Chloe Sobel

Radio Jewce’s second episode tells an artist’s story in audio form

By Chloe Sobel February 9, 2016

  In the Pacific Northwest, Radio Jewce has turned its looking glass from a goat farm to a young artist. The second episode of Radio Jewce, a podcast focused on Jewish life in the Pacific Northwest, was released three weeks ago and is the first in a “Student Short Series.” It focuses on Elizabeth Goldsmith,…

Read More...

At Brown, Alpha Epsilon Pi becomes Beta Rho Pi over dissatisfaction with treatment of non-Jews, sexual assault

By Chloe Sobel February 5, 2016

On Nov. 3, 2015, near the end of a year in which rape on college campuses became a national conversation, the members of Brown University’s Alpha Epsilon Pi chapter voted to disaffiliate, in part due to the national fraternity’s handling of sexual assault education. After the disaffiliation vote and expulsion from the international fraternity —…

Read More...

Co-opting social justice won’t erase reality in Israel

By Chloe Sobel January 20, 2016

I was hoping that in 2016, the Jewish community would find better ways to reach out to millennials. I guess they have, if co-opting social justice, intersectionality, and related ideas counts as outreach. It started with an op by David Bernstein, the current CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, published Jan. 4 in…

Read More...

HaaretzQ addresses some questions; raises more

By Chloe Sobel December 16, 2015

Perhaps nothing characterizes the divisions I see in American and world Jewry better than the list of opening and closing keynote speakers at HaaretzQ, a conference on Israel hosted by Haaretz and the New Israel Fund in New York Sunday. The day kicked off with speeches from Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, MK Tzipi Livni of…

Read More...

Happy Hanukkah! No more Drake Christmas memes.

By Chloe Sobel December 4, 2015

I know when those sleigh bells ring, that can only mean one thing: the sound of forced assimilation. If you’re on the internet and move in Canadian or Drake-loving circles, you’ve probably seen the usual “Hotline Bling” memes, now featuring Christmas. You’ve seen the ugly Christmas sweaters with Drake’s likeness on them. They’re harmless, I suppose,…

Read More...

Radio Jewce offers a refreshed look at Pacific Northwest Jewish life

By Chloe Sobel November 19, 2015

Think you know Jewish life in Portland? Radio Jewce wants you to think again. Radio Jewce, a podcast that released its first episode last month, is the project of Ellena Rosenthal, a junior at Portland State University, and Aaron Peterson, the engagement associate at Greater Portland Hillel. The podcast is described as a “looking glass”…

Read More...

Jewish People’s Assembly demands accountability from Federations

By Chloe Sobel November 6, 2015

This Sunday, thousands of people will arrive in Washington, D.C. for the General Assembly of the Jewish Federations of North America. Just outside the GA, they’ll be joined by the Jewish People’s Assembly, a protest that its organizers from Open Hillel expect to draw around 100 attendees. The protest, according to its website, has three…

Read More...

New J Street U president will work to hold Jewish organizations accountable

By Chloe Sobel September 1, 2015

For Amna Farooqi, the newly elected president of the J Street U student board, what was once the elephant in the room has now become her job. Farooqi, a first-generation Pakistani-American, has been making headlines across the Jewish world as the board’s first Muslim president. She was elected to the position at the Aug. 17 J Street…

Read More...

Nice Jewish girl seeks same for legal wedding

By Chloe Sobel June 26, 2015

On October 11, 2009, I woke up in my best friend’s apartment at 5 a.m. We had a bus to catch to D.C. We were going to the National Equality March. Before that, though, we had something to do. Together we’d decided we would come out on Facebook, in honor of the march and National…

Read More...

Student journalism is no joke

By Chloe Sobel June 11, 2015

Two Jewish nonprofit employees walk into a Christmas store. Then what? This isn’t the set-up for a joke. There’s no punchline here. If you’re me, you walk around feeling divided between a sense of familiarity and a feeling of foreignness. If you’re my predecessor Derek, maybe it all just feels foreign. But it doesn’t matter…

Read More...