In (a Somewhat Surprising) Defense of Jewish Education

By Amram Altzman February 3, 2014

I am a product of thirteen years of primary, elementary, and secondary Jewish day school education. I’ve been enrolled in a Jewish day school since I was three years old, and the idea of starting my school day at nine in the morning and ending at 2:30 in the afternoon is totally foreign to me….

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SermonSlam Rocks Brooklyn with Torah

By Derek M. Kwait January 30, 2014

“Sanctuary.” That was the theme the roughly 135 energetic young Jews of all backgrounds and beliefs huddled together  in a wallpapered synagogue ballroom on a below-freezing late January night in Brooklyn to hear sermons about. Better, to hear sermons slammed about. SermonSlam is as it sounds: Slam poetry, but for sermons. Each participant gets exactly…

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In Search of True Egalitarianism

By Amram Altzman January 27, 2014

  Growing up in the early 2000’s means I watched copious amounts of Arthur, Cyberchase, Pokémon, and Yu-Gi-Oh!; I knew the dance to “Soulja Boy,” played on my Gameboy obsessively, and ate Go-gurts (or the kosher equivalents thereof) on the school bus ride home. Growing up in the 2000’s also meant that I saw men…

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New Years 2013 Was a Lifetime Ago

By Dani Plung January 8, 2014

Well, by the Gregorian calendar, we have officially lived in the year 2014 for a week. For one thing, this means I will spend about three more weeks dating assignments “2013,” only to see autocorrect bluntly demonstrate the error of my ways.  For another, this means that both the Jewish and secular seasonal winter holidays…

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On the Queer-Jewish-Teenager Experience (or, Corollary to Last Week’s Article)

By Amram Altzman November 25, 2013

I wrote last week about how I grew up in the Modern Orthodox world, but now feel that, in terms of practice, I identify as part of the vast, grey area between Modern Orthodoxy and Traditional Conservatism, and how I, along with peers from both my religious right and left, can build upon that vast,…

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Meet Steve, Sarah, Eliana, and Jonathan.

An Inter-Everything Conversation About the Pew Survey

By Derek M. Kwait October 28, 2013

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…

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Being Jewish Used to Be Enough

By Jessica Green February 25, 2013

I recently saw a French film, the title of which translated into The Rabbi’s Cat. This movie, set in colonial Algiers, explored the place of Jews in the world: the place of the Jews among a secular colonial power, among Christians and Muslims of all sorts, and among themselves. Do black Jews in Ethiopia and blonde…

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Elvis in the Holy Land; Passover in style; and more. [Required Reading]

By John Propper March 30, 2012

Israeli matzo is a hot commodity [Forward] Picked up matzo from the store yet to stock up before Passover? If so, you may have noticed the large bundles of Israeli matzo. But have you ever thought of what it takes to get it to your supermarket? The Jewish Daily Forward writes: “But Menachem Lubinsky, who…

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Opening up to Interfaith

By ahowie April 4, 2011

I have never been opposed to interfaith, but have always found it very fake.  It was never genuine.  It wasn’t a religious Jew and a religious Christian looking to grow from their interactions, but more a “let’s all love each other and forget we have any differences.  I’ll sit through your service if you sit…

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A Jewish Gem in the Old South

By mmoncaster January 10, 2011

When I took a trip to Hilton Head, South Carolina, to visit my grandma, I hardly expected to garner any blog material. But as luck would have it, I found some interesting subject matter about 45 minutes south of Hilton Head: Savannah sits on the South Carolina-Georgia border, a charming town that is full of…

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