30 April 2012
Where did their brains go? I can’t be sure Personalities swallowed Up into the floor Gone is their ability to think; Any desire to ascertain truth Their religion has overtaken Mind, body and soul They have lost all interest In creative self-expression Their only wish Is to do the bidding of Heaven No longer does [...]
Posted in The Written Word0 Comments
30 April 2012
We would like to remind our readers that “The Written Word” is a section designated for student literary expression with both fictional and nonfictional content; literary works occasionally contain material that can be perceived as offensive by some readers, so reader discretion is advised. Pushing himself to his knees and then onto his feet, he [...]
Posted in The Written Word0 Comments
30 April 2012
It is the height of both arrogance and folly to believe that we, in the year 2012, have finally reached the pinnacle of human thought and are able to know with absolute certainty what is right and what is wrong, what is moral and what is not. The hubris that such an idea contains is [...]
Posted in Shma Minah0 Comments
30 April 2012
As we walk through the streets of Manhattan every day, it’s no anomaly to see at least one homeless person on every street. They make us uncomfortable, and we don’t want to give them money, but we feel bad not doing so. While looking at a homeless man sitting at the corner of 34th and [...]
Posted in Columns, The World Around Us0 Comments
30 April 2012
The contemporary music video is an increasingly prevalent art form made popular by television and the internet. The advent of video uploading sites like YouTube have made the music video one of the most important ways in which bands publicize their new music. A music video is usually three or four minutes long, about the [...]
Posted in Arts and Culture0 Comments
30 April 2012
For those of you who only just passed high school English with the help of No Fear Shakespeare and continue to dread everything Shakespeare, there comes a play designed to blow your mind and reverse everything you believe to be true. Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is currently being played at Classic Stage Company in [...]
Posted in Arts and Culture0 Comments
30 April 2012
Stranger, you know me even if you don’t. (My friends, I’m sorry if this is how you’ll learn.) You know me because I am your classmate; I am an acquaintance, your neighbor or brother. There is a possibility that we have spent thirteen years in the same school, or have seen each other every Shabbat [...]
Posted in Featured Article, Opinions0 Comments
30 April 2012
This past week, Yeshiva University held its annual Yom HaShoa ceremony, led by the Student Holocaust Education Movement (SHEM). The ceremony’s theme, “Remember the Future,” centered on the idea of rescue and the consideration and value which brave individuals placed on the future and the preservation of eventual generations of Jews. The keynote speaker, Dr. [...]
Posted in Shma Minah0 Comments
30 April 2012
Since Seinfeld first introduced the idea of the ‘Shiksa Appeal,’ Jewish girls everywhere have marveled at the power of the shiksa. But what is it about gentile women that causes them to hold so much power over Jewish men? Enter Avi Roseman, with her eight-step guide to attaining every Jewish girl’s goal: becoming the shiksa [...]
Posted in Arts and Culture0 Comments
30 April 2012
All generalizations are false, including this one. -Mark Twain Through all the fascinating trends in American culture, there has always been one feature that distinguishes us from our European and fellow Western counterparts. Henry James called this feature American naivete and contrasted it to the mien of the experienced European intellectual. But what is the [...]
Posted in Opinions0 Comments
30 April 2012
What is it about that smutty sound of hamburger juice grilling in the open air that makes ones mouth water, and fills us with a new hunger and desire to consume the flesh of an animal? Since I can remember, meat has been an important part of my life and I can hardly imagine a [...]
Posted in Features0 Comments
30 April 2012
Most people would agree that domestic abuse is an issue that plagues many families. According to the American Bar Association Commission on Domestic Violence, about 15-25 percent of families will experience some form of abuse. The American public is just beginning to understand that this abuse can happen at the hands of women as well [...]
Posted in Featured Article, Features0 Comments
30 April 2012
Pop-hipster store Urban Outfitters has recently come under fire for selling a shirt that many have found to reek of holocaust imagery. The short-sleeved men’s t-shirt is mustard yellow, with a blue six-pointed star over the breast pocket. The image called to mind when looking at the shirt are the yellow “Jude” stars Jews were [...]
Posted in Featured Article, Features0 Comments
30 April 2012
There are no heroes in Joshua: A Brooklyn Tale. There aren’t any villains, either. The story takes place on too personal a scale for such lofty classifications to be applicable. What there are are people, just regular people, doing the best they can to make a life for themselves and find happiness, nothing grander than [...]
Posted in Arts and Culture0 Comments
30 April 2012
Last May, Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin pledged he’d recognize the Armenian Genocide in the Knesset. Rivlin’s a moderate in the Likud Party, but he’s been a hawk on the issue. For five years, the Knesset has been debating commemorating the Ottoman Empire’s crimes. In 2011, they finally made the discussions public. So why is it so [...]
Posted in Columns, Featured Article, The Light and the Darkness0 Comments
03 April 2012
I never thought I would write something to the Beacon. In fact, I have, in the past, even refused to read certain posted articles because I didn’t want to have to join the conversation. Mostly, I find the hype annoying. But I needed to respond to this article. Yes, I am anonymous. I have chosen [...]
Posted in Letters to the Editor0 Comments
02 April 2012
I was intrigued by an article in the New York Times about the New American Haggadah, so I bought a copy. I thought the name was a tad odd, but then Apple called their third generation iPad the “New iPad,” so maybe it’s in vogue to name things by adding the word new in front [...]
Posted in Featured Article, Shma Minah0 Comments
02 April 2012
What is it about one Mr. Tim Tebow that brings a city to its knees? How can one man garner so much attention? For those who of you without much knowledge of football, allow me to declare that Tim Tebow is not your typical NFL Quarterback. Yet he has been able to rally teammates, fans [...]
Posted in Columns, The Death of Common Sense0 Comments
02 April 2012
I searched for Him Near and far But nowhere was He to be found Not in the vastness of space Nor in the still, silent sound I could not see him in the tomes of religion Nor the tracts of philosophy I did not hear Him in music Nor in the crashing waves of the [...]
Posted in The Written Word0 Comments
02 April 2012
Misery. Cryin’. Gone. Someone like you. Unbreak my heart. I’m all out of love. Besides raking in millions of dollars for whoever happened to originally sing these songs, all of these song titles have one blatantly obvious characteristic in common – heartache. When you feel absolute misery over the breaking of your heart, the love [...]
Posted in The Written Word0 Comments
02 April 2012
Israel and France have had a complicated relationship for decades. In the 1960s, French President Charles de Gaulle abruptly severed his country’s alliance with Israel in favor of ties with Arab countries. The French were suffering after the Algerian War of Independence, so Israel was hung out to dry. But France is extremely important for [...]
Posted in Featured Article, The Light and the Darkness0 Comments
02 April 2012
“For religious man, space is not homogenous . . . there is, then, a sacred space . . . there are other spaces that are not sacred and so are without structure or consistency, amorphous. . . . This spatial homogeneity finds expression in the experience of an opposition between space that is sacred — [...]
Posted in Featured Article, Shma Minah0 Comments
