Journalism by Jewish college students, for Jewish college students.
You thought the progressive voice in Israel was dying and that progressive policy couldn’t happen? Well, check out today’s Reading List, my doubting friend: In what may be one of the biggest long-term steps to coexistence in the land, Israel is now requiring Arabic language education across its school system. [Ha’aretz] A new liberal Israeli…
Who cares if the 42-year old Julia Roberts still manages to look like she’s thirty? Jewblogs across the internets (well, two of them, at least) have given two thumbs down to the self-absorbed story of a woman going on a culinary-spiritual dream tour around the world so she can find herself. This critique from Tablet…
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c Mosque-Erade www.thedailyshow.com Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party The Daily Show’s John Oliver wouldn’t. Arguing with resident MOT Jon Stewart about religious freedom and taboo, he says: “Jews can wear yarmulkes on Good Friday to celebrate the day you successfully murdered…
And they’re off. For the first time since the 2007 Annapolis Conference, the US is restarting direct talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. This comes after numerous strains in the US-Israel relationship (Settlement Freeze, East Jerusalem, Flotilla, etc.), months of “proximity talks” wherein the US met separately with the Izzies and Pallies to convince them…
The vitriol of conservative talk radio never ceases to amaze me. First, Glenn Beck compares social justice to Nazism, and now Rush Limbaugh says that those who work in non-profits are “lazy idiots” and “rapists in terms of finance and economy.” Well, Rush, to show you that I’m not lazy (and not a rapist), I’m…
I am about to tell you a dramatic tale about the internecine conflicts of the Jewish philanthropic world. Here are your characters: First, there’s the Jewish Federation–in this case the Houston branch–an umbrella Jewish fundraising organization in Israel and abroad that donates to the full gamut of Jewish causes locally, nationally, internationally and–of course–in Israel….
As a follow-up to our link yesterday to the story of the Israeli solider posing on Facebook with prisoners, Breaking the Silence points out that photos like that are not only commonplace, but far from the worst they’ve seen. [Haaretz] Here’s a novel idea: Israel wants the US to sell weapons Arabs, because everyone in…
For those of you who don’t know, a shanda for the goyim–a traditional Yiddish term–occurs when a Jew does something that shames us in the eyes of the world. On that note, here are some shandas. Enjoy: Not surprisingly, our first shanda comes from Facebook via Tumblr. In an album titled “Army- The Most Beautiful…
On more of a college note than a Jewish note, the votes are in! Forbes has their annual report on college rankings available. My beloved Drew University came in at #91. [Forbes] The ossified Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations has issued a call for everyone to stick out their tongues and say nanny…
Ramadan Mubarak! Ramadan, the Muslim month of sunrise-sundown fasting, began earlier this week. I am always intrigued by the ways that non-Muslims interact with such a profound and seemingly extreme period of self-denial. So for this week’s Sunday Brunch edition of The Reading List, we’re looking at how Jews–and other non-Muslim Americans (I’m suddenly wishing…
The Kiddush Club, a euphemism for a group of (traditionally) elderly men who sneak out of Orthodox Shabbos services during the haftorah to eat herring and drink schnapps, has been a tradition of American observant communities for decades. But even in Orthodoxy, writes Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz, some traditions need to end. [The Jewish Week] In…
Good afternoon! What happens when a pre-pubescent non-Jewish kid reads a revolutionarily risque Philip Roth book about a frustrated MOT? Sentences like, “There are a lot of words in Portnoy’s Complaint that I didn’t really get, like shtupp and schlong and shmutzig and punim. I don’t know what they mean, but they’re really fun to…
Good morning! As this photo proves, LeBron “Most Hated Man Not in Cleveland” James met with a rabbi to solicit some advice on a major business deal. The rabbi’s price: somewhere around $100,000. [TMZ] Women in the Washington DC area call some more (needed) attention to the age-old problem of agunot, or Jewish women whose…
The ad above has been approved by the MTA to run on New York City buses and subways after the ad’s creator threatened a law suit. [Gothamist] With suspect reasoning, here’s a claim that childless Jewish women are less engaged with their Jewish identity and the Jewish community. The best part: “I don’t know any…