March 2012
7 posts
Liad (Israel)
The reason for our “chutzpah”
When one travels while being an Israeli Jew, there are some questions you must be prepared to
be asked repeatedly almost every single time you get to know a new fellow traveler: your views regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the peace process (or lack of it), the recent high profile anti-Semitic incident, and, more often than not, your...
Mitch
Dear Desiree:
“Water the Roots” is an appropriate metaphor. It compares us to trees that are nurtured by the environment, getting both water and food from the soil and spreading seed so that new trees can grow in the vicinity. The analogy is not perfect, but close enough. The main difference is that we are more mobile and are able to plant our trees and get nurtured in different places as well...
Desiree
“We’ve been Jews for 3,300 years, and Iranian for 2,500 years. It’s not something that leaves your identity quickly …”
That’s the response I had received from the former secretary general of the Iranian-American Jewish Federation when I asked him about what he saw as the future of the Iranian-Jewish identity. It’s a question that entered my mind again when Iran and Israel began...
Inbar (Israel)
A couple of days ago, a friend of mine told me there was something she wanted to tell me. After the usual “You’re pregnant?” and “So, getting married?” auto-responses from me, she told me she had recently decided to become a vegan. This unexpected transition occurred after she had watched some of the clips that are recently running around the internet, particularly...
Collin
Ball So Hard: Iowa
Iowa. I once had to show a college-educated person from the east coast where the state of Iowa was on a map. I wouldn’t say this is the first time something like this has happened to me, but come on, how could you not know elementary geography?
I was born and raised in Iowa and went to college in Iowa. Now, I get the pleasure of working in Iowa. The state of...
Sarah
Recycle thyself
Where resplendent & irreverent splurts of information a la paper go to die…
Today, as sometimes happens, taking the recycling and doling it out into its respective receptacles became an ontological inquiry. This inquiry emerged when I noticed myself gazing into the paper waste bins. In fascination, I recognized that prior visits to this place had never quite aroused...
Casey
“This study room is so cool. I hope the one at Davis House is similarly conducive to writing and sitting and thinking and sleeping and everything I can imagine. Internetting and chalking the boards with designs and digging through old computer parts, feeding and watching fish and washing my hands in the sink and brushing all the dirt from the painted desks that’s fallen from the potted plants...
