A recent article in the Washington Jewish Week reports that the University of Maryland in College Park may discontinue its Yiddish language courses after a 30 year run. As a campus with one of the most vibrant Jewish student populations in the U.S.,... 

The Jewish Book Council announced the finalists for their Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature, and Jewschool’s very own Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg made the list for her memoir, Surprised by God: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Religion (published... 

It’s time once again for my not-quite-weekly song of the week. This week, klezmer superstars (the only in existence) The Klezmatics sing “Holy Ground” from their 2006 Grammy Award-winning album, “Wonder Wheel.” All of the... 

The Man The Gulag Couldn’t Break By Steven Plaut Fall arrived late this year in Budapest, where I am visiting from Israel, and it is still very warm on Yom Kippur. The largest Orthodox Yom Kippur services in the city are being held in a downtown... 

When I was younger, I was half convinced that all gay people were Jewish. Certainly, the only images of gay people I saw in the media were characters in the plays of William Finn, Tony Kushner, and Paul Rudnick. (That I considered Broadway plays to be... 

AND THAT’S NOT ALL by Tamar Yonah, INN I knew that Paula Abdul was Jewish, but that she lights Shabbos Candles? So, not one just to complain and talk about negative things happening, I thought that I would write something more positive now. So... 

Between services this Yom Kippur, I attended a talk by a revered and learned elder in my community. Michael had a number of urgent messages to share with us that day. One of them was that the biblical story of Job never actually happened. “The Job... 

Crossposted to The Reform Shuckle . New Voices , which bills itself as the “National Jewish Student Magazine,” is pretty hit-or-miss for me. Mostly, it’s miss. To be clear, for those unfamiliar with me, I’m a college student,... 

The vort is here! Computer Torah! Vort is yiddish for “word,” usually referring to a short, shared d’var Torah. We at Jewschool have collectively challenged ourselves to write one for each parasha this year. Can we write short, meaningful,... 

I didn’t actually make that up: that’s what it’s called. Smithsonian Magazine has a nice friendly little article about Jews playing Bluegrass and old-timey music – and infusing it with Yiddishkeit. Despite the “gee-whiz!”...