Archive for April, 2009
Download the April 2009 issue of NU Magazine as a PDF document.
Today is Earth Day, when awareness and appreciation for the Earth’s environment is celebrated across the world. Israel, always at the head of environmental research, will celebrate the occasion with big concert in Tel-Aviv. The Green Prophet, Israel’s only English-language blog about the environment, reported on the event: On April 23, reports Haaretz, lights out [...]
Trapped within the bounds of computer screens and hand-held devices
Coming home from the city one evening, my friend and I found ourselves slumped over in our seats on the train, exhausted from the day’s events. We drifted in and out of casual conversation, until something unusual caught my eye.
When Buddy Holly sings, the music never dies
It kills me that Buddy Holly died exactly 50 years ago this year in a plane crash. My dad says I’m “sentimental.” I just appreciate a good love song when I hear one.
Why is the president afraid of a radio host?
Obama’s effort to dissuade Republicans from listening to Limbaugh is simply wrong. As a well-educated and well-spoken attorney, he should be open to debating the most important issues of our time.
Teens deserve their privacy, online and off
Please, please don’t get me wrong. I think Facebook is wonderful for older people. However, if we want to proceed civilly, there need to be guidelines — not necessarily mandatory but definitely encouraged.
A parent’s rebuttal
My teenage son “friended” me when I first got a Facebook account.
Big mistake.
The case for school uniforms
Low self-esteem, lack of unity, and acts of violence are some of the many problems that exist today in schools around the country. Many of these problems can be fixed by a simple solution: uniforms.
School uniforms sacrifice individuality for the sake of conformity
Forcing everyone to wear the same clothing will not make the problems disappear, it will just temporarily camouflage them through the means of polos, pleated skirts, khakis, and knee-highs.
Is a celebrity’s love life any of our business?
Tuesdays and Wednesdays are Idol time. Families gather round the TV with phones in their hands, ready to call in a vote for their favorite American Idol contestants. It’s a family friendly show — or is it not?
Don’t you wish that one day you would rule?
The day you can make everyone else look like a fool
Yea that will be the day that you think that you were cool
Does tutoring give affluent kids an advantage on standardized tests?
Three nights a week, I have tutoring for the SAT. I spend 3.5 hours per week with tutors and another 2.5 hours per week completing their homework.
I don’t need my yarmulke to remind me that I’m different
I am a Jew living in a Christian country: a black grain of sand on a white beach. Although I live in a community with an unusually large population of Jews, I used to find myself reluctant at times to be forthright about my religious affiliations.
Where are the television shows about normal teens?
I’ve been a teenager for a good four or five years now, and have always been suspect of the media’s portrayal of my peers. I don’t mean Juno, with its “stuff happens” attitude, or a movie like Mean Girls, which satirizes the cliquish nature of high schoolers.
When contemporary cinema tops classic literature
What directors accomplish with cinema is comparable to what authors do with literature. In the short span of two hours, an audience can feel genuine happiness as well as sadness, can be laughing hysterically, or tearing at the eyes.
Earlier in the year in my tenth grade rabbinics class, we read an article by Rabbi Elliot N. Dorff comparing the act of praying to baseball, America’s great pastime. Then we were asked to find our own prayer analogies, and write about them. Here’s mine.
The story of a life is the story of home
I like to think of life as a novel, with each person composing and narrating his or her own story. Through every chapter, a person gradually grows, matures, and learns from his experiences. Each chapter tells its own story, revealing more and more about the narrator’s life and personality.
A journey to Poland
I see a fog, so I see nothing, and therefore see everything. That’s all there is to see at most of these places anyway. With few exceptions, all that’s left are the monuments, because no proof could be left behind.
Videogames grow up by drawing players into compelling narratives
In the last two decades, another art form has risen to the level of cinema as a medium for storytelling: the video game.
You have to understand
you have to understand but you can’t understand
you don’t have the capacity to understand
because you’re not old enough to understand
I look across the small, white-walled room at the black leather couch that seems slightly worn out. My mind conjures images of the other kids who have probably been told to make themselves comfortable on that very same couch.
To be honest, I don’t really want to drive. I’m content to sit back and watch. I like seeing the pavement appear in the window, covered in pale dustings of snow, or trembling with heat.
Where were you the night before
when my pages turned
and your feelings burned a hole
in the pages of my heart
Does a blemish have a soul, I ask The answer is quite simple Of course there is life lurking in The depths of every pimple
But He’s true to his Religion, and I Honor him for that
Speak to me, Adonai, and tell me the story of the great Hamm’rin Hank
Our newest issue of NU (which is more fabulous than ever) has just hit stands! We were scheduled to publish on April 16, but in a first-ever for NJJN, we published a week early, on April 9. (Journalism, which revolves endlessly around deadlines, is famously known for 11th-hour results, but being early is quite a [...]
In these tough economic times, MASA, an organization established by the government of Israel and the Jewish Agency for Israel to encourage long-term stays in Israel, is reporting a three-fold increase in requests for information from North American students and recent college grads. In response to the new demand, MASA began its Better Stimulus Plan [...]
Ophir Kutiel, aka Kutiman, has become a youtube phenomenon with his music-mixing videos. From his small house in Tel Aviv, Kutiman takes videos of amateur musicians and edits them together to make a single funk track. Wired explains: Earlier this month, Ophir Kutiel, aka Kutiman, released seven videos made by mixing and matching found footage [...]
Palestinian authorities recently shut down a Palestinian youth orchestra after 13 young musicians performed for Holocaust survivors. Adnan Hindi, a Palestinian political leader in Jenin, was outraged by the concert. He called the Holocaust a political issue and said that the Palestinian children had been tricked. The orchestra was disbanded and Wafaa Younis, the director, [...]
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