Journalism by Jewish college students, for Jewish college students.
Where can you find the Jews? Thanks to the Diaspora, pretty much everywhere – and, according to recent genetic testing, there might be members of the Tribe in places we had never imagined. A new study of Colorado Native Americans has found that many of these individuals have the so-called “Ashkenazi mutation,” described as “deleterious…
In recent months, the reputation of horse racing has been tarnished, in many ways due to the HBO TV show Luck. In March, Luck was canceled because several horses were fatally injured on set. Such injuries are all too common in horse racing and often are the reasons people object to animals being raced. Tragic…
Carly Silver explores her family’s ancestral haunts in Brooklyn.
Hi. My name is Carly and I’m a techno-holic. Like many of my friends, I constantly surf the web, check my e-mail, and watch TV. Therefore, when I was presented with the challenge to “unplug” from sundown on March 23 to sundown on March 24, I was a bit nervous. I’ve never followed the Sabbath…
Jewish food is making a comeback with the help of Gefilteria, which brings Old World food into New York of the twenty-first century. The minds behind this start-up – Jacqueline Lilinshtein, New Voices alum Elizabeth Alpern, and Jeffrey Yoskowitz – aim to help revive a tradition that, when done right, doesn’t remain in the 1800s,…
Though the popular perception of a rapper usually includes a a humongous diamond necklace (see: Rick Ross’ chain with a pendant depicting his own face), tattoos covering every visible inch of one’s body, and a trace of marijuana smoke trailing up behind one’s head. In the past few years, though, many new faces have popped…
While most Americans push marriage further and further off into adulthood, marriage is alive and thriving among some Jewish college students in Manhattan.
Only 51% of American adults (individuals 18 and older) were married in 2010, compared to 72% in 1960, says a recent report from the Pew Research Center. But many Jewish college couples have found that now is the right time for them to make a life commitment. Some are shomer negiah — meaning that they follow a strict interpretation of Jewish law that only allows them to be in intimate physical contact within the confines of marriage. Other Jewish pairs simply find that tying the knot is the next stage in their relationships. Maybe it’s a mixture of both.
This past weekend marked not only Nicki Minaj’s first-ever onstage exorcism, but also the passing of one of America’s greatest talents of the past two decades: Whitney Houston. Known for powerful vocals and expressive ballads, Houston remains a part of the American soundscape through songs like “I Will Always Love You” and “I Wanna Dance…
Network television shows have long played upon various Jewish stereotypes. Several of these conventions were alive and well in prominent 1990s television situation comedies, or “sitcoms,” such as Will and Grace and The Nanny. Both shows frequently invoked stereotypes about Jewish women in relation to culture and religion. Characters rarely accessed their Jewish heritage outside…
My usual pre-Thanksgiving ritual doesn’t involve putting on stretch pants to allow for that last extra bite of stuffing. Neither does it involve watching the Macy’s Day Parade. Instead, before I head over to my grandparents’ house for Turkey Day with my family, I make sure to catch up on the latest episodes of my…
For the fifth consecutive year, Manhattan’s Jewish Community Center hosted the Other Israel Film Festival. A project devoted to exposing issues facing Israeli minorities, the festival brought together directors and films from Nov. 10-17 to “foster social awareness and cultural understanding,” according to the festival’s website. The festival included two Palestinian filmmakers this year. “We are constantly expanding and including other minority populations,” Isaac Zablocki, the JCC’s director of film programs, wrote in an email. The films shown at the festival represent the identities of many of contemporary’s Israel’s disenfranchised communities.
Last year, the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) advised “conscientious filmmakers not to participate in this festival,” according to a release on its website. The organization’s concerns included allegedly propagandistic wording in official OIFF statements and “whitewashing” of what they call Apartheid-like practices in Israel.
The Nile is clogged with mystery – and inaccuracy. Today, Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities closed the Great Pyramid at Giza. According to The Jerusalem Post, “protesters said various groups, among them Jews, planned to attend a numerologist ceremony on the Giza Plateau.” Apparently, Egyptians feared that on November 11th, 2011 (11/11/11), the Jews would reclaim for…
English comedian Ricky Gervais created the original British version of The Office, which quickly jumped across the Atlantic to the U.S. Here, no one was quite sure the hit NBC comedy could ever be the same after Michael Gary Scott left Dunder Mifflin, but this hasn’t stopped other countries from playing on the formula the British series developed. Enter the…
Columbia University (New York City)–Columbia University has a large Jewish population but, according to some Sephardi students, the Columbia-Barnard Hillel can’t satisfy all of its constituents. Reflective of the makeup of the American Jewish community, most of the school’s Jewish students are Ashkenazi, meaning that they are of eastern European or German descent. Jews of other heritages, like Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews, face a lack of opportunities to express their religious and cultural identities. Ashkenazi and Sephardi-Mizrahi practices differ in a variety of ways, ranging from the order of prayers in services to Passover customs. “The prayers, of course, are similar, but there’s some differences,” Columbia senior Mathew Samimi, a French-Persian Jew, pointed out.