Journalism by Jewish college students, for Jewish college students.
A lot of things suck about Jewish eating culture, like keeping kosher, keeping kosher for Passover, and the fact that the kosher Dunkin Donuts at 86th and Amsterdam in Manhattan closes at 9 p.m. But fasting is the worst. I should say now that I’m actually a pretty good faster. I drink enough before the…
Jeremy Ben-Ami, founder and president of J Street–the self-proclaimed “Pro-Israel, Pro-Peace” lobby–has faced a lot of flak since his organization arrived on the scene three years ago. Facing controversies from the left and right, on and off of Capitol Hill, J Street–and Ben-Ami–have at times struggled to get their message across.
“A New Voice for Israel,” Ben-Ami’s first book hits the shelves tomorrow. The book describes Ben-Ami’s personal and professional journey to the helm of J Street, the issues Israel faces and why he thinks the American Jewish conversation on Israel needs to change. Ben Sales spoke with Ben-Ami about the book. Here are some of the lobbyist’s thoughts on students’ place in J Street, Jewish organizational dynamics and that other Israel lobby–AIPAC.
Amid all of the hullabaloo over the closing of the Yale Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Anti-Semitism, and its resurrection as the Yale Program for the Study of Anti-Semitism, what’s been missing from most of the coverage are student voices. In its statement on YIISA’s closing, Yale said that it had ceased funding the…
I saw the following status in my Facebook news feed today, regarding the resignation of Anthony Weiner: “I hate this country. I. HATE. This. Country. Take your moralism and shove it up your ass.” I too have been vexed over the past couple of days by Weiner’s resignation, and in general by the media circus…
So you thought those May 21 people were nuts? Turns out some Jews aren’t so far off. Josh Freed films an interesting encounter: And here’s Eli Valley on the Kafkaesque Knesset: Eli Valley — The Trial from Jewish Forward on Vimeo.
Here’s a list of the 20 highest- and lowest-paying majors. [Time] I’m farklemt in my genektezoink! [Forward] Everything I really needed to know I learned in first grade. [JW] Elie Wiesel brings the wisdom at Wash. U. [WUSTL] Want to learn? Don’t go to college, and we’ll pay you. [Chronicle of Higher Ed.]
In anticipation of their reactive “Move Over AIPAC” conference this weekend in Washington, DC, JVP has sent out a press release with a few assertive quotations from members of its “Young, Jewish, Proud” youth wing. The statements from YJP, whose members disrupted Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu’s speech at the Federations’ General Assembly in November,…
As commencement season draws to a close, I turned the Jewdar on to see how MOTs fared in this year’s roster of commencement speakers. The result: rather well. The most complete list I could find included 47 speech-makers adressing graduates at over 50 universities nationwide, so there’s a lot of data missing. The sample I…
Those who enjoy the US media’s over-coverage of Israel should rejoice: The New York Times has printed no fewer than four editorials or op-eds yesterday and today having to do with the Jewish state. The surge in Israeli-Palestinian-related commentary comes in anticipation of a week filled with high-level Israeli-American dialogue. Tomorrow, President Obama will deliver a speech…
Ouch! [Inflation Data] Schechter put $240,000 toward a new logo and slogan, among other initiatives. [JW] Birthright is raking in the cash. [JW] A self-hating Jew named Israel. [Tablet] This person hates Philip Roth. [The Guardian]
Only in Israel… [Ha’aretz] I’ll be honest: This is here only because the words “New Voices” are in the title. [NYT] Interesting piece on the hunt for Ivan Demjanjuk. [Forward] Leonard Fein goes to Sderot and Gaza. [Forward] The first Jewish mayor of the Second City. [Tablet]
Yesterday’s tragic events–a terrorist in Tel Aviv killed an innocent man and the IDF shot and killed several people trying to breach the Israeli-Syrian border–are the latest results, in part, of the battle between two competing historical narratives: one that commemorates the fifth of Iyyar as a miraculous Day of Independence and another that marks…
A brilliant, though morally dubious, satire of the Bin Laden killing. [Galactic Empire Times] A hilariously appropriate response to the Der Tzeitung-Hillary Clinton fiasco. [Feministe] Turning the Der Tzeitung-HC fiasco into a meme. [Hasidic Photoshop] Who said falafel could unite Israelis and Palestinians? In Brooklyn, it’s another excuse to fight. [The Brooklyn Paper] A clever idea: limericks…
This is what happens when the Maccabeats and Fountainheads can’t get their acts together. The best part is the voice crack on “Yeah!’ Ben Laden: still at large. [The Faster Times] This is the best response I’ve ever seen to attempted university censorship of a college paper. [College Media Matters] Here’s funnyman Joel Chasnoff being funny in…
Announcing our new office and new editor in chief! At around this time two years ago, I found out via a five-minute phone call that I would be the next New Voices editor and director of the Jewish Student Press Service. About six weeks later I began my first day in a room cluttered with…