On November 11, former speaker of the Israeli Knesset Avraham Burg was supposed to give a talk on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at the Harvard Hillel house. Instead, Hillel barred him from speaking at the Hillel house, and he ended up giving his talk in an undergraduate dormitory on campus. The reason he was barred? His [...]
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The Beacon would like to thank all of its writers for a fantastic year! We’ll be back in a few weeks, but in the meantime, we would like to wish everyone a fantastic summer.
ReadThis is a response to Why it’s Time for Jews to Get Over the Holocaust My entire Father’s side of the family was in the Holocaust, my Grandmother Helen (z’l) included. She is the woman after whom I was named. She died just before I was born. I know her story from the war by [...]
ReadDear readers, Growing up in a Modern Orthodox community in the Midwest, I always found a special place in my heart for Kiruv organizations. In high school, I was the president of my city’s chapter of NCSY, an organization that aims to bring younger Jewish people closer to Orthodoxy. In my early childhood, I spent [...]
ReadDear readers, The topic of eating disorders in the Orthodox Jewish community first piqued my curiosity after reading this [TRIGGER WARNING: This article deals with the topic of eating disorders and may be triggering to some people] article in Tablet Magazine over the summer. The article describes how prevalent the disorders are in our community [...]
ReadDear readers, If you suspect that you or a loved one has an eating disorder, help is near. Use the links below to seek assistance. Use the NEDA locator to find treatment centers near you: http://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/find-treatment/treatment-and-support-groups Begin learning how to care for a loved one: http://www.something-fishy.org/helping/whatyoucando.php See that Orthodox accommodation for treatment exists: http://renfrewcenter.com/services/specialized-programs/observant-jewish Of [...]
ReadDear readers, The day before the Forward published an article detailing how YU covered up a widespread sexual abuse case in the 80’s, a friend of mine warned me. “YU is going to get hard in the next couple days,” he said. Despite the forewarning, though, I sat in shock the next day when I [...]
ReadIn the October 16th issue of the Beacon, Harvey Wasserman discussed whether the emergence of solar and wind electrical power would change the nature of the prohibition against the use of electricity on Shabbat. I would like to answer that question as well as I can. The reader may judge my response on the basis [...]
ReadI 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 [...]
ReadMy article, as almost anyone reading this will know, has met many responses. And they’re mixed. Some are good, some are bad. Some people agree with my points, some people don’t. Some think it was good writing, some think poor. Some think I have a right to express my opinion, some don’t. About the only [...]
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