For those of you who did not believe that this is a real holiday...

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/04/08/blessing.of.sun/index.html

Passover at Hillel

Passover begins Wednesday night and Hillel has lots of options for Seders and meals for the holiday. Registration is closed for Seders, however, there is room for some walk-ins. So if you haven't figured out what you're doing yet on Wednesday or Thursday, come by Hillel at 7 pm (or even a little earlier) to get one of the few extra seats available. See our facebook event page for details on the Seder options at http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=59528273284

Kosher for Pesach meals will be served at Hillel the whole week of Passover starting Thursday 4/9 for lunch and ending with dinner on Wednesday 4/15. Lunch is everyday from 11-1 and dinner is everyday from 6-8. Reserve ahead of time with Bon Appetit at http://diningservices.wustl.edu/kosher_form.asp . The cost of lunch is $10 and dinner is $13, and YOU CAN PAY WITH MEAL POINTS! Visit our website for full menus at http://www.stlouishillel.org/wp-content/uploads/passover/Passovermenus.pdf If you have class during lunch, call Hillel and we will be happy to box up a meal for you that you can come pick up after class. Call us at 314-935-9040.

Find a Job, get connected

Hi peeps. Some of you might be stickin' around the StL next year. If you wish, you can join 'Jewish In St Louis Works,' a Jewish - St. Louis networking group on LinkedIn. You can scan the members and ask for a little 411 and advice from people in related fields. There are also a few jobs posted, so you can check those out as well. Glance through it if you have time - http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1802518

Good luck!

PJ

"Hebrew Mamita"

This is an interesting video from youtube of a slam poet...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubdGjzzJiVs

ELECTIONS

Hi everyone!! GOOD LUCK WITH MIDTERMS + PRE SPRING BREAK WORKLOAD!!

It is time for.... JSU ELECTIONS!!
If you are interested in running, please send a letter of intent to "washujsu@gmail.com"-- it's just a simply stated I AM RUNNING FOR THIS POSITION message. Please send that by this Friday so we can organize how elections will run. You can also run off the floor. Elections are currently scheduled for WEDNESDAY, MARCH 18TH AT 9PM IN DUC ROOM 233. For elections, just prepare a short speech explaining why you are interested in running, any great ideas you have, your qualifications, and how you will contribute to the JSU board. It's really low-key, so no need for nerves!

Positions on the JSU Board: President, Vice President for Social Justice Programming, Vice President for Religious Programming, Vice President for Cultural/Educational Programming (THATS ME!!), Vice President for Social Programming, Public Relations Coordinator, and Treasurer.

Come run for a position on JSU!! Come vote to elect next year's student leadership representing YOUR jewish community at WashU.

AS ALWAYS-- i'm happy to answer any questions you may have about JSU. email me directly at cstaszewski@wustl.edu or our general address at washujsu@gmail.com.

good luck this week! have a fun and safe spring break!

Cara

An Evening with Anita Diamant: Author of The Red Tent

Tuesday, February 24th
7:30 pm
Graham Chapel
FREE FOR STUDENTS

Come hear the best-selling author Anita Diamant speak on the Wash U campus this coming Tuesday! She will talk about her novel The Red Tent and discuss Judaism and Feminism. A private reception will take place afterwards in the DUC formal lounge and Ms. Diamant will be signing books.

Contact hillel@stlouishillel.org if you have any questions. Check out the facebook event for more details: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=49750346658&ref=ts

Old Jews Telling Jokes

Found this site through Eitan Hochster (alumni, former JSU exec). Not too much to it. Take a look.

Israel Elects...Someone

So Israelis went to the polls yesterday to elect a new prime minister, but Israel being Israel the outcome is kinda crazy. As it stands now it looks like Tzipi Livni and Kadima just barely edged out Bibi Netanyahu and Likud, so she gets the first shot at forming a government. It may be tough for her though, cause after Likud the next winningest party is Avigdor Lieberman's far right Yisrael Beitenu, which may create too powerful of a right wing bloc for Livni to be able to form a governing coalition. Anyways, you can read about the election here, here, and here.

