Journalism by Jewish college students, for Jewish college students.
I don’t think anyone can officially call themselves a college student until they have been cancelled out of a class. Now, you may be thinking to yourself, what’s the big deal? So you can’t take ONE class this term. La-de-da. Well, that’s not the real problem. Getting closed out of a class thrusts you into…
Crossposted to The Reform Shuckle JewishBoston.com, the genius website that every other federation in the country should be clamoring to imitate, has created a new haggadah, “The Wandering is Over Haggadah.” Much to the delight of people who get bored during the seder, they claim that this haggadah’s version of the seder should take only…
How did Rahm Emanuel become mayor of Chicago? Maybe it was all because of the efforts of the Jewish media conspiracy, which has apparently completely overrun TV news in the Windy City. This cover story from the Chicago Jewish News–cleverly headlined, “And in local news, JEWS”–points out that no less than three Chicago television stations…
Facebook removes page calling for third intifada… and a new page saying the same thing appears. [Haaretz] If you haven’t read Jeffrey Goldberg’s defense of J Street in the face of the McCarthy Knesset investigation of the group, you should. And manages to critique them at the same time. [The Atlantic] Time is all over–kind of–Eliezer, the…
In Israel, Druze are overrepresented in the Israeli Defense Forces and the Knesset relative to their population. In Lebanon, Druze had their own militia during the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990) and have their own political party today. In Syria, Druze rebels were instrumental in fighting the French during Syria’s 1925 uprising. The basic idea is…
In what should come as no surprise to people who pay attention to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the last couple of weeks have seen a lot of death in the Holy Land–on both sides. Jewish Voice for Peace, the American Jewish pro-BDS group, released a statement on this violence last week. In its mission statement, JVP…
A couple of JTS students ask Times Square passersby in the hilarious video above. Here’s a cool feature where high school students talk about their future. Even cooler game: debate which of these high schoolers may or may not be Jewish. [NYT] And here’s a video where a bunch of younger kids–all Jewish–talk about the Jewish future….
“Free, Funny, and Full-of-Food.” That is how we advertised for Comedy Club Shabbat, which occurred last Friday night. A free dinner-show style buffet began at 7pm and the comedy began as dessert was served at 7:45pm. Two members of Miami University’s stand-up comedy club started the night off, warming up the crown with some humor…
Because they really stick to their guns. Yes, this is coming from someone who advocated for school uniforms in sixth grade. But my point is cogent. It’s not all pluralistic free-for-all “As long as you’re not naked”. It’s akin to not letting shoeless guys in, either. As much as it’s what’s on the inside that…
Syria Captial: Damascus Population: ~22,000,000; 70% Sunni Arab, large minorities of Kurds, Christians, Druze and Alawite Muslims President: Bashar al-Assad Former President: Hafez al-Assad __________ The revolutions that started in North Africa are creeping into Israel’s domain. The Levant – the eastern coastline of the Mediterranean Ocean that is home to Israel, the Palestinian territories,…
One of the musicians told me Divine Sparks didn’t have as much rehearsal time as they thought they needed. From the second balcony of the Berklee performance center, the sound mixing seemed uneven, the guitar close to inaudible. Despite these kinks, this was one of the more interesting concerts I’ve gone to, to say the…
Rabbi Richard Jacobs, the spiritual leader of a large Reform congregation in Scarsdale, NY, was just tapped to lead the Union for Reform Judaism next year–effectively making him the top rabbi of America’s largest denomination. According to the JTA, Rabbi Jacobs wants to make the movement a “big tent with its flaps wide open and…
I was sitting in the Ministry of the Interior office in the center of town in Jerusalem, I was applying for my Israeli passport. I was sucked into a fairly successful game of angry birds on my ipod. I looked up, the “take a number” board listed 32, only 10 more numbers until it was my turn….
Halloween gives you candy. Purim gives you Hamantaschens. After slowly recovering from the ODing on poppy seed hamantaschens, and getting the noise of groggers out of my head, I look back on this past Purim and describe it in one word: scandalous. Every year, my congregation puts on a Purim Spiel. The play tells the…
I admittedly know little about Yiddish. My great-grandmother spoke it. My grandma can understand it. I used to get called a chazer (pig) on account of my messy room. But I had to pause when I saw this interview with K. David Harrison. A linguistics professor at Swarthmore College, he had this to say about…