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Michael Oren, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, had a sobering message for Monmouth University’s mid-year graduates: Life after college isn’t going to be easy.
“Your dreams, for sure, should never be abandoned. But they may have to be, for a while, delayed,” Oren told the 650 graduates on Jan. 13 in Monmouth’s Multipurpose Activity Center in West Long Branch, N.J.
Oren started with a grim picture of the American economy, saying college graduates will inevitably enter the workforce slowly and only after a lot of effort.
But there’s hope, Oren said, because people like his parents, members of “the Greatest Generation,” were able to weather the Great Depression and defeat Germany and Japan in World War II.
“If my parents, your grandparents, could overcome such obstacles and persevere at all odds, just think about what you could do,” Oren said.
Oren strove to connect the United States to Israel. No surprise there: He moved there from New Jersey (“Exit 145” to be precise) in 1979. He later served in the Israeli Defense Forces and won a gold medal in the Maccabiah Games.
Yep. You heard correctly. Former Pennsylvania Senator and current presidential candidate Rick Santorum was a brother in Tau Epsilon Phi, a historically Jewish fraternity. Before Santorum graduated in 1980, he joined the Epsilon Phi chapter of TEP at Pennsylvania State. The chapter is now dormant. Don’t worry, the super-Catholic candidate for the White House didn’t compromise his […]
Republican contenders for the White House faced off not once, but twice, in New Hampshire this weekend in an effort to sway voters, a last ditch plea before tomorrow’s primary. Ssounds like a reality series gone awry. Don’t worry, it was definitely not nearly as exciting as ABC’s “Wipeout,” which preceded Saturday night’s debate. Six remaining candidates […]
Republicans wrapped up the Iowa caucuses last night (after this commute-weary journalist fell asleep watching CNN) and have chosen former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney as their champion of conservatism … by eight votes. Yes. Eight. Shmoneh. Ocho. Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum was one Bachmann-sized family away from winning in Iowa. Meanwhile, President Barack Obama […]
A few nights ago I took a cab from Rothchild Boulevard in downtown Tel Aviv back to my apartment in Jaffa. It was 1 a.m. – early by Tel Aviv standards – and I was coming from my favorite little gay bar. My friend found a cab back to his place, and I found a […]
Recently, I took part in the World LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer) Youth Leaders Summit in Tel Aviv. Wahoo! Yes, my friends, the very same controversial and not-so-controversial summit you just may have read about on the news and/or Facebook. The event was hosted by IGY (Israel Gay Youth). There were over forty participants […]
While reporting on the Union for Reform Judaism Biennial near Washington, D.C. a while back, I had the opportunity to sit down with Wayne Firestone, the president of the Hillel Foundation. After giving a speech to a crowded ballroom filled with 5,000+ people (embedded above), Firestone and I chatted about the future of Hillel and […]
Evelyn Handler, who served as the fifth president of Brandeis University, was killed Dec. 23 when she was struck by a car while crossing the street in Bedford, N.H. Handler served as president from 1983 to 1991 as the first and only women to ever hold the position. She was 78 years old. As a […]
We’ve all heard the joke: A synagogue is trying to get rid of a field mouse that won’t leave the building. So they give it a bar mitzvah.
Aiming to put an end to that punchline, the Union for Reform Judaism launched a new initiative called the Campaign for Youth Engagement at the Reform movement’s biennial convention, held near Washington, D.C. on Dec. 14-18.
“I think it’s going to be fantastic,” Ryan Leszner, a senior at York University, told New Voices. “It doesn’t immediately speak for college campus needs … but you have to start somewhere.”
Matisyahu’s Twitter bomb is making the rounds. He shaved. He announced it with a photo and one of the most vaguely expressed personal statements he has ever issued. The argument now is over whether or not he dropped being a Hasid or being religious all together. The tweet is ambiguous – probably deliberately so. The […]