Journalism by Jewish college students, for Jewish college students.
At the University of Chicago Hillel the students aren’t the rebellious ones. The Jewish federation of Chicago fired the professional head of the U. Chicago Hillel along with its entire board on March 30, the Forward reports (written by former New Voices editor Josh Nathan-Kazis). There’s a whole lot of weird in this story: What…
I was in stats class when Twitter and Facebook exploded with rumors that Rick Santorum was bowing out of the presidential race. So of course I stopped paying attention to standard deviations and confidence intervals. Indeed, despite mass confusion when Washington Post denied rumors that they reported Santorum’s forfeit, other media outlets, including CBS, FOX…
Meet a Jew for Jesus… err, the first Jew for Jesus [Forward] Ever wanted to meet the founder of Jews for Jesus? (Hey, where’d everybody go?) Moishe Rosen is a curious personality whose life and theology are being explored in a new biography. This article from The Jewish Daily Forward explores highlights of Rosen’s life…
Jews have a long and healthy relationship with the West’s pop culture forms. In particular, there’s a laundry list of famous Jews making great music. And let’s face it: Bob Dylan is a tough act to follow. So how do we one-up ourselves? Frum Jews riffing on pop music: rock, R&B, even rap. Matisyahu is probably most famous…
I have spent, or rather squandered, countless hours pouring over Facebook. And every few months, usually in the midst of a particularly stressful work week in which I solemnly vow to stay focused, I consider removing myself from its vacuum and just going offline. However, in today’s age, deactivating your Facebook is like dropping off…
Focusing on Community College [USA Today] Community College is no longer the subject of the hilarious NBC sitcom above. New government funding and a dearth of skills in several expanding areas has led to increased enrollment in community colleges offering technical and vocational skills that some view as crucial in today’s job market. However, focusing…
There’s a lot of talk about personal modesty as it applies to the religious life. Religions around the world often encourage a codified form of dress to distinguish their practitioners from “the rest of us.” Fights over the Muslim hijab are excellent examples of the firestorms sparked by the modesty question. For Jews, recent events…
“We need to talk about Beit Shemesh” [Sh’ma] In this article from Sh’ma, Laura Frank explores the connections between true modesty (an ambiguous idea) and the misogyny of many ultra-Orthodox Jews. Can a balance between inner and outer appearance, and the implications of “legislating” dress as a form of social control, be reached? “As a…
The other day, we brought you this editorial about the endlessly expanding list of flora you can add to your seder plate. Now the Rebbetzin Hadassah Gross (actually Storahtelling founder Amichai Lau-Lavie in one of his alter-egos) has this charming video encouraging us all to add an apple to our seder plates. Why? As the…
Jewpacabra Get More: SOUTH PARKEric Cartman,Leopold “Butters” Stotch,more… South Park does Passover [SP Studios] Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the guys behind South Park, have a reputation for injecting religious commentary into their work (see: “The Book of Mormon“). Now in the 16th season of South Park, they take on Passover. And who better to…
In the wake of more alleged hackings by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp empire, I wonder, as a journalist, how far is too far to get a story? In an internet age where so much information is publicly accessible and competition from various news outlets means that the same story will be told and retold from…
Bob Dylan and Trayvon Martin [Forward] Protestors outraged at the shooting of fourteen year old Trayvon Martin have utilized an old Bob Dylan song to create the above video decrying the killing. However, JJ Goldberg argues, their anger is misdirected, and should be aimed at the system rather than a single individual: “Trayvon Martin’s death,…
April Fool’s editions of college newspapers are a storied tradition on American campuses. They are also a never-ending source of cringe-worthy jokes that end up on the wrong side of the line between satire and offense, genuine outrage and bashful after-the-fact apologies from their creators. (As evidenced by these “f*ck-cats;” this issue, which included stories…
I have become a tourist. I don’t really know when this transformation happened. There I was, going about my business being a typical seminary girl, mentally deriding the people who wandered around the city wearing baseball hats and dragged along overtired, over-stimulated children who would honestly rather hear a bedtime story than yet another tour…
Majority of Jews support marriage equality [Forward] Though it probably won’t come as a surprise to most of you that there are liberal Jews (GASP!), turns out an overwhelming majority of Jews support the equality of all persons to marry their partner, regardless of sexual orientation. Specifically, 81%. The Jewish Daily Forward writes: “Marriages between…