The Beacon

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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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As a child of survivors of the Nazi death camps who have published extensive articles and editorials regarding the Holocaust, I am deeply disturbed and sense the deep pangs of anguish of those who still cannot comprehend or appreciate the true acts of heroism took place during those years. As a practicing rabbi who refuses [...]

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Alan Dershowitz is the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, and is the author of twenty-nine works of fiction and non-fiction, including The Case for Israel and The Case for Peace. A world-renowned lawyer, jurist, and political commentator, Mr. Dershowitz has published articles in over 100 magazines and journals, including The New [...]

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The video everyone’s talking about: Kony 2012. When I started the video I thought, “29 minutes? I’m not watching a video that’s 29 minutes long. Maybe I’ll just watch the first few.” When I ended, 29 minutes and 58 seconds later, I was crying tears and snot into my pillow. In those 29 minutes, I [...]

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To most consumers, Monster dolls are just the latest addition to the long line of toys produced by American companies to give children something to put on their Christmas and Chanuka lists. To Peggy Orenstein, author of New York Times bestseller Cinderella Ate My Daughter, these dolls represent the extreme sexualization of little girls, the [...]

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Tucked away in an office in South Tel Aviv, a group of unlikely bedfellows engaged in some weighty conversation. Stav Shafir – one of the most prominent leaders of the social protest movement that shook up Israel this past summer – and a group of Stern College for Women students of Yeshiva University in New [...]

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Shalom Auslander is the author of three books: Foreskin’s Lament, Beware of God, and his first novel, Hope: A Tragedy, which will be in stores January 12, 2012. Auslander graciously agreed to be interviewed for The Beacon in response to some nudgy emails on my behalf. Q: In some articles, you claim that you haven’t [...]

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It is a known fact, by now, that Republicans and Democrats vehemently disagree about the extent of the government’s role in upholding society’s moral obligations. Some politicians, like the maverick Ron Paul, claim that hospitals should not be under any obligation to treat sick patients without insurance. Others, primarily on the left, would welcome any [...]

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The following was sent in a mass email to students at Stern and Yeshiva College on December 9th. We at the Beacon were planning on writing a detailed account of what happened between ourselves and the Student Council, but the email explained everything so well and fairly that we decided to simply re-post their email. [...]

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Dear Readers, Due to the recent controversy surrounding an article in a recent issue of The Beacon, I have chosen to step down from my position as Co-Editor-in-Chief. I accepted this position because I felt that The Beacon is a necessary forum for student self-expression and discussion between people with different viewpoints. The Beacon decided [...]

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In Dr. Linda M. Shires’ warm, well-lit office, the bookshelves display an astonishing variety of subjects. Victorian literature, narrative theory, women’s studies, Elie Wiesel’s Night and Maimonides, too. Shires’ curriculum vitae is just as multi-faceted, ranging from professor at Syracuse University, to visiting Associate Prof. at Princeton and New York University, to Guggenheim fellow. An [...]

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At the start of Thanksgiving break, I had the privilege of sitting next to an entertaining passenger on my plane ride home. Not only did this passenger belong to the elite class of people who carry the title “Pilot,” but he was quite an intellectual as well. After a lengthy conversation on the topic of [...]

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Life is fraught with troubles, one problem after another, until sometimes all you think you have before you is a lifetime of messes to un-mess. And yet, we barrel on. We don’t just march through life, we fling ourselves at it with the ecstasy of a child who has faced nothing but encouragement at every [...]

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The stereotype of the neurotic Jewish male, a character immediately identifiable as Jewish through his overt anxiousness and unrelenting self-consciousness, has not, as would perhaps be expected, been a source of shame for Jews.  Instead, the stereotype has become a tool of self-identification and source of humor. A potential explanation is that those most involved [...]

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On Saturday night, November 26, two YU students, Margot Reinstein and Josh Botwinick, went to a Times Square subway station to “revise” a depressing poem that has, for 20 years, occupied the ceiling of a corridor in the station. Josh and Margot papered over the poem, replacing its negative words with more optimistic, upbeat lyrics. [...]

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I arrived at the tall the white building in Lincoln plaza that read “The New York Philharmonic” not knowing what to expect. I thought about the history of this particular symphony orchestra in order to reaffirm to myself why I was there. According to their company website, they are the oldest symphony in existence within [...]

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I couldn’t look away this time because the man was crying. He was sitting there on the sidewalk of Park Avenue, arms wrapped around his legs and sobbing, not looking at all the people who were finally looking at him. There was one of those signs next to him, cardboard with a message scratched onto [...]

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8:00 A.M. My alarm blares for 9:00 A.M. class. I stare at my watch and groan, hop up out of bed, and take one look at myself in the mirror. I get dressed, throw my bag over my shoulders, and take the hike down to classes. Another day. Another day filled with going to class, [...]

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Leading communications personalities expressed their concerns about the profound differences in cultures of North American Jewry and Israelis in the “What do Israelis Care About Anyway?” panel at the General Assembly of Jewish Federations of North America (GAJFNA) last week. The conversation turned into one concerning the misunderstandings of Jews in North America about the [...]

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Lately it seems like everyone is trying to define Modern Orthodoxy. The purpose of these attempts revolves around one specific institution and its graduates, Yeshiva Chovevei Torah (YCT). Four articles on a prominent Centrist-Orthodox blog tried to tackle the YCT issue (see links below). Three of the articles called on Modern Orthodoxy to disaffiliate with [...]

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