Journalism by Jewish college students, for Jewish college students.
by Moriel Rothman We are a people of conscience, a people of justice. We are a people who knows what it means to be hated and what it means to suffer. This is what I have been raised to believe. This is why I have faith that when this story reaches us, all of us,…
Rabbi Scott Aaron of the Union for Reform Judaism recently released the latest version of his book, “Jewish U: A Contemporary Guide for the Jewish College Student.” We had three Jewish students from three campuses review it. Their recommendations: the book is too unimaginative, its scope is too broad and its advice is irrelevant for today’s Jewish college students.
Before flying off to Israel a couple weeks ago, I went to hear journalist Peter Beinart speak. I asked him how young, liberal American Jews should engage the kind of “uncomfortable Zionism†he prescribed in his famous June article. “To connect to the people in Israel who share your values, you know?†Beinart replied. “To…
Adam Sales is a graduate student at the University of Michigan. HaRav Yehuda Amital, one of the great contemporary Jewish leaders and thinkers–and one of my personal heroes–passed away in Jerusalem last Thursday night, July 9, at the age of 86. Rav Amital was born Yehuda Klein in Transylvania in 1924, and survived the Holocaust…
This post is by Moriel Rothman and originally appeared on J Street U‘s site. There exists in Israel a powerful fear. It’s a legitimate fear, the traumatic societal residue of exploded buses and falling rockets, hitting Israel against the backdrop of the Iranian threat. But this fear has grown and spread, manipulated by leaders whose…
Crossposted from J Street U. Welcome to seventh grade Hebrew School class: the unit is Israel awareness. The teacher stands at the front of the room, and stresses the purity of Israel’s cause, the danger of our enemies – Nazis and Palestinians alike – and the need to support Israel unquestioningly. We are young, and…
This post is cross-posted from J Street U’s blog. Dual Israeli-American citizenship can make me feel a tad schizophrenic. At our small Passover seder this March I sat next to Gilad Shalit, or at least the chair set for him by our friends on the moshav. The empty seat seemed to lodge a big splinter…
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In his blog post from June 18, Aryeh Roskies wrote that in Israel “it is possible to construct a concrete secular Jewish identity.†His column focused on the struggle of preserving an authentic and vibrant Jewish culture in the absence of religious uniformity, and he mentioned Israel only to contrast the Israeli Jewish community with…
Last week, the ultra-Orthodox yeshiva high school where I teach marked the end of the year with a siyum, a celebration in honor of the completion of a tractate of the Talmud. Almost every male there wore a black hat, but I wore a crocheted kippah. It was clear that they were ultra-Orthodox and that…
In a blog post from earlier this week, Ben Sales suggested that the tension between supporters and opponents of Israeli settlements in the West Bank is nothing new. I would argue that the current tension between Washington and Jerusalem is a new and alarming development, one which should concern all supporters of Israel. But it…
Amidst the political changes in the U.S. and Israel, one important shift went largely unnoticed. Last week the Knesset took an unprecedented step, one which reflected a gradual shift that has occurred over the last several decades. In its first-ever Yiddish Language and Culture Day, last Tuesday the Knesset went out of its way to…
You always remember your first. Mine was on a boat in the Hudson River. It was dark, and the wind across the top deck was cold. Some of the savvier kids were drinking a bottle of something expensive that they had grabbed from the bar while the bartender was looking the other way. Downstairs, everyone danced to “I’m a Barbie Girl.” I took a deep breath. Yes, it was my first absurdly extravagant Bar Mitzvah.