FAITHS ACT TOGETHER – TONY BLAIR CALLS FOR ACTION

Thursday 5^th February: Tony Blair today issued a call to action to encourage people of faith around the world to act together to show the power of "a million good deeds done every day" in the name of religion.

"For billions of people, faith motivates, galvanises, compels and inspires, not to exclude to embrace; not to provoke conflict but to try to do good. This is faith in action," he said, speaking at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington DC. "You can see it in the arousing of the world's conscience to the plight of Africa, a cause we in positions of political power tried to answer, but which was driven by people of faith."

The Tony Blair Faith Foundation today stepped up its campaign to raise funds and eliminate millions of unnecessary deaths from malaria – giving people a practical way of demonstrating how faith can heal rather than divide the world. Faiths Act Together (www.faithsacttogether.org), is a locally driven campaign urging faith-based activity around its "Story of a Bed Net" film to encourage shared ideas, discussion and actions to tackle deaths from malaria.

Tony Blair said:

"A million deaths a year from malaria is wholly preventable. We want 2009 to be the year that people of faith become the change makers against malaria and take direct action to tackle this preventable disease.

"We have already received hundreds of requests from people around the world asking how to get involved and what action they can take. We all know the problems associated with conflict between religions but there is another, more positive story too."

Faiths Act Together events are not meant to be prescriptive and all action aimed at raising awareness and funds is encouraged by the Foundation. There are toolkits and a freely downloadable film The Story of a Bed Net available, which have already helped volunteers in 27 countries to organise community events and raise thousands of pounds for bed nets.

Up to 500 million people suffer from malaria and up to one million people die unnecessarily from the disease annually. In Africa, malaria kills one child every 30 seconds. Faith Acts Together aims to work with partners worldwide to raise enough money to eradicate deaths from the disease - just one £5 or $10 insecticide-treated bed net can protect an entire household.

The Foundation would like to encourage all those interested to get involved and share their ideas, experiences and events via the website by emailing faithsact@tonyblairfaithfoundation.org.

For more information go to our new website www.faithsacttogether.org

JSU blog featured on jewishinstlouis.org

Hello peeps,

JSUniverse is now permanently featured on the jewishinstlouis.org College Page:

See here: http://www.jewishinstlouis.org/page.aspx?ID=75545 - you guys are the top.

I would like a better picture than the JSU logo though. Someone must have a group shot or some other picture of JSU. Any ideas, send to me - pj@jewishinstlouis.org

One of the blogs featured on jewishinstlouis, Yoni Sarason's St. Lou Jew has recently been named one of StL's top 30 blogs and receives close to 20% of his traffic from jewishinstlouis.org

Thanks for reading!

PJ

FOLLOW UP TO MARGY'S POST!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/05/world/europe/05pope.html?ex=1391490000&en=0abc31671b17af96&ei=5124&partner=facebook&exprod=facebook

HI EVERYONE!!

I hope everyone's week is going well so far! Some upcoming events...

SATURDAY 8pm-11pm FEBRUARY 7TH in the GARGOYLE-- Northwoods concert!! This free "New Folk" concert will surely be great!! Our infamous JSU shotglasses will also be for sale. (jsu event)

THURSDAY2:30pm-3:45pm FEBRUARY 5TH in WHISPERS-- Rabbi Friedman will be hanging with students, STOP BY for coffee/cookies/chats. 

FRIDAY 1:30pm-4:30 pm FEBRUARY 6TH at HILLEL-- Jewish Careers Meeting. Rabbi? cantor? educator? scholar? communcal professional? learn more! rsvp to sjaffee@huc.edu

TUESDAY 6pm FEBRUARY 10TH-- JNF CARAVAN... (wsi event) Details to come...!

WEDNESDAY 7pm FEBRUARY 11th in the DUC Formal Lounge-- Reproductive Choice and Judaism. