A Jewish Person Binds Their Chest

By Talia BarNoy September 1, 2022

“I stood there, in my father’s closet, looking up at the cracked white paint of the ceiling, hoping God would hear that I was man, woman, and everything too.”

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D’var Torah: How To Protect Our Queer Jewish Kids

By Rena Yehuda Newman July 6, 2022

“Growing up as a people means facing frightening frontiers – including the intimate landscapes of our own bodies. Yet, we can build a safer, more loving Jewish gender and sexual future.”

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Investigation: How Jewish Summer Camps Are Damaging LGBTQ+ Youth

By Julia Hegele June 1, 2022

As the camp season begins, New Voices investigates the experiences of former LGBTQ+ campers who have for decades faced exclusion, emotional conflict, pressure, and trauma in the summer’s aftermath.

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Dispatches from the Jewish Rally for Abortion Justice

By Mx. Je'Jae Cleo Daniels May 22, 2022

Hundreds of Jews gathered in Washington DC for the Jewish Rally for Abortion Justice. In their own words, here’s why they came.

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The Internet Of Queer Jewish Girlhood

By Alexa Hulse April 12, 2022

Digital spaces like jGirls+ act vital online communities for an under-researched group of Jewish youth, seeking precious few places to negotiate gender, sexuality, and religion.

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Most Decorated Women

By Mirushe Zylali May 14, 2021

SCWANA and Balkan Jewish Stories of Adornment

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A Love Letter to “Timtum: A Trans Jew Zine”

By Rena Yehuda Newman December 15, 2020

“The Rabbis wrote commentaries and we write zines.”

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Two Editors on Revelation and Transition

By Rena Yehuda Newman September 9, 2020

In July 2020, Rena Yehuda Newman became the second transgender Editor of New Voices magazine. As Rosh Hashana approaches and the year changes, Rena Yehuda sits down with their predecessor Daniel Holtzman to reflect on writing, yearning, revelation, and transitioning on the job.

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“Multitudes of Who I am”: Queer Jewish Songwriting with Syd Bakal

By New Voices Editorial Board August 28, 2020

In a day and age of DIY Judaism and Jewish innovation, Syd’s Queer Jewish music is modern revelation: a Jewish practice that draws from tradition and is refreshed with new melodies and media. New Voices has a conversation with Syd to talk about composition, spirituality, queer identity, and creativity in a time of quarantine.

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A Dog’s View of Hanukkah

By Daniel Holtzman December 29, 2019

 These are miracles not because they shake the earth or defy the laws of nature, but rather because I was crazy and tender and hopeful enough to ask for them.

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Outside Hillel, Northeastern Jewish Students Struggle After Rabbi Leaves

By Hannah Bernstein December 18, 2018

This is part 3 in a series about politics, identity, and Jewish community on college campuses. Click here to view part 1, and here for part 2. Ben Novak came to Northeastern University in 2016 from a Catholic high school in Kingston, Massachusetts. His father was raised Jewish, and his mother converted to Judaism before…

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Co-opting social justice won’t erase reality in Israel

By Chloe Sobel January 20, 2016

I was hoping that in 2016, the Jewish community would find better ways to reach out to millennials. I guess they have, if co-opting social justice, intersectionality, and related ideas counts as outreach. It started with an op by David Bernstein, the current CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, published Jan. 4 in…

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What we can learn from the RCA and the URJ

By Amram Altzman November 15, 2015

On Oct. 30, mainstream Orthodox leaders in the Rabbinical Council of America confirmed once again that women who receive the same training and jobs as men still are not — and never will be — equal to men. Six days later, the Union for Reform Judaism passed a landmark resolution on the inclusion of transgender individuals…

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Dear Orthodox Leaders: LGBTQ Jews Don’t Need Your Sympathies

By Amram Altzman May 4, 2015

The Shabbat of Parashat Akharei Mot-Kedoshim— the Torah portion that was read in many synagogues this past Saturday morning — is always a painful one for me and many other queer Jews. The verses it contains concerning the prohibition of male homosexuality have long been used as justification for excluding queer people from religious life….

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What Does Mechitza Have to Do With Racism? On Patriarchy and the Outsourcing of Blame in Jewish Communities

By Jonathan Katz November 20, 2014

“The African newscaster asked the Jewish rabbi why there were no female rabbis, and the rabbi was very clever – he asked why there were no female chiefs!” I am not sure if it was the self-congratulatory racism, rehash and ignorance of colonial dynamics, or the justification of sexism that irritated me more. There I…

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