Our Man in Melbourne
This magazine blows my mind! Here in Australia, there are plenty of organised and thoroughly institutionalised Zionist and religious events and groups, but there is not a great deal beyond that. What I find fascinating and immensely encouraging is that New Voices prides itself on being edgy and unafraid to confront mainstream Jewish organisations – a tradition that, unfortunately, doesn’t have a great deal of traction here in Australia.
Much respect,
Ronch Willner
Melbourne, Australia
Kind Words
I have read New Voices since I was a college freshman and have disagreed with most of its analysis. You were, however, spot on when you wrote about the infantalization of Jewish student life (“My Enemies List,” Editor’s Note, November/December 2007). I am now a few years removed from campus. I work for the Orthodox Union, run the Hoboken Moishe House, and I see the need for New Voices among young Jewish adults. In college or in the wandering yuppie years, New Voices provides a unique world view, critical of the establishment while keeping an eye on unique Jewish developments – something they can’t get anywhere else.
Keep up the good work,
Joshua Einstein
Hoboken, NJ
Tasha Goes to the Yishuv
Hmmm… so the Jewish-founded Mattel – which gave us the goyishe Barbie – found an immigrant Jewish doll too “edgy” (“The Missing American Girl,” The Wondering Jew, November/December 2007)? Was it the union angle? I bet if the “Tasha” character had been developed, she would have gone to work on a kibbutz in the Yishuv (she needed something to do while her boyfriend was in the Lincoln Brigade during the Spanish Civil War) and she would have worn Levi’s “work pants” because they were union-made.
Jack Miller
Bryan, Texas
Clarifying the Record
Since Marissa Brostoff’s interview with me in the November/December <italics>New Voices</italics> (“The Best Years of Our Lives,” The Interview, November/December 2007) is likely to be one of the few printed sources available on Avukah and Avukah Student Action, I would like to correct a few errors in what is otherwise a very good account.
Avukah Student Action did not have “an editorial staff of three” – it was rather Avukah, the organization, which had a staff of three. Avukah Student Action was edited (and written) by me, succeeding earlier editors such as Chester Rapkin and Harold Orlans, with the help of various members.
On my relationship to “neoconservatism,” I would identify myself as a liberal, critical of some of the social policies identified as liberal.
Sincerely,
Nathan Glazer
Cambridge, MA
