Archive
Yesterday afternoon, I spent two hours on the phone for Brown/RISD Hillel’s fund drive. Â We asked parents and alums for donations ranging from $20 to $1000. Â About half of the funding for our Hillel comes from board members, and the rest from other donors like the ones we were calling. Â The implications of funding an […]
As Israel Apartheid Week finally winds to a close across campuses around the world, allow me to take a look back at the demise of the original Apartheid in South Africa. Â Though South Africa’s Apartheid and Israel’s occupation are two wholly different animals, at their core they are very much alike. Â In both, the government […]
I can count on one hand the amount of times I’ve eaten liver in my life. The first time was when I had paté not knowing it was liver. The second time was at a holiday party where they served chopped liver. The third time was when my friend’s roommate’s girlfriend came over to cook […]
At the home of a Persian Jewish family in Great Neck last December, according to the Jewish Week, Ashkenazi Rabbi Mordecai Asheret and an entourage of four others crashed a young girl’s first birthday party. The celebration consisted of “mixed dancing and traditional Iranian fare,” which the uninvited rabbi vehemently opposed. He declared that those who chose […]
Try to follow my train of thought. I watched the most recent episode of The Office a week ago, when Pam and Jim finally have their baby. Spoiler alert: she’s named Cecilia Marie Halpert. My brain immediately floated to the name “Cecilia,” which sounds like an Anglicized version of the Latin name “Caecilius,” who was […]
This is the second post of a series. To read the first post, click here. The next morning we walked passed the synagogue on our way to the main boulevard. It was an impressive cement building with a giant Magen David centered above the entrance, which had two Greek columns on either side. The temple […]
Yesterday marked the 99th International Women’s Day, a holiday that celebrates the achievements across the globe by ambitious, successful women in a variety of fields. Since gender disparities are a hot topic amongst international cultures, I really support this holiday and believe it is important to recognize. Since forming early in the 20th century, International […]
I’ll add my perspective to the discussion on Israeli Apartheid Week between Ben Sales and Sam Melamed by pointing out a terrific piece on the J Street U blog by University of Pittsburgh senior Benjamin Kamber. The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement (BDS) is entirely counterproductive in its pursuit of an end to the Israeli-Palestinian […]
The Israeli occupation of the West Bank is a problem we cannot ignore. Sam Melamed agrees with me. He also says that Israel isn’t an apartheid state: on that we agree as well. Where we differ is in how we choose to approach Israeli Apartheid Week, which purports to strive to bring peace to the Palestinians […]
She has worked as a farmer, a waitress, a creative writing teacher, an in-hospital sex-educator and a lamp-maker–and now she’s writing an internet advice column. Merissa Nathan Gerson, the self-proclaimed “28-year Old Yenta,” runs AskYourYenta.com, where she offers assistance on anything from sex to eating habits.
New Voices reporter Simeon Botwinick spoke with Gerson to find out why she started AskYourYenta and how she hopes to help.