New Voices Magazine

12/10/2024

Calling all college students!

If your New Year’s resolution is to engage with activism, find a Jewish social justice community, or develop a writing practice, we have you covered. Join New Voices Magazine and Avodah for a joint workshop on writing for a Jewish justice community. We’ll share opportunities to get involved with both New Voices and the Jewish Service Corps, explore prompts, and share work. Register at the link below to join us virtually on January 7th at 7pm ET.

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUqd-morTIoE9bumo_ioBzUG9_4IpSs07mw #/registration

11/08/2024

Trump's reelection is painful, dark, and frankly unsurprising. In our post-election analysis, Politics Editor Akiva Colin Haskins assesses the reality that now faces progressive Jews on campuses across the nation. He writes on behalf of all of us at New Voices when he urges strength and resiliency in this dark time.

"We refuse to be passive observers as our leaders and institutions barter our values away for a fleeting sense of safety or access to power. We are committed to a Jewish future in America rooted in justice, inclusion, and peace—not one shackled to right-wing nationalism and hollow promises of security."

To the future.

Read the piece in full here:

It’s been just hours since Donald Trump was re-elected President of the United States, and for many Jews across America—particularly Jewish progressives and Jewish student activists—the prevailing mood is one of dread. Trump’s victory is both a political shift and a profound moment of reckon...

10/21/2024

Folks, New Voices is in dire straits. As a completely independent publication, we are reliant on donations from our community. We work to provide you with the forefront of Jewish student journalism, funding and nurturing young writers and their stories. We have a bright future of deeper collaboration with the larger world of Jewish Media, of a return to print, and as an essential resource for students seeking an independent sounding board in an ever polarized world.

However, none of this can happen without your donation. Even the smallest gift can sustain a piece of writing, pay for an event, or allow us to enhance our digital archive. We would not be asking if we were not in need. We remain eternally grateful for your support. Let us see New Voices long into the future.

Donate directly through Meta or through our website HERE:

Published since 1991 by the Jewish Student Press Service - an independent, student-run non-profit founded in 1971 - New Voices is America’s only national, justice-focused magazine written by and for Jewish college students.The Jewish Student Press Service was established...

06/13/2024

Who cares for a doll when they’ve been chipped? When their dress is ripped? When they are damaged beyond recognition?⁠
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“It’s been six weeks since a pogrom in Israel killed over a thousand Jews, and six weeks since bombs in Gaza began killing tens of thousands of Muslims and Christians, and I can’t stop thinking about dolls.”⁠
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Reeling with the violence and fallout of October 7th and the mass destruction inflicted on Gaza, Kyra Lisse embarks on an investigation of miraculous, professional Doll Doctors. In an historical analysis that winds itself into a searing personal essay, Lisse reckons with the sanctity of the hospital, how we determine what items or entities deserve care, and how something as simple as a doll can define the empathy of an entire era.⁠
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Read our Editors’ Pick of the season, “The Mend,” below.

"God willing—בְּעֵזְרַת הַשֵׁם—ان شاءالله—they all have homes to return to, and dolls to dig out of the mud."

06/03/2024

This spring, campus protests regarding Israel/Palestine spread across universities throughout the country. So much took place on campuses: Gaza Solidarity Encampments, police sweeps, student arrests, ideological clashes between students and administrations, canceled commencements, instances of antisemitism and Islamophobia, and more. ⁠
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In the Jewish world, this past month has been rife with controversy: some Jewish students were part of the encampments – hosting Shabbats and Pesach seders on lawns, while other students joined counter-protests, and some left campus altogether. ⁠
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Simultaneously, the rest of the Jewish world was watching and analyzing campus life with similar divides: some expressing solidarity, some feeling fear, and some a mix of both. ⁠
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As large media outlets have covered campus protests this spring, there’s been a lot of talk about college students. But as a magazine by and for Jewish students, we know that the best way to understand these events is to listen to students themselves. ⁠
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In this historical moment, student newspapers have stepped up to the occasion with incredible courage. Student journalists worked tirelessly to report weekly, daily, and hourly on the events unfolding. ⁠
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So, as the school year comes to a close, we’ve combed through student papers across the country to bring you 10 articles that tell stories from the ground – through student testimonies, digital archives, live reports, and photography. ⁠
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Through these articles by and for students, we hope you learn something new. ⁠

👀 Did we miss any? Tag your fav campus newspaper or journalist in the comments!

The Chicago Maroon The Tulane Hullabaloo Yale Daily News Daily Bruin Columbia Daily Spectator The Daily Tar Heel Washington Square News

Student journalists have worked tirelessly to report on campus protests and related events. As the school year comes to a close, we’ve combed through student papers to bring you 10 articles that tell stories from the ground – through student testimonies, digital archives, live reports, and photo...

