Journalism by Jewish college students, for Jewish college students.
My group traveled to Jedwabne on July 11, 2011. We were not meant to go to Jedwabne; it was not on our original itinerary. We left Warsaw early in the morning, and by the time we pulled into Jedwabne, it was a beautiful day — the first nice day after a week of rain. The…
My most recent blog post, some musings on issues of shomer negiah (boys and girls touching) in the Modern Orthodox community, segues quite naturally into a discussion of dating. Dating is a bit of a sore topic for many students at here at Stern College, Yeshiva University’s all-women undergrad school. Warranted or not, there’s a…
Our previous post on #Occupy and the baseless charges of anti-Semitism that have been levied against the movement as a whole based on a few crazy people has received more trackbacks than any other I can remember in this blog’s history. As far as #Occupy bots are concerned, we must be great writers! But just…
On Thursday evening, Steve Greenberg became the first rabbi ordained by the Orthodox movement to officiate a same-sex marriage. Yoni Bock and Ron Kaplan exchanged vows before some 200 friends and family members, wearing matching kittels – the traditional white robe worn during Jewish weddings – and marigold kippot. The ceremony took place at the…
It’s official: “Funny Girl,” the musical semi-biography based on the life of Fanny Brice, will not be coming to Broadway anytime soon. According to Dave Itzkoff of The New York Times, the production is having “economic difficulties.” News of this tragedy made several excited yentas planning their mid-winter Broadway trip plotz. Thousands of gay Jewish…
I’ve been taking care of myself for 71 days – cleaning up after myself, doing my own shopping, making my own food, doing my own laundry – and somehow, I’m still alive (I think everyone back home is kind of shocked that I’ve lasted this long). It has now been over two months since I…
If you haven’t been reading the Global Jewish Voice, our new blog run in partnership with AJC-ACCESS and the World Union of Jewish Students, now is the time to start. There is some terrific stuff being written for that blog. Here’s one example: Loudly Quranic in J-town By Adam Ehad in Tel Aviv So I’m…
The Nile is clogged with mystery – and inaccuracy. Today, Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities closed the Great Pyramid at Giza. According to The Jerusalem Post, “protesters said various groups, among them Jews, planned to attend a numerologist ceremony on the Giza Plateau.” Apparently, Egyptians feared that on November 11th, 2011 (11/11/11), the Jews would reclaim for…
This week’s (first) New Voices editorial concerns the curious appearance of an op-ed by Barack Obama in the pages of a few college newspapers last week. If Obama is a Jew (thanks to the Jewish Daily Forward for providing us with that notion), then he was also once one of us, a Jewish student journalist! Here’s a…
“Standing Silent” This is a profoundly disturbing film. It’s not just the subject matter, although pedophilia isn’t exactly popcorn flick material, it’s the way it’s shot, the color scheme, everything about it. You know how in the “Twilight Zone,” a man could wake up in a world where everyone had four stomachs and goat horns…
You may recall my post last week about sex at Yeshiva University, in which I wrote: Sex. Ostensibly there is nothing of the sort at Yeshiva University. As the exemplar of American Modern Orthodoxy, YU has something of a pristine reputation. […] YU is definitely more sheltered than most places; if someone’s looking for a…
On Friday, Oct. 7, Erev Yom Kippur, vandals desecrated Muslim and Christian cemeteries in Jaffa, the city where I live. They broke tombstones and graffitied clichés such as “Death to the Arabs” and “Tag Machir” (i.e. Price Tag, a Jewish anti-Arab extremist organization in Israel, based in the West Bank settlements). This was less than a…
Though defeating Iran is a given, the costs of a war with Iran would be dramatically high. This much has to be made clear. Israel will never go it alone. The country does not have the assets currently to make any sort of unilateral assault sustainable against multiple foes at once. It would involve the…
Members of Jewish Voice for Peace’s youth wing, Young, Jewish and Proud, disrupted an event last night in New York City hosted by Birthright Israel-Next. According to their press release: Using the ‘human microphone’ or ‘people’s microphone’ made famous by the Occupy Wall Street protests they interrupted a Birthright Israel Next-sponsored event. The event featured…
Last week, I looked out over the old city of Jerusalem, barely paying attention to the view it afforded me. This week, as I sit in a hotel in Lublin, Poland, looking out at the graves of hundreds upon hundreds of Jews, I swear I will never take that image for granted ever again. When…