Journalism by Jewish college students, for Jewish college students.
There is quite a lot of talk about denominational unity. “Let’s draw together as a Jewish community!” “Let’s build cross-denominational ties!” “Denominations are irrelevant and we live in a post-denominational era!” It is almost as if we, the eternally factional and rather divisive Jewish people have discovered a magic, unified, cohesive land beyond the rainbow,…
[fblike style=”standard” showfaces=”false” width=”450″ verb=”like” font=”arial”] You’d think after forty years of wandering and two thousand subsequent years of diaspora, the Jewish People would be used to spatial transitions. I mean, we seem to pass everything else L’dor v’dor, from generation to generation, so why not the nomadic nature? Don’t we even take a full eight…
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 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…
A cool breeze rolls through campus and students everywhere know what that means. It’s that time of year again. No, it’s not the High Holy Day season that comes to mind, but football season. For Jewish college students, it’s the start of another potentially conflicted semester. As Jews celebrate Shabbat each weekend, campuses around the…
The Abayudaya are a tribe of roughly 1,000 Jewish Ugandans living in and around Mbale. Haven’t heard of them? Me either—until I recently got the opportunity to meet their leader, Aaron Kintu Moses, during a shabbaton at the P’nai Or of Portland. The event was sponsored by Kulana, a non-profit organization that works to support isolated…
If Poland to Jews around the world represents one big Jewish cemetery, it goes without saying that for them, Jewish life in Poland is dead. Then, how can there still be Jews in Poland? After the Holocaust, after the 1946 Kielce Pogrom, and after the 1968 Jewish purges? It follows, that there must not be any Jews…
It was a festive weekend for Vancouver Hillel as the University of British Columbia hosted its Inaugural Grand Opening of the newly built Diamond Foundation Centre for Jewish Campus Life. It was a loaded all-day affair, officially starting at 10 in the morning and ending at 5 in the evening. Unfortunately, due to a high…
A few weeks ago, I wrote about community, specifically the Jewish one amongst the colleges and universities in Pittsburgh. While the University of Pittsburgh’s community is flourishing (at least, that’s how it appears on the outside), the sense of community at Carnegie Mellon University is waning. As I talk to friends, both Jewish and goyim,…
At today’s meeting of the Brown/RISD Hillel Shabbat Committee, I restarted a discussion that I began several weeks ago: my hope to create some kind of alternative programming on Friday night for people who’d rather not go to services. Â To me, this seemed like a fairly straightforward proposal, but it met some serious opposition, and…