Starting in 2018, New Voices has offered year-long, paid fellowships for Jewish college students. In 2019 and 2020, New Voices partnered with other progressive Jewish media outlets to offer four joint fellowship positions: Jewish Currents, The Unsettled Podcast, and Judaism Unbound. As the fellows close out the 2020 fellowship year, each have written reflections on their experiences with New Voices Magazine and their partnered media organization. Rebecca Tauber, our fellow at The Unsettled Podcast, tells of her evolving relationship to Jewish media throughout this fellowship year.
“Jewish media is…” was the prompt New Voices Editor in Chief Rena Yehuda Newman gave me and the other New Voices fellows during our final fellowship meeting, which took place before the last night of Hanukkah. Our meetings usually began this way – after a brief check in, Rena Yehuda would give us a prompt, play classical music over Zoom screen share and give us eight minutes to write. For some reason, I never had actual paper on hand, a symptom of our currently virtual world. I would always scramble for something to write on – the back of a birthday card, a giant oversized piece of construction paper, a paper bag. This time, I grabbed the gift receipt sitting on my desk from chocolate sent to me by a friend and began to write:
Jewish media is fights on Twitter over latkes (personally, I’m team sour cream, or Greek yogurt in a pinch).
Jewish media is the New York Times publishing a Hanukkah op-ed in which the most Jewish thing about it was not its argument for assimilation into American Christian secularism, but the classic “two Jews, three opinions” response by anyone who read it.
Jewish media is local Jewish newspapers that are struggling and also somehow really right wing?
Jewish media is these same newspapers running tabloid style articles about raging anti-Semitism at an “elite liberal arts free speech-hating colleges.”
Jewish media is finding my community on my college paper and lighting Hanukkah candles in our office when stuck there late on publication night.
Jewish media is my college paper talking about the problems with New York geography and culture (but I’m from Philadelphia).
Jewish media runs the world, supposedly?
Jewish media is hours spent in the archive for a historical feature on summer camps, feeling connected to Jews from times and places wildly different from my own.
Jewish media is collaborating with artists and zine-makers and poets for the first time.
Jewish media is uplifting unheard voices.
Jewish media is Daveed Diggs’ wonderful, catchy “Puppy for Hanukkah” and HAIM’s chaotic yet utterly relatable “Christmas Wrapping 2020” (also a Hanukkah song, despite the name).
Jewish media is the WAP x Debbie Friedman remix I made while procrastinating writing a paper.
Jewish media is reading heartbreaking articles about antisemitic violence that happens more often than it should (the correct amount being never).
Jewish media is reading articles about QAnon and feeling angry and scared.
Jewish media is Instagram infographics that give a platform to the most marginalized in our community and hold the rest of us accountable to listen.
Jewish media is other Instagram infographics that are reductive and propagandistic.
Jewish media is constantly questioning what I think I know, what I think I believe, and who I think my heroes are.
Jewish media is sending my friends endless memes about pickles and bagels and challah and those rainbow kiddush cookies.
Jewish media is reaching my paywall on the Forward trying to read a profile by their lox columnist.
Jewish media is deciding I want to be a lox columnist when I grow up.
Jewish media is Jewish media.
Jewish media is Jews in media.
Jewish media is me in media (hopefully – I have to graduate and find a job first).
