Journalism by Jewish college students, for Jewish college students.
The 7th Annual Other Israel Film Festival, ending today at the JCC of Manhattan, presents films focused on the stories of the other 20% of Israel’s population such as Palestinians and other Arabs and Druze. The message of these films is powerful: There’s a whole other Israel out there than the one you see on…
Part 3 in a 3 part series. Part 1 is here. Part 2 is here. 7. What are your reactions to survey respondents’ answers to “What does it mean to be Jewish”? What creates Jewish meaning for you? Dr. Steven M. Cohen, sociologist: These questions pertain to areas of great ambiguity. I wouldn’t…
Part 2 of a 3 part series. Part 1 is here. 4. Are the survey’s categories of denomination a useful marker of determining true religious affiliation/practice in today’s Jewish world? Dr. Steven M. Cohen, sociologist: Yes. Denominational identities can be meaningful for people as many are strongly attached to Orthodoxy, Conservatism, Reform, and Reconstructionism. But…
Part 1 in a 3 part series. We might just be the last Jewish organization to respond to the big bad Pew Survey and we’re fine with that. It seems like every response so far is other people telling us what how we need to feel about it, whether we should be scared, take…
The Midwest does not get enough credit for its foundational role in the American Jewish community. However, the first campus Hillel was established in 1923 at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In an atmosphere where Jewish campus life was largely non-existent, the first Hillel marked a new age for American Jewish students who endured…
Women of the Wall (WoW) was founded 25 years ago as a women’s minyan at the Western Wall to meet on the first of every Jewish month. A few years ago, some of WoW’s leaders started getting arrested for wearing non-“feminine” (read: colorful) talitot and tefillin in violation of a 2003 Israeli Supreme Court ruling….
Publications aimed for a queer Jewish audience, like any niche-aimed work, tend to concentrate on certain themes. There are your coming out to your community publications, there are your famous-queer-Jews publications, there are your “my story” publications. And then there is another trend: a deep, heavy, nearly-overwhelming concentration on Israel. Israel is everywhere in the…
BBC World Service recently released the results of a 25-country survey determining how the world’s citizens view 16 countries and their influence on the world. Iran came at the very bottom of the list, with 15% of respondents seeing it as having a positive influence and 59% saying it has a negative influence. That result…
It takes a lot for the Association For Asian American Studies to make international headlines. The AAAS is a group of academics within the fields of Asian and Asian-American Studies who work to advance the fields of Asian Studies and Asian-American Studies. Not exactly the kind of organization regularly covered by CNN. A quick Google…
Our very own Lex Rofes — New Voices opinions editor and student representative on the board of Hillel — has joined forces with J Street U President Simone Zimmerman for a truly cracking op-ed at JTA about Hillel’s pluralism shortcomings: (JTA) — Throughout our four years in college, Hillel as been our home on campus….
It’s clear from recent changes that the mission of the Women of the Wall is gaining traction. The Jerusalem District Court ruled recently that the Law of Holy Places does not require “local customs” to be Orthodox practices, that police had no reason to detain the Women of the Wall earlier this month and that…
After searching far and wide, we finally found the perfect person to make up our trinity of judges for our inaugural essay contest-Forward editor at large J.J. Goldberg. He brings years of writing experience and a unique perspective on Israel to the panel. A founding member and past secretary general of Kibbutz Gezer outside Tel…
We’re proud to announce our first ever Middle School/High School Israel Essay Contest. Every summer, thousands of high schoolers pile onto tour buses to traipse around the Holy Land. Some travelers return home spiritually awakened, others with a new view of Israel’s political climate. They come back full of ideas, angst and passion. And New…
Every second, 28,258 people are viewing pornography. In China alone, the porn industry revenue is $27.4 billion. And every 39 minutes, a new pornographic video is made in the United States. (Thank you, porn statisticians.) Given the amount of time and energy put into porn—making it, watching it, pretending not to watch it—and given our fascination…
Happy March, everyone! St. Patrick’s Day will be here soon, Passover’s not too far off and, despite a whole ton of snowfall in a few corners of the country last week, things are warming up. But as we all know, March is a special time on campuses all around the world. It’s when Students for…