Archive
In middle school (thankfully not high school), “tzitzit checks” were a common feature of my morning. The boys in first period Judaics were required to prove to our teacher and anyone who might ask over the course of the day that that we were following the dress code by wearing tzitzit. Failure to do so […]
If we’re going to talk at all about Open Hillel, we first have to ask, “Why would someone want to stop someone else from speaking in the first place?” Presumably, because they fear the speaking invitation will lend legitimacy or act as a seal of approval to the offending view, or else it will lead […]
Do you ever get so overwhelmed about your future that you want to just stop what you’re doing, run out into a field and scream, “WHAT AM I GOING TO DO WITH MY LIFE?!?” Yeah. That’s about where I am right now. I left Yellowstone National Park three weeks ago, where I was working seasonally. […]
It was already maybe the smallest stage I’ve ever seen, and much of it was taken up by black spray painted stepladders with boards between them and black theater blocks; the wall behind it painted to look like a brick wall with shadows of barracks on the sides. The woman seated next to me remarked […]
I’ll be the first in line to comment on the policies of the Israeli government, and the first in line to criticize those policies, be they negotiations or the stronghold that the religious right holds on social policies in Israel. I’ve openly stated that I believe that the Netanyahu government’s policies are working against the […]
Though I don’t agree with them on everything (no one should agree with anything on everything), I ordinarily like Haaretz. I also normally find writing in to complain a bit gauche. Whether it’s about food, internet service, or editorial positions, I usually either don’t think it’s worth the bother (“My internet’s being slow? Good, I […]
I grew up knowing that one of the most important values is to honor one’s body. I learned that I was made in the image of God and that made my body holy. I have never felt that way, though. I have always felt that my body is disgusting, something to be ashamed of, not […]
This summer, I had the opportunity to do something that few other men my age do: immerse in the mikveh. Normally, my Jewish rituals are public: I don my kippah wherever I go, I generally pray every morning with my tallit and tefillin in the presence of at least ten other people, and I light […]
After a summer of war in Israel, David Reeb’s series, “Let’s Have Another War” is a powerful greeting as one enters the gallery at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. Reeb places the text “Let’s Have Another War” as a constant caption throughout the series, a caption overlaid on top of gruesome images of war. […]
Like most Jews with ties to South Africa, my heritage is extremely Ashkenazi. In fact, both sides of my family largely originate from the same region of what is now northeastern Lithuania and northern Belarus. Growing up in New York, most of what I was exposed to as “Jewish culture” was really “Ashkenazi, specifically Lithuanian […]