Photo by Judy Goldstein

“The Encampments” – Resilience and Free Speech on Campus

By Daniel Kushner April 11, 2025

Photo by Judy Goldstein On March 8th 2025, Mahmoud Khalil, a permanent resident of the U.S., was detained by ICE. He had committed no crime, only exercising his free speech as one of the primary organizers of pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University. The day before his detention, President Trump cut $400 million in funding to…

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October 8 is a Masterclass in American Jewish Narcissism.

By Mira Simone Kux April 4, 2025

October 8: The Fight for the Soul of America was released on March 14th in theaters nationwide. The film chronicles an obtusely one-sided narrative of the rise of antisemitism on social media and US American college campuses in the aftermath of the Al-Aqsa Flood attacks. Against a backdrop of sinister orchestral music and b-roll from…

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Music in Yiddishland – In Conversation with Kleztronica’s Chaia

By Jacob Berman February 7, 2025

“Yiddishland is everywhere.”    This is what Chaia, (she/her), creator of kleztronica – a fusion of klezmer and techno, told me a few weeks after I attended the Yiddish NY Festival Afterparty, the event – described as “where archival Yiddish and klezmer samples combine with racing electronic grooves, drag, disco, and so much more!” –…

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The ‘Feh’ is Coming From Inside the House

By Lauren Hakimi January 31, 2025

A few years ago, author Shalom Auslander took a weight loss drug so poisonous that later, when he was hospitalized, doctors suspected he had tried to kill himself. Auslander claimed that he hadn’t, but the question remained, what made him hate himself enough to take such a dangerous substance?  The answer is the title of…

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A Year in Retrospect: ‘The Gospel According To Chaim’ Makes Yiddish Theater History

By Samuel Eli Shepherd December 23, 2024

  The Nights Before Christmas It was two hours before the Off-Broadway opening of The Gospel According to Chaim, and there was shiml on the bread: that’s Yiddish for mold. Melissa Weisz, one of three actors in the performance, needed the two slices of rye as part of a prop sandwich for a scene during the…

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Comic Books Are Full of Jews, But Where Are They?

By Adam Garvey September 27, 2024

The Penguin, starring Colin Ferrel, Cristin Millioti, and Rhenzy Feliz, released its first episode this week to much praise. A televised sequel/spinoff of Matt Reeves’ 2023 film, The Batman, it plans to show viewers Oswald Cobb’s rise to power in the criminal underworld following the death of Carmine Falcone, aka The Roman. The 8-episode series…

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How the Kneecap Movie Made Me Want to Learn Yiddish

By Adam Garvey August 16, 2024

This weekend I had the pleasure of watching the recent film ‘Kneecap’ starring the titular Belfast-based rap trio, Kneecap. With their tracksuits and Beastie Boys-esque beats, one might have approached the film expecting a boyish romp through Belfast or perhaps a simple coming of age flick told through Irish language music. However Kneecap are anything…

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Geographies of Transgression

By Evan Price June 28, 2024

I. Looking  “The right to look is not about merely seeing. It begins at a personal level with the look into someone else’s eyes to express friendship, solidarity, or love. That look must be mutual, each inventing the other, or it fails.” – Nicholas Mirzoeff, “The Right to Look”  Growing up, I hated davening. The…

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Bloom

By Rina Shamilov June 3, 2024

“We’d been flirting for over a week now, but being in an Orthodox Jewish seminary made it hard for us to actually do anything.”

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A Seder for Two: Me and Elijah

By Ashton Macklin April 21, 2024

“Black Jews like myself can often have a double consciousness about how they may be seen in one space or another, and hold serious reservations about entering predominantly-White Jewish spaces.”

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“Science is not enough:” How Jewish Tradition Keeps Climate Activists Afloat

By Seth Pollak April 21, 2024

“I learned there is almost no chance that I or any of my peers would be able to create enough near-future change to prevent climate catastrophe. When I left my environmental education, I only had hopelessness.”

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The New Jewish Daddy

By Tyler Kliem April 9, 2024

From fashion to music to culture, an exploration of popular past and contemporary Jewish masculinities.

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image of megillah scroll, with a wood grogger, 2 hamentaschen, and a gold mask upon it

Our Adar Hearts

By New Voices Fellows March 22, 2024

“As we read a text about Adar, and one about feeling the pain of those suffering, The Fellows wrote our own Torah as a response.”

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artistic image of shabbat candles, a watch, and a night sky, challah and grass, that says "dream jewish disability justice" and "radical reverent rest"

Shabbat, Chronic Illness, & Radical Rest

By Sophie Hulet February 15, 2024

“I have seen Jewish wisdom anchor chronically ill and disabled people amidst a society that is built, in many ways, to exclude us.”

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On Covering One’s Eyes

By Julia Hegele February 7, 2024

Through the story of Malachim, our editor reflects on finding belonging amidst war, love, and loss.

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