Journalism by Jewish college students, for Jewish college students.
This op-ed from the New York Times made me angry. Essentially, Turki al-Faisal insists in his article, titled “Land First, Then Peace,” that the only route toward peace is pre-1967 borders. Land first, peace later. Well, dear Saudi Arabian prince, with that mindset, we’ll surely make some progress now that we know where you stand…
Pretend you know nothing. No politics, no religious conflict; no war, no prejudice. All you know is you’re in the Old City of Jerusalem, strolling along the ancient cobblestones surrounded by towering walls of Jerusalem stone. You’re in the Muslim Quarter. You’re Jewish, obviously so, the fact revealed by your pale skin and the typical…
There’s a blog on Salon.com I like to read called “How to Save the World,†in which author Dave Pollard espouses his environmental philosophy, creative works, business papers and essays “in search of a better way to live and make a living, and a better understanding of how the world really works.†Among other things,…
Have you been here? I have a classmate at Brandeis who has. She’s originally from Bangladesh but now resides in the Netherlands. She’s not Jewish. She chose to visit Auschwitz-Birkenau after her high school history teacher sparked her curiosity in the famous exhibit of victims’ shoes in the Auschwitz museum. This summer, she had the…
I’ve been thinking a lot about the impending schism in Orthodox Judaism in America. I’ll be perfectly honest and tell you flat out I’m pro-schism: Whether the moguls of the Orthodox world like it or not, it’s coming, and personally, I’d like to help bring it on. Where to start? Easy: the National Council of…
So there are answers to the “Where is God?†question after all. I’d like to respond to a couple of comments that appeared on my last post that both validated my observation of God’s absence but provided different reasons for it. Benjamin Siegel’s main claim was that “God is nothing more than a very compelling…
It’s a personal relief to see so many Jewish innovators and new Jewish organizations really giving a lot of thought to the Jewish experience, which is something I feel was left out too often in my Jewish day school and Young Israel synagogue experience. But I’m confused about one thing: Where is God? The question…
It’s hard to look. The Boston Globe’s photo blog, The Big Picture, advertises itself as “news stories in photographs.” The photojournalism is breathaking. The images are sharp and focused. They tell a story, and often, quite a moving one. But bear in mind that photojournalism is tricky, and it takes a few moments to discern…
Congratulations, Judaism! Reality TV has chosen you to teach the most spoiled, hostile, and disrespectful teenagers a lesson. According to a recent article in Haaretz, BBC’s “The World’s Strictest Parents” recently filmed an episode in the Orthodox-only Israeli village of Nof Ayalon to see whether two teenage high school dropouts, Jack Travers and Gemma Lyons,…
I find that I’m often struggling to find a way to best answer a question that comes up so often now that I’m a college student: Why are colleges so liberal? Curious myself, I picked up a book titled One Party Classroom by David Horowitz. Horowitz argues that professors in the most prestigious and high-ranked…
In honor of my first blog post, I’m going to steer clear of all issues pertaining to elected Israeli officials, elected (maybe?) Iranian officials, and Holocaust museums. As important as these things are, I’ll wait to discuss the more controversial ideas bouncing around on this blog until I feel a little more comfortable. But in…