Journalism by Jewish college students, for Jewish college students.
Can an escape room be a spiritual endeavor? Can play help us feel connected to the people around us? Can games be holy work? Can puzzles help us engage with the challenging social justice themes of the Passover story?
“Zines are a lot like Torah: passed down from generation to generation, with each text inspiring more texts, more commentaries, more sparks, more light. Jewish Zines are like Torah in another way: only you can reveal what comes next.”
“The Rabbis wrote commentaries and we write zines.”
For the fifth night of Hanukkah, New Voices presents this interview about the Doykeit zine series with JB Brager, the editor of a now four-part collection of writing on themes of queerness, anti-zionism, and diaspora.
“Diasporism offers a path to that future, one of teshuvah (return) and remembering.”
New Voices Magazine has a different kind of light to bring to each night of Hanukkah: Jewish zines. Our Editor is excited to spotlight a series of their favorite independently published zines throughout the holiday, featuring a new zine each day to increase the indie-publishing light alongside the growing glow of the chanukkiah.
“Remember, post-Soviet Jews are here and we are writing our own stories.” Kolektiv Goluboy Vagon’s zine explores post-Soviet queer Judaism, envisioning a transformative diasporic world.
What happens when two people in an interwoven community break up? A confessional glimpse into ritual and relationships, “Besamim for Heartbreak” braids together archival research, poetry, ritual practice, collage, embroidery, illustration and personal narrative, in a new zine centered around Besamim, the Jewish practice of smelling spices.
In a day and age of DIY Judaism and Jewish innovation, Syd’s Queer Jewish music is modern revelation: a Jewish practice that draws from tradition and is refreshed with new melodies and media. New Voices has a conversation with Syd to talk about composition, spirituality, queer identity, and creativity in a time of quarantine.
New Voices Fellow Miriam Saperstein’s poem on the evening before Tu b’Av, the Jewish celebration of love.
Would reading “Youth to Power” have changed many of my decisions for the good or bad? I’m not sure. But I do know it would’ve made me feel less alone.
As I sit around the shabbos table with my friends, my family, I imagine there are others there with us, pulled there out of the past.
We are very much in the wilderness, traveling together through the desert. This fellowship has revealed to me how much all Jews need Torah – and how much the Torah needs all Jews, especially those who feel most at the edges of the camp.
I rediscovered the power of art and creativity from the other New Voices fellows; when I write the next niggun, I will send it to them first.
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.