Archive
My older brother got to read Portnoy’s Complaint his Senior year of high school, and it was a big deal. I imagine that it was only allowed on the curriculum because his English teacher was one of those slick haired PHD types who didn’t really give a fuck– he just wanted to teach. It was […]
When my belly dancing teacher asked if I wanted to be a clean-up volunteer at the Arab Film Festival, in exchange for a little pocket cash and a glossy all-access pass, I immediately said yes. I’ve loved Middle Eastern culture – its rich food, contagious rhythms, and ancient history – since I was small. Now […]
In a stunning twist, a national organization just invested a great deal of time and effort into researching the nature of Israel’s reputation on college campuses. The American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise, a non-profit established to spread knowledge of “the values our nations share” (America and Israel), has produced the latest report on anti-Israel and anti-Semitic sentiment […]
The elections are over (nice try Florida) and New York is inundated with snow and floodwater. There’s no better a moment to shift your focus to the international Jewish student scene. Hungarian writer Gavriel Shalom takes us from Budapest to Gaza, with a final stop in Syria. Enjoy an excerpt below and read the full article […]
Jerusalem, ISRAEL — Coming to Israel as a student or volunteer, you can easily determine how independent, or how insulated, you want to be. With all the package-deal options available through organizations like MASA Israel Journey, you might never have to face the “housing question,” but MASA and others also offer you a chance to […]
As a previous summer resident of Trendyville, Brooklyn, the running joke throughout my stay revolved around the aesthetically similar but culturally dichotomous comparisons of the facial hair of secular and religious men. A clearer way to say this? The proliferation of Hasid vs. Hipster hirsute jokes. And let me tell you, they were (and are) […]
There’s something nice about losing power. I don’t just mean that I “have” to eat ice cream now simply to rid my warming freezer of its burden—though that is nice—but there’s also the communal feeling of it all. The feeling that we’re all in this together. Maybe it’s the fact that there’s no Facebook or […]
The target audience of YUConnects, Yeshiva University’s matchmaking website, is those young marriage-hungry singles who, due to religious reasons, wouldn’t be able to meet on their own accord. Let me explain. A few younguns gather around a Shabbas table, three guys and three girls. What transpires? Total gender segregation. You see, as Orthodox Jews, socializing […]
There are few things that I love more than Obama’s Horses and Bayonets line in last night’s debate. One of those things are the cheese quesadillas that my roommate makes almost nightly as a College-Is-Fucking-Stressful snack. The other is Bulletproof Stockings. No no, I’m not referring to a new military-chic phenomena of stockings that can shield […]
Jerusalem, ISRAEL — The High Holy Days have now come and gone, and the Torah cycle has begun afresh. Rolling open our Torahs to Genesis has brought the religious Jewish world into a reflection of all things new: A new year, a new school season, a new expression of our best intentions. Those of us […]