“If not us, then who:” ‘Nana’ aims to help millennials relate to the Holocaust

By Alexa Kempner January 28, 2016

From a young age, Serena Dykman, a young European filmmaker, has known about the Holocaust. As the granddaughter of three survivors, she not only received a school education on the Holocaust, but a very personal one as well. She has witnessed the rise of anti-Semitism in Europe with the attack on the Jewish Museum of Belgium…

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Perspectives on Syrian refugees: Finding commonality in Jewish history

By Danny Blinderman January 27, 2016

In 1939, the United States denied entry to the MS St. Louis, a ship filled with Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi persecution. Half of the passengers subsequently perished in the Holocaust. In 2015, the now iconic image of a drowned Syrian child illustrated the human cost of the Syrian Civil War and the consequences of closed…

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LGBTQ Jews: Let’s stop talking about Israel

By Amram Altzman January 26, 2016

When I first heard about the National LGBTQ Task Force’s decision to cancel A Wider Bridge’s event at the Creating Change conference this past weekend, I was sad. I know what it’s like as a religious person to feel alienated from queer spaces because of my decision to remain religious despite coming out of the…

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Co-opting social justice won’t erase reality in Israel

By Chloe Sobel January 20, 2016

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…

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Ally or aggravator? Recognizing Jewish whiteness in context

By Ilana Diamant December 29, 2015

In 1954, the American Jewish Committee supported the NAACP during the historic Brown v. Board of Education case. In 1965, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel marched to Selma with Dr. Martin Luther King. And a month ago, I heard a college-aged white Jew equate his family’s historical experience in Europe to the struggle that people of…

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Life in the shadow of two holocausts

By Leah Tribbett December 24, 2015

It’s a strange feeling, growing up in the shadow of the Holocaust. It’s never a topic of conversation; there are never any “hey, so how about that Holocaust?” comments thrown into the air at the bar on a Friday night, but it’s there nonetheless, hiding in the shadows. The quiet “after the war, they moved…

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Is there a Jewish Agenda on campus?

By Zev Hurwitz December 10, 2015

When a UC Santa Cruz student leader is instructed to abstain from a BDS vote due to his allegiance to a “Jewish Agenda,” the proper response from the Jewish community is very simple: Such activities are anti-Semitic, and do not belong on diverse, pluralistic campuses. This is only the latest case of anti-Semitism that has…

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Trump, Sanders, and the rhetoric of Jewishness

By Amram Altzman December 8, 2015

There seems to be many ways for presidential candidates to pander to Jews. One might look to the 2012 election, during which Republican candidate Michele Bachmann said she loved Israel so much that she put aside her fiscally conservative values to join a utopian socialist kibbutz when she was eighteen. Donald Trump, however, seems to…

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What Judaism will actually look like 50 years from now

By Amram Altzman November 3, 2015

I don’t often like to think about the future. Instead, I like to study my past (hence my Jewish History major) and understand my present (hence my sociology major). But when Commentary released its symposium wherein seventy professional Jews — academics, philosophers, researchers, and the like — were asked about what Judaism will look like…

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On Urban Outfitters and Jewish masculinities

By Amram Altzman October 27, 2015

I like Jewish boys. A lot. Which is why I was elated when Urban Outfitters released its 2016 Nice Jewish Guys calendar — and then I realized how conflicted I was. While I support the proliferation of the Nice Jewish Boy — and God only knows the world needs more of them — I also…

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Ohio State moves forward from Holocaust song controversy

By Jackson Richman September 22, 2015

With a new football season underway at the Ohio State University, the Buckeye community is determined to move forward in light of a report released this past summer regarding anti-Semitic lyrics in the school’s marching band songbook. OSU Hillel Executive Director Joseph Kohane told New Voices via email that the administration issued two statements condemning…

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Samson’s Delight

By Josh Weiss September 3, 2015

This short story contains racial and ethnic slurs.   “When’s that kike getting here?” “I wish you wouldn’t use such language, Henry.” “Why not? You’ve read the Protocols, same as me. They can’t be trusted, Gerry.” Gerald Thompson fiddled with his pocket watch that was always a minute behind. He glanced at his business partner,…

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Steps towards solidarity in the aftermath of Charleston

By Nicole Zelniker August 11, 2015

In America, Jews come from all racial and ethnic backgrounds, and have a shared memory of oppression and violence throughout history. That’s why, after the June 17 shooting at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church that left nine dead in Charleston, S.C., several rabbis from across denominations came together and determined they had to do something…

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Losing My Monarchism: A Jew in the Motherland

By Jonathan Katz May 28, 2015

Some people go to the United Kingdom and develop a love for the royal family. I went to the U.K. and became strongly anti-monarchist. Don’t get me wrong: the current Queen is fantastic, and the British monarchy is one of the most fascinating traditions alive today. But there’s something I find utterly ridiculous about a…

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Imagining an Alternate History in Lithuania: A Jew in the Motherland

By Jonathan Katz April 21, 2015

  I, your faithful correspondent from the Colonial Motherland, just spent six days in the other motherland – Lithuania, the place from which most of my ancestors came. Other than a return in the 1990’s by my Holocaust-survivor maternal grandmother, and a similarly timed visit by my paternal grandparents, none of my “nearby” extended family…

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