The Reading List: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Birthright Sex But Were Afraid to Ask

By Ben Sales February 21, 2011

Kudos to Jewlicious on this amazing post: an unofficial guide to whom you can and cannot have sex with on Birthright. “Bus Driver: No. Are you insane???” [Jewlicious] Israel has appointed an openly gay judge. [YNet] Students at Columbia are calling on their president, Lee Bollinger, to resign from the board of Kaplan University because…

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The Reading List: Uncle Leo Z”L

By Ben Sales February 17, 2011

Uncle Leo, beloved uncle of Jerry Seinfeld on the classic sitcom, has passed away at 88. [JPost] The former editor of the Jerusalem Report will head Hillel’s new Israel Engagement Center. [JPost] A story we kind of missed: It’s not just the Maccabeats: Jewish a capella rises at college. [Forward] Students at a Haredi yeshiva…

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The Reading List: Should You Even Be Going to College?

By Ben Sales February 16, 2011

If it’s costing this much, maybe not. [USA Today College] The Israeli press is all over Hillel. [Hillel Blog] The head of a right-wing Israeli activist group worked for a company that does business with Iran. [Ha’aretz] Day schools need a different approach to teaching Israel, writes Gary Rosenblatt. [JW] Archaeologists have found what may…

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The Reading List: Selling Used Laptops to Pay for Jewish Day School

By Ben Sales February 14, 2011

That’s exactly what the Brisker Institute of Torah uMaddah in Buford, Montana is doing to offset tuition costs. [Frum Satire] Haredi control over Israel’s immigration grows. [JW] Some commentary on Malcolm Gladwell’s parsing of YU’s Us News ranking in the New Yorker. [Tzvee’s Talmudic Blog] A Jewish-Arab coexistence school in Israel is failing. [YNet] Regardless…

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The Reading List: Proof that Vatican II Is Working

By Ben Sales February 10, 2011

Maybe we’re not so different after all. Apparently it’s just as hard to be a friendly, amiable and polite person at church as it is at synagogue. [Cartoon Church] Here’s a moving series of short biographies about the Jewish servicemen and servicewomen who have given their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001. One of…

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The Return of the Reading List: A Jewish Student in Cuba

By Ben Sales February 9, 2011

A Northwestern student visits the Jewish community in our socialist neighbor. [Schmooze] While a student at Maryland works for social change during an Alternative Spring Break. [JewMD] And a student in Israel finds out what it’s like on the other side of the Jordan River. [Pink Pangea] Kids at a Hebrew charter school in New…

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The Reading List: The Jewish Jordan comes to Cleveland

By Ben Sales January 18, 2011

Remember Tamir Goodman, the Orthodox high school basketball phenom? Now he’s in Beachwood, a Jewish suburb of Cleveland. [Cleveland Jewish News] Are you liberal? Do you love Israel? Things are looking up! [Ha’aretz A Special Place in Hell] Jews love to save money, so here’s a list of places where you can get discounts with your student…

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The Reading List: Take that, Haredim.

By Ben Sales December 30, 2010

The Masorti (Conservative) movement in Israel stands up for its values and goes on the offensive against government subsidies for yeshiva students. [Jewschool] Stream the Western Wall live on your iPhone! [WaPo] Cholent is so tasty. [Forward Jew and the Carrot] The pros and cons of finishing college a semester early. [Her Campus] The Chinese…

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The Reading List: Texas Christian Jews

By Ben Sales December 29, 2010

Several dozen Jewish students are going to the Rose Bowl to cheer on their school: Texas Christian University. [JTA] American students studying abroad in Israel live in a bubble. [JW] Apparently, my Jewish high school has raised $20 million in one month to build a new building. [Chicago Tribune] Protests grow against the Haredim in…

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The Reading List: Sorry, Jewish Boys…

By Ben Sales December 28, 2010

Natalie Portman is engaged and pregnant. [People] American Football hits Israel, a step up from the storied Jerusalem yeshiva boys’ flag football league. [NYT] All the young Jews get together on Christmas Eve. [JIDaily] Seven YU high school students will get to take a class with a renowned Israeli author. [YNet] Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian…

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The Reading List: YU gets a Chabad…

By Ben Sales December 27, 2010

To reach out to all of those wayward YU Jews… [Frum Satire] How inflated is your grade? [NYT] Even on your e-reader, the siddur stays shomer shabbat. [JPost] Newsflash: Religious expression is okay on campus. [HuffPo] Is Zionism Satanism? This bishop says so. [NYT Lede]

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The Reading List: Tzitzis Are Sexy!

By Ben Sales December 22, 2010

But it depends how you wear them. [Leftover Cholent] Ramen noodles, college students’ bread and butter, may lead to chronic illness. Tradition Soup, anyone? [MainStreet] Netanyahu caves to the anti-Zionist students. [Ha’aretz] Don’t get a Ph.D. [The Economist] With DADT over, will the ROTC return to the Ivies? [NYT]

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The Reading List: Gazan students to Visit Holocaust Museum

By Ben Sales December 21, 2010

It will be one of their stops on a tour of the U.S. This really proves the “Muslims hate Jews” hypothesis. [JTA/JJ] Six Haredi yeshivot in Israel may have stolen tens of millions of shekels from the government. [Ha’aretz] Is Israel a hi-tech paradise? Not for students. [YNet] Watch out for pick-up artists, even if…

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The Reading List: Why Do Pro-Palestinian Students Oppose Dialogue?

By Ben Sales December 17, 2010

According to Philip Weiss, pro-Palestinian students at Brooklyn College don’t want dialogue with the pro-Israel group. Here’s a telling quote from a student there: “We hold an anti-normalization stance on dialogue,” said Eeman Abuasi, 21, a co-founder of the Palestinian Club who grew up in Brooklyn, east Jerusalem and the West Bank city of Ramallah….

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The Reading List: Are Jewish Students Scared?

By Ben Sales December 16, 2010

Natan Sharansky says that anti-Israel intimidation is silencing pro-Israel students on campus, but where’s his evidence? [NJJN Just ASC] Hillels should include, not oppose, JVP groups. Look for more on this in an NV blog post later today. [The Magnes Zionist] In related news, the NIF comes out explicitly against BDS. [Atlantic Jeff Goldberg] And BTS (Breaking…

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