06/03/2024

Happy Pride, from New Voices Magazine - where q***r Jewish stories and q***r Jewish joy are our priority. ⁠
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We're kicking off the month with "Bloom," a short story of two orthodox teens who meet in seminary during the height of covid.⁠
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"When Emily texted me one day from across the room, I instantly welcomed the attention. After all, I was bored from sitting in the same spot on the same couch for days on end. And Emily, someone I had seen around the house but never interacted with, intimidated me. There was something about the way she always answered questions over virtual classes that made me feel inadequate and jealous. But I admired how bold she was. How unafraid she was of the sound of her own voice."⁠
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While quarantined in a house with the rest of their all-girls seminary class, Emily starts flirting with Sarah over text in the middle of a Zoom Beit Midrash. Their conversations about siblings quickly snowball into deeper topics. Somehow, the two steal moments alone, sneaking away on adventures in the night. But when things between them escalate, Sarah finds herself caught between family pressures, communal expectations, and her confusing feelings for Emily. ⁠
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As part of our "Q***r Jewish Joy" series, check out "Bloom" by Rina Shamilov.

Photography by Yoav Rahamim (Yoav Varadi).

"We’d been flirting for over a week now, but being in an Orthodox Jewish seminary made it hard for us to actually do anything."

05/13/2024

Calling Jewish students on campus:

What does your Jewish campus life look like this spring? Tell us with an image.

This is a chance to document and share this moment in history through YOUR lens.

Lilith Magazine and New Voices Magazine are partnering to collect submissions of photographs and captions under 100 words. This prompt is open to interpretation but we are looking for submissions only from current students, including grad students.

We will be accepting photos on an ongoing basis through Friday, May 17. Send your photo at the link below for a chance to be published and receive a Lilith subscription.

Submit yours: https://buff.ly/4dAqIJF

04/21/2024

Yasher koach to our amazing fellow Ashton for creating a resource we should all read this Passover!

The amazing Ashton Macklin, our 2024-25 Judaism Unbound/New Voices Magazine Jewish Media Fellow, created an unbelievably beautiful and deeply moving Passover resource! Check it out at www.judaismunbound.com/sederfortwo .

04/19/2024

As we enter the eight days of Passover, we’ve got you covered with eight broad-ranging New Voices articles from the past decade. ⁠
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In these pieces, you’ll find hot takes on seder plate additions, resources and art to add to your haggadah, ways to incorporate grief into yom tov celebrations, poetic reflections on q***rness and liberation, campus reporting on freedom seders, pieces on Israel/Palestine, a scathing review of our least favorite haggadah, and even an investigation of diet culture’s impact on Passover. ⁠
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Whether you’re pulling together a makeshift campus seder, going home to your family, or struggling to figure out what to do for Pesach this year, there’s something here for you. From the quippy blog-post days of 2010s New Voices, to today’s longer-form pieces, we hope you will join us on this blast from the past, and find something inspiring or new to add to your Pesach practice - even if it’s just a tomato. ⁠
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Click the link in our bio for "A Decade of New Voices Passovers," and links to all of the articles.

Featuring pieces by Sofia Freudenstein Rena Yehuda Newman David A.M. Wilensky Dani Plung Gila Axelrod and more.

Whether you're pulling together a makeshift campus seder, going home to your family, or struggling to figure out what to do for Pesach, there's something here for you.

04/19/2024

With college students in the media being painted as a monolith, there are many who are deeply struggling to find a place between multiple communities and ideologies, wondering where they belong.

“Students and speakers spoke passionately about the Israeli cause, ‘Bring Them Home Now’ chants filling the air.

As a Yeshiva University student, it may have looked like I fit in seamlessly at the march. But inside, I was deeply questioning my place within the conflict.”

Growing up attending Orthodox Jewish day schools, Rina Shamilov was no stranger to orthodoxies. She was taught a specific narrative about Israel — a story about Jewish homecoming that excluded any mention of Palestinians. But during her gap year at a seminary in Israel, she heard perspectives that uprooted everything she thought she knew.

“Quickly, I learned that it was not only possible – but necessary – to hold multiple truths and consider the traumas of multiple peoples.”

In the aftermath of October 7th, terrified and heartbroken, she experienced pressure from friends and family to “just pick a side.” But watching her fellow students at YU and across the city choose one “side” while dehumanizing the other, she knew there had to be another way.

Six months later, Rina stumbled upon a movement that showed her she’s not alone, from Unapologetic: The Third Narrative, to Standing Together. She found Palestinian and Israeli co-led organizations that are working on the ground to create peace and independence for Israelis and Palestinians, full equality for all citizens, and true social, economic, and environmental justice.”

“Despite the difficulty and pain we’re all experiencing,” she says, “it is important to note that we are fighting oppressive regimes and not each other.”

Standing Together Unapologetic: The Third Narrative
Photography by Raquel G Frohlich

"Quickly, I learned that it was not only possible – but necessary – to hold multiple truths and consider the traumas of multiple peoples."