Christians in the West Bank; extreme halakhah; Jewish culture & Mad Men history; and more. [Required Reading]

By John Propper March 26, 2012

Christians & Jews in the West Bank [Forward] Evangelical Christians have taken up the cause of Jewish settlers in the West Bank, The Jewish Daily Forward reports. In this article by Nathan Jeffay, a spotlight is cast on the role of evangelical Christians in affirming the lives of West Bank settlers, all under the believed…

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College Students Flood J Street Conference [J Street 2012]

By Zach C. Cohen March 24, 2012

Of the 2,500 attendees of J Street’s “Making History” Conference, a lot of them are skipping class. About 650 students, 24 percent of the conference’s attendees, turned out in droves for the movement’s third national conference in Washington, D.C. (500 were at last year’s conference). Just to break that up for you, that’s: 125 universities, 24…

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There are ‘Israel-haters’ in J Street. And that’s OK. [Communal politics]

By David A.M. Wilensky March 23, 2012

The J Street conference kicks off here in D.C. tomorrow night. I’ve come down from New York to cover it and I’ll be joined by four more New Voices contributors by the time the whole shebang kicks off. There’s a great piece in Tablet today in anticipation of the J Street conference about Breira, a…

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No arrests in ethnic clash; Santorum and Messianics; no Torah for mixed seating; and more. [Required Reading]

By John Propper March 23, 2012

After one of Jerusalem’s largest ethnic clashes, no arrests made [Haaretz] It became one of Jerusalem’s largest clashes between ethnic groups. Yet when the smoke cleared, not a single arrest was made, and no charges were pressed. After a soccer game, a group of Beitar Jerusalem fans poured into a shopping mall and began harassing…

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A Voice from “The Middle” [Campus]

By rcohen March 22, 2012

This year I became a Peer-Network Engagement Intern (PNEI) for my Hillel, which is a paid position that works in conjunction with Hillel International in DC. The program varies from campus to campus, but essentially my responsibility at Johns Hopkins is to help engage Jewish students on campus, and to try and connect them to…

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Après Merah, le Déluge [Terrorism]

By pkessler March 22, 2012

Mohammad Merah, the 23-year-old French-Algerian accused of going on a spree of killings culminating in Monday’s deadly assault on a Jewish school in Toulouse, France, was killed trying to evade police after a 30+ hour stand off with law enforcement at his apartment. With Merah apprehended, France and Jewish communities everywhere can lick their wounds,…

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Knesset passes ‘photoshop law’; Toulouse Gunman apprehended; Why Beinart’s calls won’t work, and more [Required Reading]

By pkessler March 22, 2012

Knesset passes “photoshop law” [Haaretz] Earlier this week, the Knesset passed a law banning the use of underweight models in advertising campaigns and requiring ad agencies to disclose when a photo has been digitally altered in order to make a model look thinner. The measure, which comes on the heels of similar efforts in the U.S….

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Chana Rothman, “Beautiful Land”: A Review

By John Propper March 21, 2012

Rising indie pop artist Chana Rothman seems tailor made for an enthusiastic fandom. With greater numbers of young people embracing the roots of their cultures, music that blends Western sensibilities with world sounds is in greater demand. In the Jewish world, musicians have capitalized on this need for both cultural authenticity and tame worldliness to…

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Next year, as free men [Pesach]

By awasserman March 21, 2012

The sun is shining, the birds are singing and the leaves are back to their original color- signs I personally look forward to every year. And no, not just because I’m excited to wear sandals and paint my nails pink- it’s almost Pesach, one of the biggest holidays of the year. I don’t know about…

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Meet Anna Epstein, a Jew for Romney

By Zach C. Cohen March 21, 2012

Correction appended “He still seems to be the most viable candidate,” Epstein said, even as media elites predict a Santorum-Gingrich ticket in a brokered convention. Epstein is no casual voter. She is currently taking a class taught by Democratic strategist James Carville, where she and her peers are studying the presidential election with the help of…

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Reform prayer app gets upgrade; France killings; Jewish women; and more. [Required Reading]

By John Propper March 21, 2012

Daily Reform prayer? There’s an app for that [Forward] Following the recent release of the Reform movement’s Kabbalat Shabbat siddur in iPad form, the movement has now released an update featuring daily morning prayers. The Jewish Daily Forward reports: “The new application, which costs less than $5, was launched at the annual gathering of the…

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Meta-Cognitive political action, or, why not to be such a reactionary [Politics]

By pkessler March 20, 2012

As a cognitive psychology major, I’m incredibly biased when I say that Roi Ben-Yehuda’s outline of the cognition behind Israel’s recent inflammatory rhetoric is fascinating. However, there’s no denying that history and psychology are irrevocably intertwined, and hopefully Ben-Yehuda and I can make the case that when it comes to diplomacy, a cognitive analysis of…

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Behind Sexual Abuse in Baltimore; An Israel-Iran Imagining; Dumped for God, and more [Required Reading]

By pkessler March 20, 2012

  Standing Silent in Baltimore [Washington Post] Standing Silent, a new documentary exposing sexual abuse in the Jewish community in Baltimore, is Phil Jacobs’, a reporter for the Baltimore Jewish Times, healing project after he too was the victim of sexual abuse. The Washington Post offers haunting photo coverage of Jacobs as he speaks to…

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Hitler, Anne Frank, Gandhi and Elvis…

By David A.M. Wilensky March 19, 2012

The title of this post could be the setup for a joke. Or it could be a ham-fisted intro to a post about Mormon baptism. Actually, it’s both – and neither. Yes, it’s true that Mormons posthumously baptized Hitler, Anne Frank, Gandhi and Elvis. But sometimes reality is a bit of joke. And yes, this…

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Marc Chagall, Revisited [Arts]

By lkatz March 19, 2012

Jewish artist Marc Chagall did not grow up around art. He claimed the concept was totally foreign to him when he one day asked a classmate how he learned to draw. According to the bohttp://blog.newvoices.org/wp-admin/post.php?action=edit&post=11626ok Marc Chagallby Jacob Baal-Teshuva, the friend replied, “Go and find a book in the library, idiot, choose any picture you…

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