In today’s world, we are engulfed by symbols that hold significant meaning, and some that are connected to beliefs and traditions that date back to thousands of years. The Hamsa, better known as “the hand,” serves as a universal symbol…
Yom HaShoah with the Holocaust survivors
April marks the seventy year anniversary of the allied liberation of Jews and many other peoples from concentration camps all over Europe. During the Holocaust, German Nazis killed approximately twelve million people, six million of whom were Jews and one…
Honey, I vaccinated the kids: Jewish bioethics of vaccinatons
In December 2014, “The Happiest Place on Earth,” Disneyland, was plagued by a measles outbreak. In all, 131 people were infected — the majority of whom were unvaccinated. Shortly after, the University of California announced that beginning in 2017, students…
On the representation of Jews in rap music
Clipse, arguably the greatest coke rap duo of all time, has a Jewish problem. In their successful single “Wamp Wamp,” the pair uses an unfortunate metaphor to describe a step in the process of cooking cocaine: after they remove the…
“Shabbat!”: an “Uptown Funk” parody
This is that age old When ladies light candles This is for every Jew, All the Jews: Orthodox to Reform We restin’, digestin’; we keeping the Fourth Commandment Got his kippah on, turned off his phone Cuz he knows that…
Aliyah throughout the ages
Imagine you are living in a land where you must tuck away your kippah or Magen David necklace in public in fear of putting your life in danger, simply because of who you are. This has been an unfortunate reality…
Kosher newspapers? Sticks and stones and words
Unlike the spoken word, which is formidable in its own right, the written word is powerfully enduring and persistent. In general, people’s perception is that the written word — having been meticulously chosen — is usually well thought-out and therefore…
International Jews of UCLA
UCLA’s prestige, location, and admiration for diversity within its student body has made it a highly attractive university for potential attendees around the world. In fact, international students constitute 12.6 percent of UCLA’s undergraduate program. Elinor Samuel: The Tea-Loving Hippophile…
Is it time to move to Israel already? And other questions about the future of Diaspora Judaism
The Impetus: What happened? As most of the world is abundantly aware, on Jan. 7, two radical Muslim terrorists charged the offices of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, killing 12 journalists whom they held responsible for depicting the prophet…
You are why you eat; or why I keep kosher
Personal responsibility is rather like the pet tarantula you might have begged your parents for when you were little: it sounded like so much fun until you got it, but then you realized that aside from being fuzzy and hairy,…