Journalism by Jewish college students, for Jewish college students.
Today was my college graduation and instead of attending, I’m at work writing about it—much to the chagrin of my poor mother, who has now had two children finish college with not one graduation ceremony to cry at. According to a very informal survey I just took, about a quarter to half of college grads…
BBC World Service recently released the results of a 25-country survey determining how the world’s citizens view 16 countries and their influence on the world. Iran came at the very bottom of the list, with 15% of respondents seeing it as having a positive influence and 59% saying it has a negative influence. That result…
The publishing world is hard to get into. To make the process easier, and to give graduate students real-life hands-on experience with publishing, Portland State University created its own publishing house for its publishing school’s Master’s students. The company, Ooligan Press, was founded in 2001. Students are involved in every step of the publishing process,…
It’s clear from recent changes that the mission of the Women of the Wall is gaining traction. The Jerusalem District Court ruled recently that the Law of Holy Places does not require “local customs” to be Orthodox practices, that police had no reason to detain the Women of the Wall earlier this month and that…
In yet another of Buzzfeed’s relevant and so-funny-cuz-it’s-true series of list-styled articles, staff writer Arielle Calderon wrote an article entitled “21 Things You’ll Never Do Again After Graduating College.” And while I wouldn’t say it’s one of Buzzfeed’s best articles (now, that would make an excellent list), it clearly hit home with a lot of…
Usually, at New Voices, we try to keep our articles topical to Jews and to college students. When tragedy strikes, it affects everyone. There’s not much that can be said about the Boston Marathon attacks that hasn’t already been said. And there’s not much that qualifies me to say anything about it. But I’m a…
Anthony Weiner is considering running for mayor of New York City. With his major political scandal now behind him, the rumor is he actually might have a shot at this difficult position, hard as it may seem to believe. His political career might not, as it once seemed, have come to a premature finish. But…
When I was in my Holocaust phase—and by that I mean the years I spent consuming every book about the Holocaust I could find, wildly curious about my own family’s personal Holocaust stories—I was transfixed by one person in particular: my grandfather’s brother, Todris. Both of my mother’s parents are survivors, and both had many…
Now that Passover is over and we have 376 days to recuperate, it’s high time we make fun of that which is too real and dire to be funny during the holiday: the Passover snacks we swallow all too readily for 8 days a year. Our parents tell us all they had were those frightening…
It’s a challenge to have anything feel new and exciting after a few times of doing it. In a conversation that usually arises within the context of prayer, those of us who perform religious ceremonies often bemoan the impossibility of connecting emotionally to that which so easily becomes rote and stale with repetition. The same…
In a winning moment for my boss, JTA sent out a News Alert on Wednesday that he had predicted hours earlier. Said boss, a certain David A.M. Wilensky, posted this on his Facebook wall at 3:21 PM, about an hour after the new pope was named: In Jewish newsrooms the world over: The new pope is…
Every second, 28,258 people are viewing pornography. In China alone, the porn industry revenue is $27.4 billion. And every 39 minutes, a new pornographic video is made in the United States. (Thank you, porn statisticians.) Given the amount of time and energy put into porn—making it, watching it, pretending not to watch it—and given our fascination…
Be yourself. It’s advice we’ve all heard before, and for the most part ignore—after all, it leads to those pesky questions like, “Who am I?” that no one wants to answer—but to Andrew Blitman, 22 year old author of two books and a successful blog, it’s the most important thing of all. A graduate school…
BuzzFeed, that random website that sort of just shows up in your Facebook newsfeed from time to time, apparently has a bit of a thing for the Jews. From 31 Reasons Why Bar & Bat Mitzvahs Were The Best to 25 Delicious Ways To Use Matzoh (and believe me, they get pretty creative in that…
Lena Dunham was nothing like I expected her to be in real life, and everything I hoped she would be. I attended the Jewish Museum’s Purim Ball last night, held in the Park Avenue Armory, where, surrounded by hundreds of rich white people, I felt completely out of my element. I was there to see…