Billy Joel Is Only Human
The Jewish songwriter’s lifelong struggle with depression led him to become a public mental health advocate, even in the face of media-wide ableism.
Journalism by Jewish college students, for Jewish college students.
Jay Wells
Depressed Jew Takes A Name
No one gives you any real guidance on how to handle depression.
Converting to Judaism in Small-Town Kentucky
Before 23-year-old Aleah Gabbard began her conversion to Judaism four years ago, she grew up around deeply-rooted anti-Semitism in Owensboro, Kentucky. Owensboro made national news this past Halloween when a resident wore a Nazi soldier costume and dressed his young son as Hitler. This incident reflects the environment that Gabbard experienced in public schools in…
Murder of Gay, Jewish Student Raises Questions About Hate Crime Prosecution
On January 9th, 2018, Blaze Bernstein’s corpse was discovered in a shallow grave in Lake Forest, California. Bernstein’s murder came in the wake of the year that had, according to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), the largest single-year increase of anti-Semitic incidents on record. Bernstein was a 19-year-old gay, Jewish man. His alleged killer is 21-year-old…
“We Bonded Over Weird”: Yom Kippur in Rural Kentucky
Being a Jewish student at Western Kentucky University (WKU) feels like attending college in a ghost town. There are no hallmarks of Jewish collegiate life here. No Hillel, no Jewish student group, not even a synagogue in Bowling Green, the town surrounding campus. It’s an experience of alienation, but ironically also the basis for connection….
Antifa Activist Talks Jewish Identity After Protest at University of Tennessee
Eva Watler, age 41, has been dealing with Nazis in Tennessee since she was 13 years old when she was jumped by a pack of skinheads in Dragon Park in Nashville. “They were looking for Jews to beat up,” she said. “I was 13 and I didn’t know how to fight. It was shocking.” As…
Discovering My Judaism in Bowling Green, Kentucky
I hail from the city of Louisville, Kentucky. Louisville is a river city built on the banks of the Ohio river. That river is the only thing that separates the metropolis from being swallowed by the cultural mass of the Rust Belt, which begins with expanses of southern Indiana. As such, Louisville remains a part…