Journalism by Jewish college students, for Jewish college students.
As previously mentioned at my person blog, The Reform Shuckle, I’m taking a Jewish Spirituality course this semester. This post, crossposted to The Shuckle here, is actually just the first of four two-page reflection papers that I’ll do for this course over the course of the semester. There a few ideas in here that I…
Compiled of 304,805 letters, 42 lines on each page, and parchment sewn together, a Torah is born (Chabad). But what if that Torah could be created and shipped to you in a matter of minutes. Enter the Kindle. With four weeks into school, I’ve seen JanSport backpacks look lighter, and paperbacks become obsolete. Inevitably, Amazon’s…
I found myself feeling immersed in the Holocaust this morning. That’s not as morbid as it sounds- let me explain. The program for which I work is sending a delegation of their students to Poland immediately after Succot. Being as we live in Israel and Israel is a Jewish state, the entire country has vacation…
“So, you’re Jewish?” I’m yanked out of my sleepy haze, completely unprepared for such a question. It’s two in the morning on my second night of college and I’m curled up on the couch chatting with my suite-mates. “I’m sorry, what?” I ask. “You’re Jewish, right?” “Yeah.” I say matter-of-factly. “Cool! So are you a…
Woody Allen on rabbis and post-kung pao desserts: “To me, there’s no real difference between a fortune teller or a fortune cookie and any of the organized religions.” [Forward Schmooze] Actually, given what our religion says about rape, maybe it is better to eat the cookie. (Scroll down to “Shabbat in BA”) [Married With Backpacks]…
The AEPi fraternity house at the University of Washington is the scene for a new musical written and produced by Jewish college students from Seattle. Jacob Bloom and Leeran Raphaely, second year students at UW, came up with the idea and co-wrote the script. Their respective talents complement each other. Raphaely has been playing piano…
Atoning my sins in Amman, Jordan was certainly very different than my past Yom Kippurs. I did not buy a new outfit for services; I did not have plans for breaking the fast. Instead, I observed Yom Kippur without anyone else in my presence even knowing it. Jerusalem is roughly 45 miles away from Amman,…
It’s a little late for all you coffee drinkers this year, but for next year’s Day of Atonement, check out this novel solution to the other problem of Yom Kippur: a maddening desire for caffeine. [Village Voice] And if your coffee comes from Venezuela, feel good. Hugo Chavez: “We respect and love the Jewish people. [Boston Globe]…
Jews in Rosh Hashanah on Aleksander Gierymski’s picture “Święto trąbek I” Confession: I’m writing this on Sunday. It won’t be posted until Monday, but sometimes I feel particularly motivated, and I write these things. Why am I writing now? Because Yom Kippur is still on my mind, as big days in the Jewish calendar often…
The following thought is in part a development of a marvelous sermon given on the “Shabbat of Repentance,” by Rabbi Jonathan Rosenblatt of the Riverdale Jewish Center. All weaknesses are my own. As I write these words, traditional Jews are sitting down at their tables and eating of fine linens for the “seuda mafseket”: the…
If the Maya thought the world was going to end in 2012, some Jews seem to have a different opinion for the next few years ahead of us. One kabbalist rabbi says that G-d will “erase China from the world this year.” Why China, rather than Israel’s traditional antagonists? Possibly because China is an emergent…
There are no photos from those periods in my life, or the lives of my friends. The few photos come from before and after—the baby-fat and dimples proceeding, the still too-slender arms after. I’m under medical supervision while they root out an infection in my right lung, so fasting this year was a moot point….
How much do you pay for the privilege of sitting in shul all day on Yom Kippur? How much do your Christian friends pay to go to their churches? It may be the same amount. In a surprising and insightful series of articles, former NV Editor Josh Nathan-Kazis looks at how much we give to our…
We all know the story about Sandy Koufax refusing to pitch for the LA (ne Brooklyn) Dodgers on Yom Kippur during the World Series, but apparently current Jew pitcher Jason Marquis doesn’t think Koufax’s precedent is so important. Meanwhile, Oakland A Craig Breslow is trying to make up for not being a good Jewish doctor…
Why do the Jews hate Park51 (the so-called “ground-zero mosque” to be built on the shallow grave of the ever-mourned Park Place Burlington Coat Factory in lower Manhattan, two blocks from the site of 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center)? Abe Foxman, Holocaust survivor and the world’s leading crusader against anti-Semitism, told Sufi Imam…