D’var Torah: How To Protect Our Queer Jewish Kids
“Growing up as a people means facing frightening frontiers – including the intimate landscapes of our own bodies. Yet, we can build a safer, more loving Jewish gender and sexual future.”
Journalism by Jewish college students, for Jewish college students.
Article Archive
D’var Torah: What’s Justice In A Post-Roe World?
The Talmud’s five categories of damages illuminates the full impact of laws that prohibit abortion access – and can guide us in envisioning justice while addressing their damning toll.
Queen Esther’s Second Seder
The Talmud says the story of Purim happened over Passover. Who says second night seder isn’t special?
Yom Kippur As A Call-In Moment
Our day of atonement is Judaism’s built-in ritual for calling ourselves in.
The Medicine In My Jewish Self, The Torah In My Lakota Practice
“When you pray the Lakota way, do you feel like you’re praying to the same God?”
The Torah of OCD
“The Torah of OCD is simple: it is an important and very serious mitzvah to manage my OCD as skillfully as I am able on any given day, seeking out the support and resources I need to live well and in good health. And it is deeply complicated: I am no longer comfortable theologizing pain.”
12 Tips for High Holidays Balance and Presence
In this excerpt from a collaborative High Holidays reader entitled “Our Still Small Voice”, Raffi Levi brings Jewish spiritual wisdom on enoughness and healing for readers looking to set an intention for the whirlwind Days of Awe.
Two Editors on Revelation and Transition
In July 2020, Rena Yehuda Newman became the second transgender Editor of New Voices magazine. As Rosh Hashana approaches and the year changes, Rena Yehuda sits down with their predecessor Daniel Holtzman to reflect on writing, yearning, revelation, and transitioning on the job.
We Are Someone’s Ancestors
Protest does not remove us from our Jewish people. Machlah, Noah, Choglah, Milcah, and Tirzah are our ancestors, too. Standing for what is right can create new Torah, can change the fabric of the world entirely, and in the process make us integral to that new world.
“When he goes in he stumbles upon her”: A D’var Torah for Ki Tetzei
Content warning: discussion of sexual violence. The below is an edited version of a d’var Torah that was delivered at Yale University’s student egalitarian minyan on Friday night, August 24th. Parshat Ki Teitzei begins with a particularly haunting section: י) כִּֽי־תֵצֵ֥א לַמִּלְחָמָ֖ה עַל־אֹיְבֶ֑יךָ וּנְתָנ֞וֹ ה’ אֱלֹקֶ֛יךָ בְּיָדֶ֖ךָ וְשָׁבִ֥יתָ שִׁבְיֽוֹ׃ (יא) וְרָאִיתָ֙ בַּשִּׁבְיָ֔ה אֵ֖שֶׁת יְפַת־תֹּ֑אַר וְחָשַׁקְתָּ֣…
A Queer Reflection on Passover
“Now when Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them by way of the land of the Phillistines, although it was nearer; for God said, “The people may have a change of heart when they see war, and return to Egypt.” (Exodus 13:17) In this verse, it seems like God did not trust…
Trump’s SNAP Proposal Isn’t True Tzedakah
This week, the Trump administration proposed changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), including a plan that half of recipients benefits come in the form of a harvest box in the place of food stamps. The box would contain foods preselected for their economic benefit to U.S. farmers and nutritional value. Sounds good, right?…
Torah and Tampax
An amorphous red glob has invaded my underwear. It collects in a pool, spreading across the polka dotted fabric with what my eleven-year-old brain declares a vengeance. I look down into the liquid substance that has turned my Wednesday underwear into an abysmal crime scene. From the upstairs bathroom, I call for backup in the…
“Shema Yisrael” – Listen to Syrian Voices
When trying to make sense of the suffering and violence taking place in Aleppo and Syria at large, I have recently turned to Jewish prayers to provide me with the necessary structure to process the tragedy and aid those who are suffering. I grew up unable to conceptualize how prayer could be a source of…
What’s the Real Gift of Chanukah?
What are you getting for Chanukah this year? I don’t mean the gifts you’re anxiously awaiting in your mailbox, though gift giving on Chanukah is actually an ancient tradition. I mean, what really is the gift of Chanukah? Is it freedom? Is it independence? Is it survival? Is it the ability to wrap a drone…