Oy! Oy! Oy! Vey! “Are you eating all your food?” Yes mom, 14P keeps me full The meals here are the best in the west First week was so much fun Signed up for way too many clubs My phone…
Kosher Korner: Omi’s Amazing Chicken Soup
This Friday night, I’m going to host an intimate (and crowded) Shabbat dinner in my apartment as part of Hillel’s quarterly Shabbat Around Westwood (nicknamed ShabbAW). While I could just get it catered with Hillel’s help, I’ve decided midterms be…
The Bruins’ lone soldier
Traveling far and wide from every corner of the world, Israeli “lone soldiers” risk their lives every day to protect a 10,782 square mile territory for their people; a territory less than 1/16th the size of California. Such a decision…
Cheshvan: the Torah’s take on facing those dreaded Mondays
Talk about a disappointing ending. After a month of nonstop celebrating with little respite between the High Holidays and Sukkot, we have recently waved goodbye to the Hebrew month of Tishrei and jumped into Cheshvan, a month when we celebrate…absolutely…
Matisyahu in concert: music and religion on trial
Matisyahu, also known as Matthew Miller, is a Jewish reggae artist who has reached international acclaim — but maybe you already knew that. Maybe you also knew that Matisyahu began his musical career as an Orthodox Jew of Chabad-Lubavitch affiliation,…
Prodigious Babes of Jewish History: Imma Shalom
Exposition of remarkable, yet obscured, women of holy Jewish texts.
The Shabbos Project 2014: an ambitious shot at Jewish unity and observance
Sabbath, Shabbat, Shabbos, and the less-common Shabbath and Shabbas (an attempt to reconcile Eastern European consonant pronunciation with North African and Middle Eastern vowel vocalization) are all examples of the futility of attempts to standardize the transliterated pronunciation of a…
Lag Ba’Omer: holiday of the collective soul
This past weekend, the Jewish nation celebrated Lag Ba’Omer. For the average American Jew, Lag Ba’Omer may be a bit of a mystery — there is no Christian equivalent, it is not commercialized in any way, and pop culture has…
Shomer Negiah: a touchy subject
When word got out, I braced myself for some interesting reactions (and lots of questions). They ranged from “Wait, are you serious?” to “That’s weird, but cool I guess” to one of my personal favorites from a guy pal, “Ah,…
“Matar judíos”: fizzy lemonade or the call to kill Jews?
León, Spain: a young man out with some friends decides to indulge in the tradition of drinking spiked, carbonated lemonade during Holy Week (the week preceding and culminating in Easter). “Let’s go get some lemonade,” he suggests. “Let’s go kill…