Journalism by Jewish college students, for Jewish college students.
In less than one month, I should be gliding into Chennai (formerly known as Madras), India. From there, I’ll travel 100 miles south to the city of Pondicherry with about 15 other American students. Why would I leave the steely gray beauty of Pittsburgh for the warmth and bustle of a southeast coastal town in the…
Despite the unrelenting rain, seven people made it to Pittsburgh’s first Pre-Aliyah Community Meeting on Tuesday. The purpose of the group is two-fold — to bring people together and create a network of those interested in aliyah; and to provide resources to the group from the Jewish Agency and Nefesh B’Nefesh. After the meeting started on Jewish…
Because I am an older child and because I am a writer, I like to have the last word. And not that this post has to be the last one either, but I wanted to address some of the thoughtful comments that resurfaced about the GA (General Assembly of the Jewish Federations of North America)…
Sure, it’s practically Tuesday, nearly two in the morning at this point, but I want to return to this weekend, to Friday night in particular. I’ve written about this issue before, but too long ago to hyperlink it (sorry). Anyway, my thoughts have started shifting. I’m thinking about how college students approach Shabbat for a…
At the General Assembly of the Jewish Federations of North America in New Orleans, one in four delegates was a student. Over 600 students came in total—a high for the conference—and 44 of those were from the Hillel Jewish University Center (JUC) of Pittsburgh. Though attendance was clearly high on the student front, students were…
In my endless effort to procrastinate on Sunday afternoon–with the rain not helping, with my to-do list getting longer–I end up in a familar place: The New York Times homepage. Now, I could sing an ode or shout a rant to the Gray Lady, depending on the day, but I won’t go into that here. What…
Clearly, I like to riff on the wisdom of Raymond Carver in my blog posts–but so what? I like repetition. And repetition is just one of the million things I want to talk about after having just gotten back from the General Assembly (of the Jewish Federations of North America) less than 24 hours ago….
This post comes a bit late tonight, because I’ve been consumed with an article for the fall issue of New Voices on the state of Reform Judaism on college campuses. The article could be a novella, and I had to condense it into an approximately 1,000-word article. Talk about challenging. But what was neat about…
New York? Pittsburgh? Hamas? Didn’t see that third one coming, did you? Me neither. I’ll admit, there are certain taglines or catchphrases that seem timeless. “Got milk?” is one that lends itself nicely to variations. And the “I heart (or I love…)” may be even more timeless. It’s certainly provocative. I don’t know many people…
If you’re not familiar with city nicknames, the title of this post may come as a bit of a surprise. But really, it’s just a fancy way of saying that we are going to the General Assembly (GA) in New Orleans, Louisiana. By “we”, I mean a contingent of 40 people from Pittsburgh’s Hillel, as…
Now, normally this would not be my ideal dinner-table conversation, as my DNA knowledge is limited to 9th grade biology (and that is light years in the past). But, with the Victor Center’s testing for Jewish Genetic Diseases coming up this Wednesday, this topic is certainly on my mind. I hate to plagiarize, and since…
This morning, Justin Jacobs, a fellow Pittsburgher and an associate editor at The Jewish Chronicle, interviewed me about a neat summer experience I had. Which made me realize that I hadn’t written anything so “official” about it yet. So, what better forum than New Voices? I’ll break it down like this: Who: Me (a creative…
is apple picking! Or at least that’s what I think. On Sunday, I went apple picking at Triple B Farms in Monongahela, Pa. which is about 45 minutes from Pittsburgh on winding roads that caution you: “Winding Road Next 1 3/4 miles”. I appreciated the heads up, as I was driving the tiny but formidable…
Jews in Rosh Hashanah on Aleksander Gierymski’s picture “Święto trąbek I” Confession: I’m writing this on Sunday. It won’t be posted until Monday, but sometimes I feel particularly motivated, and I write these things. Why am I writing now? Because Yom Kippur is still on my mind, as big days in the Jewish calendar often…