Dual Loyalities: Balancing College Football and Jewish Tradition

By Eric Steitz for NewVoices
A cool breeze rolls through campus and students everywhere know what that means. It’s that
time of year again. No, it’s not the High Holy Day season that comes to mind, but football
season. For Jewish college students, it’s the start of another potentially conflicted semester.
As Jews celebrate Shabbat each weekend, campuses around the country prepare for their biggest
event of the week, the football game. With football programs on over 1,000 NCAA campuses,
football is everywhere. For practically the entire fall semester, many alumni, faculty and students
look forward to the football game more than any other event.

Football is the most popular sport on campus, as seen in television ratings and attendance
numbers. On September 7, TV by the Numbers reported that ESPN averaged 3.8 million
viewers per hour of football programming. CBS Sports released a poll in January 2013 noting
that college football is the third-most popular sport in the United States behind only the National
Football League and Major League Baseball, respectively.
But how are Jews to celebrate Shabbat and be a part of the campus football culture? It
starts with understanding Shabbat tradition.

A closer look at those restrictions shows that Jews aren’t forbidden to partake in the Saturday football festivities. It just takes some planning.

Ashley Rosenberg, a student at the University of Arkansas Medical School, knows the
importance of football on campus. She mentions that she never misses a Razorback football
game and has friends that get creative with their scheduling conflicts.
“I have friends who are Jewish and keep Shabbat that have never been to an Arkansas football
game because they always start before the Sabbath ends. It is a huge deal to go to football games
down here so they usually record the games and watch them when Shabbat ends,” Ashley said.

You can buy tickets and arrange meetings with friends in advance, or walk to the game
rather than travel by vehicle. Shabbat tradition and college football suddenly don’t seem so
conflicted.

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‘Boycott Israel,’ says Jewish rapper

Reggae musician Ari Lesser reaches out to college students with a hip anti-BDS message

By Amanda Borschel-Dan for The Times of Israel

New hasbara YouTube sensation “Boycott Israel” could only have been written by musician Ari Lesser.

A political science BA from the University of Oregon, the 27-year-old ba’al tshuva reggae rapper is probably the only musician around capable of undertaking the long hours of research involved in making the extremely informative, catchy six-minute song.

“Boycott Israel,” sponsored by the pro-Israel campus advocacy group Here Is Israel (with the motto “get HII for Israel”), is a fascinating, rhythmically rhymed exposure of the double standards involved in the global BDS (Boycott, Divest, Sanction) efforts against Israel.


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Binge Drinking With Noah and Satan

By Daniel M. Bronstein for Jewniverse
We all know that Noah was chosen by God to rebuild life after an apocalyptic flood. What gets less attention is that Genesis also tells how Noah planted a vineyard and used those grapes to get smashed. In a midrash, the sages trot out an unexpected character to warn about the dangers of such drinking: Satan.

As they tell it, Satan slaughters a lamb, a lion, a monkey, and a pig over Noah’s vineyard, and proceeds to “water” it with the beasts’ blood. They explain that Satan’s butchery of those particular animals in that particular order was symbolic of successive stages of intoxication:

A single drink makes one “meek” as a lamb; 2 drinks makes one feel mighty as a lion; 3 or 4 causes one to act like a monkey, “hopping about, dancing, giggling, and uttering obscenities in public;” and any additional drinks make wallow in waste like a pig.

The Sages use this midrash to stress that there is a big difference between drinking for a blessing and getting drunk. And they make it no secret which course of action is preferable. (Hint: It’s not the one that involves Satan.)

Where Are the Matchmakers?

Response to: "Intermarriage: Can Anything Be Done?"

Where Are the Matchmakers?
Jewish life—and love—on campus

By Benjamin Silver for Mosaic

I have high hopes that Jack Wertheimer’s ambitious and insightful essay will reach those Jews who are now, or soon will be, contemplating marriage. High hopes, but I fear misplaced hopes. As a college senior, I am one of those young Jews, and I want to offer not an excuse but an explanation for why some of us may be shirking what Wertheimer would call our responsibility to ensure the Jewish future.

On today’s university campuses, Jewish students are increasingly being offered two divergent versions of Jewish life. One is recognizably traditionalist; in denominational terms, it loosely resembles modern-Orthodox or Conservative Judaism. No doctrinal or ritual demands are made as a condition of involvement, and varying degrees and levels of adherence are embraced (for instance, when it comes to separate seating of the sexes at prayer). Nevertheless, this grouping is defined by the great pride it takes in the traditional principles and practices of Judaism.

The other form, loosely resembling what has come to be called Jewish Renewal, acknowledges that the traditional culture of Judaism is important and needs to be retained but believes that Jewish religious practices must be consciously and deliberately reinvented. The old way of doing things, it is said, is driving away members of the Jewish community—a premise accepted by many American Jews. This means that outmoded and esoteric bits must be removed and replaced by newer and more alluring ones. Interestingly, secular or “cultural” Judaism, which used to be the alternative to the traditionalist brand of Jewish life, is less of a presence on campus. In its stead, students who adhere to this second kind of Jewish life seem to find comfort and coherence in combining what Wertheimer refers to as a “strong residual emotion for the religion of [one’s] birth” with an emphasis on reinvention.

On my campus, although the divide between the two forms of Judaism is significant, they get along quite well together. Students seldom partake exclusively of one or the other, but instead mix easily and often.
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