Alef Beit Stretch

Considering how much Jews love yoga, kabbalah, and Jewish-Eastern hybrids (Soy Vay teriyaki sauce, anyone?), it was only a matter of time until a Jewish yoga emerged. And then re-emerged, in the form of Alef Beit Stretch, the brainchild of Dekelyah Winer, an Israeli Hasidic woman who currently lives in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.

Alef Beit Stretch is based on both traditional yoga forms and on Kabbalistic interpretations of the power of the Hebrew alphabet. It is informed by the work of Steven Rapp, whose Aleph-Bet Yoga (2001) paved the way for infusing contemporary yoga practice with Jewish spirituality. As Winer explains, "The 22 Hebrew letters are the channels of holy light through which G-d created the world." Alef-Beit Stretch, she writes, "translates these luminous pathways into postures."

According to Winer, who has a background in gymnastics and dance, the stretches have been practiced for generations, but have only recently been more widely taught. Her book is gorgeously laid out with explanations about each letter's posture, as well as the stretches' philosophical underpinnings.

E-books are available on Winer's website.

Surviving Passover: A College Student’s Guide

Pesach is here! While you may dread getting rid of your bread and living on matzo for the next few days, there are still some yummy chametz-free dishes to look forward to. As a college student (who doesn’t really know how to cook), I needed to find some recipes that are quick, easy and cheap to make. Almost all of these recipes don’t require a full kitchen, all you need is a hot plate (does anyone actual have those anymore?) and a microwave oven.

Matzo Farfel 

A classic and simple recipe that is super delicious and moist, which is something that cannot be said for all matzo related things. You can go out and buy a box of matzo farfel, or you can just crumble up matzo that you may already have in your home. And for those of you who have never heard of matzo farfel just think Thanksgiving stuffing, but Kosher for Passover. Below is a simple recipe from About.com. You can also add vegetables to the recipe; at my house we use carrots, onions and celery that have been sautéed.
• 5 pieces of matzo
• 2 eggs, slightly beaten
• 1/2 cup matzo meal
• 3 Tablespoons oil
• 1 1/2-2 cups chicken soup broth
Directions:
1. Break matzot into a bowl. Pour water over the matzot to dampen, and then drain after a minute or two.
2. Add beaten eggs and matzo meal. Mix well, breaking matzot into even smaller pieces.
3. Heat oil in a deep frying pan.
4. Fry matzot until slightly browned.
5. Add broth. Cook, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes or until most of the broth has been absorbed.

Mock Macaroni and Cheese 

I have to admit, I have never tried this but I like Mac and Cheese so I was really excited to find this recipe on the Jewish Federation of North America’s website. At first glance I was a bit worried, last time I tried egg noodles for Passover I did not enjoy them, but have no fear this recipe uses Matzo farfel (again).
• 3 large eggs
• 3 1/2 cups of matza farfel (or 6 matzos broken into small pieces)
• 1/2 pound of cheddar cheese
• 1 cup of milk
• 1/4 tsp white pepper
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 pint of sour cream
• 1 stick (1/2 cup) of butter cut into 16 pieces

Directions:

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The Empty Nesters

What Happens When Jewish Moms Send Kids Away to School?

By Molly Ritvo

What worries and expectations do Jewish parents face when sending their kids to college? Molly Ritvo polled parents and found that some valued schools with large Jewish populations and active Hillels, while others felt confident that their budding scholars’ Jewish upbringing would set the tone for their college lives. Unsurprisingly, most parents want college-bound sons and daughters to celebrate holidays, engage in Jewish campus activities, meet Jewish friends and maybe even find a Jewish spouse.

What expectations do you have for your children to live Jewishly at college?

Susan L: I expected them to honor the holidays and speak up for Judaism and Israel. Beyond that, I left it up to them.

Sharon: We hoped our son Alex would connect with Hillel at the University of Vermont for at least holiday observances and the occasional Shabbat. Equally important to me was that he develop a circle of Jewish friends and, yes, meet young women. My husband and I met at a small college during a Hillel event. We were married seven years later!

