Archive
I’m trying to start a haunted (i.e. outside) minyan for next Shabbat. Conveniently, a friend wrote me an email making an offhand comment about my patrilineal descent (something I’m already highly self-conscious about), and its effect on my minyan: “Either accept fate as a reform [Jew] whose lineage will die out with her and organize […]
It was 2:00 AM and the joint was jumping. Men in suits bustled through the crowded street. Here and there, small pockets of girls were gathered as well. In the snippets of overheard conversations, I picked up Hebrew, Yiddish, and English. Everywhere, an overwhelming, unfamiliar, and putrid smell, the source of which was also the […]
My last post, “How Do We/I Connect to God,” mentioned several ways to revitalize Reform and Conservative Judaism. One of these avenues relied on self-exploration and creating one’s own personalized Judaism. This leads to the question of how to keep the Jewish community together when everyone practices differently. Some historical analysis is very helpful in […]
When the classic beet soup arrived at the table my brother complained “I don’t eat anything that ends in ‘scht.’” Borscht, a soup of Ukrainian origin, served hot or cold, is popular all over Eastern and Central Europe. How did it become Jewish? Throughout history, Jewish people have absorbed and adapted the culinary traditions of […]
“My words fly up, my thoughts remain below: Words without thoughts never to heaven go.” –Hamlet, III. iii. 98-99 Shakespeare: The name that many high school students have come to dread hearing. Each year of high school, the curriculum required English students to analyze a specific Shakespearian play. The year that I was in 12th […]
As I said yesterday, there will be Kol Nidrei at Zuccotti Park among the Occupy Wall Street folks tomorrow night. By way of an update on the logistics, here is a message that went out to everyone who has RSVPed to the Facebook event (all links and strikethroughs inserted by me): Thank you for joining us […]
In the midst of the U.N. vote on Palestinian statehood, which has sparked debate everywhere, college students across the country gathered on Sep. 21 and 22 as part of Hillel’s Talk Israel initiative to engage in dialogue about the Middle East. With large tents set up in the center of 20 universities, equipped with large blue banners reading “Talk Israel,” Israeli cuisine and videos featuring talks from several prominent pro-Israel figures, the goal of the event was to provide a forum for students to ask questions and discuss Israel “at a time when civility is in rare supply in the public sphere,” according to a Hillel International press release. Students at universities spanning the map from the University of Florida to McGill University in Montreal stopped by between classes to grab a falafel and talk Israel.
Today in New Voices, Geoffrey Edelstein reviews “Bad for Jews,” a new book about Jewish celebrities by Scott Sherman, a “Colbert Report” staff writer. The book has illustrations of each celebrity it deals with by New Yorker cartoonist Andy Friedman. If you go read the review, you’ll see a great likeness of Seth Rogen. The […]
My three-week academic study trip to Poland withnine other graduate students set off on Thursday, June 30. We were going, as students of history and the Holocaust, to look at modern issues concerning Jewish-Polish relations. We arrived in Krakow, smack in the middle of the Jewish Culture Festival, which as we learned pretty quickly, is […]
The realization that my office is a five-minute walk from Zuccotti Park, home base of Occupy Wall Street, combined with my excitement about the plan that was announced yesterday to hold Kol Nidrei in the park convinced me to spend my morning among the protesters. There’s plenty you can read about Occupy Wall Street out […]