Tzedekah As Solidarity: 6 Indigenous Organizations To Support This Thanksgiving
Much like the land that American Jews live on, the money we give as tzedekah is not ours; rather, we are obligated to give it back to whom it truly belongs.
Journalism by Jewish college students, for Jewish college students.
Article Archive
In These Times: A Letter to the New Voices Community
A statement from the New Voices Editor on the current moment in Israel and Palestine.
A Dog’s View of Hanukkah
These are miracles not because they shake the earth or defy the laws of nature, but rather because I was crazy and tender and hopeful enough to ask for them.
On Shutting Down ICE as a Trans Jew
For me, being out as a trans person and standing in solidarity with others are not choices. They are ways of living that allow me to access the fullness of my own humanity and history, and that of others.
Our Nice Jewish Editor Will Focus on Abuses of Power
Content warning: This article mentions sexual violence. The evening I interviewed to be the editor in chief of New Voices, I was nervous. I checked my hair in the webcam, set a water glass nearby, and waited for my internet to connect. When it did, several faces appeared. We all introduced ourselves, smiling, and as…
Full Circle for a New Voices Editor
My first day at New Voices, I remember scanning my desk. It had all the randomness and quirk of the magazine I’d been hired to run: a picture of the original 1970s staff sporting impressive Jew-fros, an old student comic about Israeli politics, and a golem figurine seeming to guard the office stapler. Later that…
Stanford student’s apology for anti-Semitism misses the mark
Last week, I wrote a news piece about a Stanford student who argued that the old anti-Semitic canard that Jews control the media isn’t necessarily anti-Semitism. Gabriel Knight, a student senator in Stanford’s Undergraduate Senate, was discussing the language of a resolution to support the Stanford Jewish community against anti-Semitism. Knight was referring to a clause that…
Campus anti-Semitism isn’t always about Israel
Today, the Forward published six students — five studying at American universities, one in South Africa — who answered a call to write about an experience at college that had shaped their Jewish identity in ways good, bad, or other. It’s an interesting read. The preface states that “every student interpreted the question as being about…
Bibi is wrong: Brussels is not Israel
In 1996, I moved to Brussels. In 2000, I left. In 2007 and 2011, I went back again, both times for only a few short days. I have no Belgian ancestry or citizenship, but I’ve always felt a little bit Belgian — it’s hard not to, when it played such an important role in my…
Co-opting social justice won’t erase reality in Israel
I was hoping that in 2016, the Jewish community would find better ways to reach out to millennials. I guess they have, if co-opting social justice, intersectionality, and related ideas counts as outreach. It started with an op by David Bernstein, the current CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, published Jan. 4 in…
HaaretzQ addresses some questions; raises more
Perhaps nothing characterizes the divisions I see in American and world Jewry better than the list of opening and closing keynote speakers at HaaretzQ, a conference on Israel hosted by Haaretz and the New Israel Fund in New York Sunday. The day kicked off with speeches from Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, MK Tzipi Livni of…
Happy Hanukkah! No more Drake Christmas memes.
I know when those sleigh bells ring, that can only mean one thing: the sound of forced assimilation. If you’re on the internet and move in Canadian or Drake-loving circles, you’ve probably seen the usual “Hotline Bling” memes, now featuring Christmas. You’ve seen the ugly Christmas sweaters with Drake’s likeness on them. They’re harmless, I suppose,…
Nice Jewish girl seeks same for legal wedding
On October 11, 2009, I woke up in my best friend’s apartment at 5 a.m. We had a bus to catch to D.C. We were going to the National Equality March. Before that, though, we had something to do. Together we’d decided we would come out on Facebook, in honor of the march and National…
Student journalism is no joke
Two Jewish nonprofit employees walk into a Christmas store. Then what? This isn’t the set-up for a joke. There’s no punchline here. If you’re me, you walk around feeling divided between a sense of familiarity and a feeling of foreignness. If you’re my predecessor Derek, maybe it all just feels foreign. But it doesn’t matter…
Why I Love Yom HaAtzmaut Anyway
We’re usually pretty hard on Israel here at New Voices, and though more forgiving than some, I’m no exception. Yet, I find that in the midst of all my anxiety over the results of the last election or railing against the settlements, Yom HaAtzmaut provides the ideal opportunity to step back and remember why I…