Jan: I had wishes for them to live Jewishly at school, but no expectations. Neither of our sons identify as being Jewishly engaged, [which is] something that I hope will change as they grow older and create families.

Susan R: We kept our expectations low. Our older kids took no interest in their universities’ Hillels. Not even for the High Holidays. I was extremely disappointed. I wanted them to meet Jewish students and get involved Jewishly on campus.

Did your kids choose a college with robust Jewish life? Was that important to you and to your family?

Lani: My kids will not [and] did not choose a college based on robust Jewish life. It’s important, but there are other selection criteria for college that are more important.

Sharon: The active Hillel was an added benefit when our son chose to attend the University of Vermont. He grew up with a close-knit and small Jewish community, an active USY [United Synagogue Youth], and our family observed holidays. We hoped he would continue to seek this out.

Susan R: One daughter attended High Holidays, several Shabbat dinners and a smattering of other activities at UVM’s [University of Vermont’s] Hillel. She was approached by someone on the board to run for the Hillel treasurer and filled that position for two years, and was then encouraged to run for president, which she will fulfill this fall. My husband and I are thrilled. She has met wonderful people at Hillel.

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Jewish Students Denounce Defacement of Hillel Posters

FEBRUARY 28, 2013
BY AKANE OTANI

Jewish students are decrying the anonymous distribution of anti-Israel posters in the Noyes Community Recreational Center last week. The pro-Palestine group that later took credit for the posters has defended its actions, calling them an act of necessity as tensions in Gaza continue to boil over.

More than 20 posters that were left in a newspaper bin in Noyes last week showed a defaced promotion for a Cornell Hillel event that brought Israeli soldiers to speak on campus. The posters, which were marked up with red scrawlings, denounced the “exclusively Jewish” soldiers — asserting that they engaged in “war-crime[s],” not “combat,” and served in “massacres,” not “missions.”

On Sunday, Students for Justice in Palestine, an organization that describes itself as being dedicated to “raising awareness of the Palestinian experience,” took credit for making the posters. SJP claimed it produced the posters to “condemn the nature of Hillel’s event.”

The event “normalize[d] an illegal military occupation and illegal wars of aggression that have cause[d] immense suffering and death in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon,” the organization wrote in a statement to The Sun.

“We wonder why a putatively religious organization such as Hillel would choose to step into this issue,” the statement said. “Did they consider how their glorification of military occupation and apartheid might affect Palestinian, Arab or any other students who identify with the populations living under attack and occupation?”

Although SJP said that it deliberately decided to produce posters rather than picket or interrupt Hillel’s event, some Jewish community members reacted to the posters with feelings of fear, disappointment and frustration.

When a friend told her that she had found “anti-Semitic posters” in Noyes, Jordana Gilman ’14, president of Cornell Hillel, said she felt like she had been “attacked.”

“This felt scary. There is someone on this campus who is threatening to me,” Gilman said.

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Whatever Happened to Those Jewish Student Radicals?

It's no secret that Jews were disproportionately involved in the campus activism of the 60s and 70s. What many don't know is that those Jews were doing a fair amount of writing, and even founded a wire service to link all the new Jewish campus publications together.

By the mid-70s the Jewish Student Press Service had hundreds of member publications, many of which championed issues the mainstream press—Jewish and otherwise—wasn't talking about: LGBTQ Jews, Vietnam, left-wing Israel politics, and the plight of Soviet Jewry, among others.

But by the end of the 1980s, as the activist climate cooled, most member publications had shuttered. So in 1991, JSPS reinvented itself as New Voices Magazine, a national magazine written by Jewish college students, and which, in the tradition of JSPS, covered issues that mattered to them on their own terms.

New Voices, now an online-only publication, is still kicking. So next time you bemoan the apathy of today's young Jews, remember that a little slice of the Jewish student movement of the 60s and 70s lives on—and on and on.