Friends and family members have often told me that I am a bit of a Trader Joe’s fanatic. Why not join the club? Just take a trip to the closest Trader Joe’s in town and you will find that they…
Taste of Torah: Letting the land lull
By Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan, Co-Director of the Jewish Leaning Initiative on Campus at UCLA This week’s Torah portion, Behar, introduces us to a most fascinating commandment: Shemitah, the Sabbatical year. The mitzvah of Shemitah mandates that Jews in Israel cease and desist of all labor to fields for the entire seventh…
Henna around the world
This past Tuesday afternoon, the JIMENA (Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa) Organization hosted a henna event at UCLA Law School. Over food and henna drawing, attendees discussed the practice and meaning behind henna from numerous parts…
House of Cards: the Israel episode
Israeli politics can best be described as a volatile and tumultuous show. Recent events have provided yet more evidence of this phenomenon and have cemented president Benjamin Netanyahu’s reputation as Israel’s Frank Underwood. The current saga began several months ago,…
The view from Mitzrayim
The view from Mitzrayim (Egypt) was prettier than I had imagined as the sun set and as the ferry leaving from Larkspur Landing passed us on its way to San Francisco. A little over a mile away, the houses on…
The first annual Jewish graduation
This past March, Aaron Ebriani, a Bruin graduating this June, informed me that this year’s departmental commencement ceremonies fall on either Saturday (June 10th) or Sunday (June 11th). As fellow a Shabbat-observant Jew, he asked me to sign his petition…
Taste of Torah: Not shying away
This week’s Taste of Torah is written by staff writer Daniel Levine. It would be very easy to write a nice Devar Torah about all of the nice things this week’s Torah portion teaches. The job of the Kohanim, the idea of Kidush Hashem,…
Response to Daily Bruin submission: Israel Independence Week is a celebration of survivors
An Israeli response to the Matan Neuman’s plea to allow UCLA’s pro-Israel community to celebrate Yom Ha’Atzmaut, and the important concepts it conveniently overlooked I appreciate and agree wholeheartedly with Matan Neuman’s words regarding Yom Ha’Atzmaut celebrations: the Israeli community…
Taking Shabbat backgammon to the tournament level
No Shabbat dinner at my uncle’s place is complete without a melodramatic backgammon game. Let me set the stage: Clicking sounds from the backgammon checkers hitting the backgammon board grow louder and louder as the checkers make their way around…
Shabbat: A time to look back and look forward
This article is dedicated to the boards of the Transfer Undergraduate Students at Hillel, Bruins for Israel and the Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus for all of their hard work and dedication. A special thank-you goes out to Hillel at…