zoe
S Blog: Ever Relevant
BY: ZOE JICK
I have never studied Torah. For all my years of Jewish education, this essential element of Judaism has somehow eluded me. Perhaps my gaping hole of knowledge comes from personal choices- opting out of text based electives during Hebrew school, for example. Perhaps the void stems from systematic choices, wherein my day school [...]
S Blog: Avi Schaefer’s Method
BY: ZOE JICK
With the AIPAC and JStreet conferences just behind us, the topic of “American students’ engagement with Israel” is the most frequent subject between those of us working in organizations that do Israel campus engagement. The David Project recently released its “White Paper,” a call to action for strengthening American youth’s Jewish identity and [...]
S Blog: Remembering to Eat
BY: ZOE JICK
A year has passed since handing in my senior thesis, a paper entitled “The Jewish Relationship to Ethical Food,” which I quoted in my blog post last month. For months, I immersed myself in Jewish texts regarding food. Many of the authors I read are published in this issue of Sh’ma, including Joel [...]
S Blog: Ethical Eating
BY: ZOE JICK
The following is an excerpt from the introduction to my senior thesis for the religion department at Wesleyan University. The title of this essay is “The Jewish Relationship to Ethical Food,” and throughout the esssay, I point to moments where Judaism and values of ethical consumption converge in the act of eating.
“When I began learning [...]
Sh’ma Blog: Voting My Issue
BY: ZOE JICK
When George W. Bush was up for re-election, and I was certain that a president so universally mocked could never earn a second term, I saw a t-shirt that changed my mind. This shirt had big bubble letters across its front that read “Vote Your Issue.” The bubble letters were colored blue and [...]
Sh’ma Blog: Still Searching
BY: ZOE JICK
Its always been straightforward before. My go-to community was right in front of me. Growing up in Reform day school, my Jewish circle didn’t extend far passed my family and my classmates. In high school, I found NFTY and Israel summer programs. My Jewish support system lay in late night phone calls with [...]
Sh’ma Blog: September’s Dread
BY: ZOE JICK
I’ve never felt so close to politics. Literally: close. My office is at 41st and 3rd, the UN at 42nd and 1st. I noticed the enhanced police presence on my way to work for the entire week of September 20th. I suffered from the traffic chaos, crowded commutes and blocked streets. I fielded [...]
Sh’ma Blog: Seeing the Impact of Donations
BY: ZOE JICK
My family used to keep a JNF tzedakah box on our kitchen counter. You know the one I’m talking about, that little blue box speckled with images of greenery and Israeli flags. In my home, the JNF tzdeakah box served as a constant reminder of the Jewish rebuilding of our ancestral homeland. The [...]
Sh’ma Blog: A New Understanding of Faith
BY: ZOE JICK
My favorite class during college, “Philosophy of Religion,” methodically scoured through Western texts in order to examine issues such as the existence of god, ethics and faith. When I encountered Kierkegaard’s “Fear and Trembling” in this syllabus, which discusses “The Sacrifice of Isaac,” or Akedat Yitzchak, I thought I was golden. An easy [...]
