Free free Palestine. Long live the intifada. Intifada. Intifada. Thursday, November 15 witnessed these slogans ring forth from the mouths of students on the lawn in front of Kerckhoff Hall. About 30 students gathered with signs declaring “Free Palestine,” “Stop…
New man on campus: Rabbi Avner Engel, JAM’s latest addition
The pitter-patter of tiny feet thundering upon a polished wood floor — socks and little legs moving as fast as the laws of physics can carry them — sound in the sparsely-furnished room. Little trains chug soundlessly on the left…
Yiddishkayt’s Helix Project: a modern adventure into the forgotten Yiddish past
Cobblestone paths and narrowly winding streets. Freshly painted yellow buildings and crumbling courtyards boarded up in disrepair. Vilnius, summer 2012, or as the Yiddish speaking Jewish population called it prior to World War II, Vilna, the Jerusalem of Lithuania. Ten…
Answering the call: Jerusalem Online U as a supplementary education for college students and beyond
The Problem: anti-Semitism on American university campuses In order to make life a little simpler and to make sense of a chaotic world, humans subconsciously overlook pressing problems, preventing themselves from seeing the harsh reality in front of them and…
Orthodox Judaism in the western world: a harmonic business deal
Businessmen Steven Spira and Paul Cohen address a roomful of students at the JAM building at UCLA. (photo by Tessa Nath) Observant Judaism and the modern world are not always seen as a completely cohesive pair; people often equate the…
Survivors’ Message Immortalized Through Storytelling
Leon Weinstein and his daughter Natalie Gold Lumer in a loving embrace. (photo by Clifford Lester/Jewish Journal)A 101 year-old man died on December 28th, 2011 in his bedroom in the early hours of the morning. His daughter, a phone call…
Rabbi Rupp answers a common question about Judaism and science
Question: “Rabbi, I’m a cultural Jew; I support the US-Israel relationship, and I am proud to be Jewish. But let’s be honest, I believe that by now we can rely on science as the best way to explain our world.”…
Halloween and Judaism: a contradiction or a coalition?
Halloween—the night of disguised merriment and childhood dreams. The night where it doesn’t matter if you were an all-star on your high school baseball team, genius enough to discover the theory of relativity, or had the body of an angel—you…
Interfaith challah sales help to prevent genocide
Photo by Jacob Goldberg Arriving at Hillel on the last night of sukkot and passing the wooden sukkah on your right painted green, yellow and red, you have the unmistakable feeling of entering a homogenous Jewish environment. Upon ascending one…
Challah baking on frat row: a new kind of Jewish experience
Walking up the steps into the JAM (Jewish Awareness Movement) house on fraternity row, you are immediately overcome by the sights and smells of family and home. While not many living rooms can boast ten lime green armchairs, two couches, several dozen folding…