As a new Jew, eager to learn and identify, I am so lucky to have so many people who are willing to help, each in their own way. One wonderful family friend sends me frequent emails when she comes across anything of Jewish interest, and I just stumbled across this YouTube video she sent me back in February.

For anybody who's ever been ashamed of being Jewish because it wasn't cool enough, this eight minute video is out to prove that "Judaism is Cool." It features businessmen, artists, songwriters, converted rabbis, and stay-at-home moms, all finding meaning in the Torah years after escaping "Jew jail" - the irrelevant and boring Hebrew schools of youth.

Check it out! 

If you liked this, check out its source: Simple to Remember, Judaism Online. The site offers a lot of insights on Judaism from various perspectives, everything from "Why Do People Hate The Jews?" to "Difference Between Judaism and Buddhism." Keep learning; enjoy!

Yeshiva University sent thirty five college students to Israel in late January through their Center for the Jewish Future. There, students were divided into two groups and took part in a "seven-day interactive learning and community service program" by the name of "Project Connect: Israel Winter Mission." The program is geared toward teaching young Jews about the diverse cultural and ethnic groups that have immigrated to Israel since the state's inception in 1948.

Two short documentaries were created about the program. Check them out here!

Ethiopia Group:

 

Former Soviet Union group:

 

Learn more about the Center for the Jewish Future here! 

Challah for Hunger: Creative loafing.Tonight, I was hanging out with a couple of friends, talking about this and that and a conversation about poaching pears turned into a conversation about baking which turned into a conversation about a particular challah recipe, which turned into the discovery that only a couple of degrees of separation stood between me and this organization: Challah for Hunger. I headed home, Googled it up, and, well, that pretty much brings us up to right now.

In an incredible stroke of luck, it being Social Justice Tuesday and all, the very first sentence seen upon entering the site is: "Challah for Hunger is a national organization centered around activism and social justice." Blammo. It continues, "With our weekly challah sales, we raise money and awareness for the victims of the genocide in the Sudan. Challah for Hunger has sent more than $20,000 to relief organizations and thousands of letters to Washington, urging elected officials to take action. We also work to inspire others, both on our campuses and around the world, to take a stand against genocide."

At the moment, there aren't too many chapters of this organization, but the site provides tons of information for starting your very own chapter. You can of course support their efforts by purchasing your challah from a chapter near you, as well, and if you take a little time and write a letter to an elected official or media outlet about Darfur, they'll give you a discount. Looking for inspiration? They have a sample letter available and links that point you to places to get a little more information or to find other ways to help the crisis in Darfur.

 

Jewcy offices circa 1935 Jewcy is looking for interns for Winter 2007-8 to help with day-to-day production in our Brooklyn offices. Candidates must be organized, motivated, interested in online media, and ideally good writers as well. (Actually being Jewish not required, but an interest in Judaism would help.) Internships at Jewcy are unpaid and require a minimum commitment of 2 days per week. Applicants should be juniors or seniors in college, or recent college grads. Please send a short cover letter and a resume to interns@jewcy.com and indicate which type of internship you are applying for (descriptions below). Those interested in the editorial internship should also include 2-3 short writing samples.

Web / Technology Intern
Your duties start with general maintenance of our Drupal-based site and office tech. Ideally, you will end up able to do higher-level theme and redesign changes. We can offer a small stipend for food and stuff with this internship.

You should have:

1. A strong handle on HTML. If you "get" what XHTML is about, all the better.

2. Some knowledge of PHP and how it interacts with MySQL.

3. A real desire to learn new things, as well as the patience to keep trying when things fail.

4. Knowledge of CSS, including selectors, with the cerebral fortitude to handle big, huge stylesheets.

5. Photoshop skills, awareness of the "Save For Web" function.

6. A clear understanding of FTP. If you have ever done SFTP or SSH, that's great.

7. If you know about Drupal, then you score super bonus points.

8. Javascript and DHTML experience also equate to super bonus points.

9. You should like speaking to other humans, too.

Art / Design Intern
Art / Design interns must be proficient in Adobe Photoshop, Ilustrator and InDesign. Illustration and typographic skills are a plus. Self-motivation and strong online image researching skills also required.

Editorial Intern
This is a great opportunity for eager, young journalists to earn clips, learn about the cutting edge world of online media, and work under talented, entertaining editors. This is a creative position with room for growth. Daily tasks include researching and uploading articles, as well as maintaining and updating the website. Copyediting is also involved. Related work experience or internships are a plus but not required.

There's a slightly confusing article on the Guardian website today about a raucous anti-Semitism debate at the annual conference of Britain's National Union of Students.

Feelings ran so high in the debate at Blackpool that the chairman was forced to ban the taking of photographs and filming on the conference floor as some unidentified delegates were heard to shout "we have your photographs on file" at speakers.

Quite who the people shouting were, and who they were shouting at, is not explicitly clear, but the topic of discussion "whether the NUS should implement the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia's (EUMC) working definition of anti-Semitism" clearly brought out the worst in some people.

The contentious issue was the EUMC's inclusion that "such manifestations could also target the state of Israel, conceived as a Jewish collectivity".

In other words: criticism of Israel can sometimes be anti-Semitic. True or False?

 

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