Passover Rhapsody [Video]

By Zach C. Cohen April 2, 2012

Brought to you from the good people at Aish.

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The freaks of J Street [J Street]

By Shani Chabansky April 2, 2012

I came to the J Street Conference looking for allies. As a queer Jew who is sternly critical of Israel, but still a staunch Zionist, I was looking forward to meeting some like-minded folks. Folks who can’t help but discuss privilege, minorities, and oppression. Folks who are obsessed with identity politics. Folks who face the…

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Second night Seders; the poet and candy; quinoa for Pesach; and more. [Required Reading]

By John Propper April 2, 2012

Years later, patrilineal debate rages on [Forward] The debate over “Who is a Jew?” has perhaps never been more heated in the years following the Reconstructionist, and later Reform, decision to accept as Jews those with only one Jewish parent: the father. While many perhaps expected this trend to catch on in the wider world,…

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Elvis in the Holy Land; Passover in style; and more. [Required Reading]

By John Propper March 30, 2012

Israeli matzo is a hot commodity [Forward] Picked up matzo from the store yet to stock up before Passover? If so, you may have noticed the large bundles of Israeli matzo. But have you ever thought of what it takes to get it to your supermarket? The Jewish Daily Forward writes: “But Menachem Lubinsky, who…

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Going Unplugged [24 Hour Challenge]

By Carly Silver March 29, 2012

Hi. My name is Carly and I’m a techno-holic. Like many of my friends, I constantly surf the web, check my e-mail, and watch TV. Therefore, when I was presented with the challenge to “unplug”  from sundown on March 23 to sundown on March 24, I was a bit nervous. I’ve never followed the Sabbath…

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Drawing the Activist Line [Activism]

By pkessler March 29, 2012

Justice Antonin Scalia came to speak at Wesleyan a few weeks ago. Cool, right? Isn’t it great that the University chose to bring a Supreme Court Justice and highly educated Constitutional scholar to campus in order to engage in discussion with the students? Well, not quite. I respect the University’s choice to bring to campus…

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I was accosted by a Jewish Second-wave feminist… Awesome! [J Street 2012]

By Shani Chabansky March 29, 2012

Just after the “Bringing Women to the Fore and Advancing Peace” session, an elderly woman approached me to respond to a question I had asked about intersectionality, a term used in modern feminist theory to describe how all forms of oppression are connected. The idea is that you can’t eradicate racism without getting rid of…

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Brandeis SJP disrupts town hall meeting; Trayvon Martin and Jewish law; Matzah trays go modern art, and more [Required Reading]

By pkessler March 29, 2012

Brandeis Students protest Israeli Parliament Members [Brandeis SJP] On Monday, a Brandeis student group calling themselves Students for Justice in Palestine disrupted a town hall meeting in Newton, Mass where 5 members of the Israeli Parliament intended to speak. This activism comes on the heels of a similar effort by SJP last year. After the…

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Reflections on the J Street Conference [Blogging]

By rcohen March 28, 2012

As a student leader of J Street U, I was really looking forward to my first national conference in DC. Now that the conference has come and gone, I head back to campus feeling inspired and exhausted. I also feel motivated to try and figure out how to improve our organization in light of new…

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Girls on Facebook; Reform lay-offs; and more. [Required Reading]

By John Propper March 28, 2012

Beis Rivkah High School’s war on Facebook immodesty [The Algemeiner] A school in Brooklyn, New York, is coming under fire for trying to force students to delete their Facebook accounts (under fines and threat of expulsion). Why? Because girls, dammit! The Algemeiner writes: “The decision by the all-girls Beis Rivkah High School in Brooklyn, New…

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Jake Gyllenhaal and Scarlett Johansson: A Beshert Made in Shamayim

By Simi Lichtman March 27, 2012

I want everyone to think about this for a second. Jake Gyllenhaal is beautiful. He is also Jewish (see his appearance on ‘Shalom Sesame’ above). Scarlett Johansson, coincidentally, is both beautiful and Jewish as well. I think we need to create a shidduch here. For some reason, no one else has considered the implications of…

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What DSK can learn from the Marx Brothers

By pkessler March 27, 2012

My friend’s mother and her friends have a yearly award which they bestow on one Jewish celebrity. The title? Most embarrassing Jew. And they’re not talking some Marx brothers pie in the face slapstick humor. They’re talking about a Jew whose actions are so cringe-worthy that the fact that the two of you are associated…

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Strauss-Kahn Gate II; Hitler used to advertise shampoo; Media does media, and more [Required Reading]

By pkessler March 27, 2012

Jewish Community protests Hitler Shampoo Ad [BusinessWeek] Turkey’s Jewish community is up in arms after an advertising agency used old film footage of the Nazi dictator to promote a woman’s shampoo. The video created for Biomen shampoo, embedded above, has sparked international outrage. “The Jewish community and the Chief Rabbi’s office on Monday called Hitler “the most…

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An exercise in letting things go [J Street 2012]

By Shani Chabansky March 26, 2012

Before the conference began, David blogged about “Israel-haters” at J-Street. He wrote that they’re here, and that’s okay. We have room to discuss their one-state solutions in the in-betweens, walking out from the plenaries and schmoozing. This place is the only place where “Israel-haters” can still feel like Jews. So I asked a couple people…

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Balancing reason and sentiment [Reason Rally]

By John Propper March 26, 2012

In light of the Reason Rally on March 24, at the National Mall in Washington, D.C., now seems like a good time to ask: how are Jews supposed to respond to a rise of attention to atheists, humanists, and the secular? Given how controversial the Rally has turned out to be (and was there any…

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