our relationship involved watching TV and smoking cigarettes on his couch. National Geographic was our favorite channel, since it was guaranteed to be in English. At first I felt guilty about staying indoors when I could hear Tel Aviv’s beaches a block away, but I…

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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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Facebook + Jews in Mumbai = Rosh Hashanah Seder…?

By David A.M. Wilensky September 27, 2012

Gabe Weinstein, our man in India, writes today at the Ohio University study abroad blog about spending Rosh Hashanah with some of the Jews of Mumbai. A member of the Jewish community there discovered him via Facebook (because of this recent piece Gabe did for New Voices), which led to him spending the holiday with the…

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A South Park Passover; discussing Apple (in drag); and more. [Required Reading: Pesach Edition]

By John Propper April 6, 2012

Jewpacabra Get More: SOUTH PARKEric Cartman,Leopold “Butters” Stotch,more… South Park does Passover [SP Studios] Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the guys behind South Park, have a reputation for injecting religious commentary into their work (see: “The Book of Mormon“). Now in the 16th season of South Park, they take on Passover. And who better to…

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Second night Seders; the poet and candy; quinoa for Pesach; and more. [Required Reading]

By John Propper April 2, 2012

Years later, patrilineal debate rages on [Forward] The debate over “Who is a Jew?” has perhaps never been more heated in the years following the Reconstructionist, and later Reform, decision to accept as Jews those with only one Jewish parent: the father. While many perhaps expected this trend to catch on in the wider world,…

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No arrests in ethnic clash; Santorum and Messianics; no Torah for mixed seating; and more. [Required Reading]

By John Propper March 23, 2012

After one of Jerusalem’s largest ethnic clashes, no arrests made [Haaretz] It became one of Jerusalem’s largest clashes between ethnic groups. Yet when the smoke cleared, not a single arrest was made, and no charges were pressed. After a soccer game, a group of Beitar Jerusalem fans poured into a shopping mall and began harassing…

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A Foreign Affair

By akinman April 20, 2011

Three big events happened for the first time this week. One, I went to my first Seder spoken completely in Hebrew. Two, I tried gefilte fish for the first time. Three, I baked without giving anyone food poisoning. OK so maybe I want to brag about the last two events, but I really want to…

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Toss in the Matzah, Bring on the Graham Crackers

By akinman April 13, 2011

In honor of Pesach starting next week, I thought that I’d share some pictures of UF Hillel’s Chocolate Seder. Last week, I reported that UF Hillel would be hosting their annual chocolate seder, brought back by popular demand. The sweet seder took place last night with plenty of Almond Joys, chocolate milk, and graham crackers…

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Dishing Up the Sweetest Pesach

By akinman April 6, 2011

Pesach just got sweeter. And no…I’m not just talking about my mother’s delicious chocolate torte she makes every Passover. Brought back by popular demand, I had to share the news. KOACH at UF just announced on Tuesday that they will be hosting their annual Chocolate Seder at UF Hillel right before the holiday festivities begin….

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