YESS! Interesting Article!

Hi All--
A friend of mine sent me this article because he knows how badly I want to live on a Kibbutz. I tried convince my family but they said the nearest one was just TOO FAR. Well-- BROOKLYN isn't very far from Roslyn, New York... is it??

Enjoy!
Cara
VP Cultural/Educational Programming



Israel's Urban Kibbutz Movement Has Arrived in New York. Will It Survive?

To start a kibbutz in New York City is to face a multitude of small challenges.Imagine, for instance, trying to explain to a banker at Bank of America that you want to open a joint checking account with five other people. This was the situation that Jamie Beran and five fellow alumni of the Zionist youth movement Habonim Dror found themselves in this summer, as they worked together to set up one of the first of a new breed of urban kibbutzim in the United States. The banker, says Beran, “could not comprehend why we wanted to do this,” insisting that there were rules limiting the number of people on a single checking account. There weren’t, and before long the newly minted kibbutzniks were issued a stack of Ben & Jerry-themed checks with all six of their names at the top.Most groups of roommates share communal expenses to some extent, chipping in on toilet paper and light bulbs. These young Habonim Dror alumni have taken it a step further. They are among a few groups that are working to translate the new Israeli urban kibbutz movement to an American context. Geared towards recent college graduates, these urban kibbutzim trace their ideological heritage to the Israeli communal farms while replacing the kibbutz’s traditional focus on the land with a focus on social action...

For full article as featured in "New Voices" magazine:
http://newvoices.org/features/a-commune-grows-in-brooklyn.html

What's going on this week on campus

Wednesday, September 10th

Taglit Birthright Israel registration is open today! Go to www.freeisraeltrip.org to register. Contact Matt or Marisa for more info at freeisraeltrip@stlouishillel.org.

Senior Night at Bluehill at 9pm: Pitchers are $2 off, pints and shots of jaeger and cuervo are 50 cents off. 

Thursday, September 11th

7:30 pm in Lien Seminar Rm. B: Wash U Students for Israel meeting

Friday, September 12th

Shabbat at Hillel: 5:45 pm Services and 7 pm dinner.

Sunday, September 14

8 pm in Ursa's, FREE ICE CREAM SUNDAES with CDF

Into The Wild--The Freshman Perspective

Here is a recap of this past weekend's Into the Wild Retreat from Josh Eidelman, a Freshman from Baltimore, MD.

After spending just over a week on campus, I jumped at the opportunity to head "Into the Wild." The overnight at Camp Wyman, about forty minutes away from Wash U, served as an excellent opportunity to meet other Jewish students who I had seen around campus but had never formally met. From the moment we arrived at the camp, the Community Development Fellows, a select group of upperclassman, facilitiated a number of icebreakers from fingerpainting with pudding to boundary breakers. Of course, since this was a Jewish event, we played the best icebreaker ever, Jewish geography. I still cannot believe how many mutual friends I share with other students from across the country. In just one day, I forged connections with other Jewish students that I am sure will continue to grow throughout my four years here at Wash U. I now look forward to partaking in the numerous Jewish student events to come over the next few months.

--Josh Eidelman

Into the Wild 2008

Whatsup Whatsup,
Here are some pictures of this past weekend's unbelievably amazing Into th Wild Retreat. We'll have an update with more specifics from a freshman who went on ITW in the near future. For now though, enjoy the pictures! Also, we have some exciting things coming up tomorrow. From 4:30 until 6:30 the JSU Executive Board will be at the Activities Fair in the AC. Stop by to say hello and learn about how to get involved on campus. Also, we will be having our first open JSU meeting tomorrow night at 9:00 PM in the DUC, room 233. It's going to be super exciting as we will be talking about our plans for the upcoming year. Let us know if you have any questions. Have a great week!

JSU BBQ

Thank you to everyone for coming to the JSU BBQ yesterday on the swamp. It was definitely an enormous success. Here are a few pictures I took--my apologies for some of the pictures that seem a bit hazy. The smoke from the grills was at times overpowering. I also tossed in a picture of my brother and my dog. Luckily, my dog's cuteness outweighs my brother's hideous beard that he decided to grow over the summer. Thanks again to everyone from stopping by!

Count down to Move-in Day

For all you freshmen out there, move-in day is upon us! Just want to give you all a heads up as to where you can find JSU and Hillel people on the South 40 on Thursday. We will be in the campus ministries tent  from 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. amongst the rest of the groups tabling by the clock tower. We'll have bagels and cream cheese from 8:30-12, so stop by and say hello and eat a free breakfast. There will also be staff and students in the Wohl Center ready to answer any questions you may have. And finally, there will be over 20 CDF's (Community Development Fellows, otherwise known as the amazing group that organizes the Into the Wild retreat) all over the 40. You'll be able to spot them by the awesome "Wash Jew" shirts they'll all be wearing. Plus, they're going to have popsicles, which you're definitely going to want if it's anything like last year's move in day (110 degrees, need I say more?).

We are all sooo excited to meet the class of 2012. We hope to see you on Thursday and again on Friday at the Shabbat dinner at Hillel at 6 p.m.

Have a safe trip to St. Louis!!!! See you soon........

The Dreyfus Affair Part Two?

This interesting Op-Ed from the NY Times reminded me of a good friend of mine who once had a fake ID with the name Alfred Dreyfus. I wish I was joking. He did have a rather "successful" three month run using the alias of the infamous victim of late 19th century French anti-semitism. That is, until he attempted to buy a six-pack of Blue Moon from a liquor store run by a scholar of post-revolution France. Oh well, it was nice while it lasted.