Journalism by Jewish college students, for Jewish college students.
In New Voices’s first installation of the new Bloggers’ Round Table feature (props to Ben and David for this, I think it’s a great idea), I and several other NV bloggers offered our thoughts on the propriety of Brandeis Hillel’s rejection of the campus JVP chapter. You should read it – check out the comments…
My last post alluded to a dust-up where J Street U dropped the term “pro-Israel” from its slogan. Trouble is, that never happened: The national board of J Street U neither discussed nor voted on any action to remove the term “pro-Israel” from our platform, policy or the way we describe ourselves at J Street…
Update: I’ve issued a correction to some of the information in this post. I’m really impressed with the passion that the leaders of J Street U bring to their work. At the student session on Sunday night of the J Street conference, they emphasized the role that students can play in the larger movement. This…
Egyptians are celebrating in the streets, but Israel is worried. Here’s why Israel should support the democratic revolution in Cairo–and follow the example of Syria in 1979.
Ben Sales offers a reasoned and fair critique of BDS – namely, its sacrificing of longer-term practical goals for the sake of a (completely defensible and just) moral standpoint. This is a tactical choice that the movement has made. It’s one with which I disagree, but have no problem accepting as a valid and respectable…
My rabbi made a bold move during his d’var Torah on the first day of Rosh Hashanah services this year. After a brief word on Park 51 earlier in the service, in which he condemned the bigoted opposition in the strongest terms I could have imagined, I wasn’t expecting too much more fire and brimstone, especially on…
Let me first thank Evan Krasner for responding to my critique of his original post.  I appreciate his choice to continue the conversation beyond a simple point-counterpoint, and I’ve learned a lot already. Evan clarifies something regarding the debate at his school that I actually didn’t understand, which I’m grateful for. The debate’s original format…
This is a response to Evan Krasner’s Why is Yom HaShoah not recognized by my high school?, which was posted yesterday on this blog. Evan asks an important question: How could a school that is mostly comprised of Jewish students not commemorate Yom HaShoah? This certainly seems odd, if for no other reason than the…
Yesterday afternoon, I spent two hours on the phone for Brown/RISD Hillel’s fund drive. Â We asked parents and alums for donations ranging from $20 to $1000. Â About half of the funding for our Hillel comes from board members, and the rest from other donors like the ones we were calling. Â The implications of funding an…
I’ll add my perspective to the discussion on Israeli Apartheid Week between Ben Sales and Sam Melamed by pointing out a terrific piece on the J Street U blog by University of Pittsburgh senior Benjamin Kamber. The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement (BDS) is entirely counterproductive in its pursuit of an end to the Israeli-Palestinian…
At today’s meeting of the Brown/RISD Hillel Shabbat Committee, I restarted a discussion that I began several weeks ago: my hope to create some kind of alternative programming on Friday night for people who’d rather not go to services. Â To me, this seemed like a fairly straightforward proposal, but it met some serious opposition, and…
Hello, world! This is Harpo Jaeger speaking (writing?) I’m a new poster at New Voices, having met Ben Sales at the J Street conference. I’m a freshman at Brown University, and I blog at my own site, as well as at Jewschool. This first post comes at an interesting time in my life as a…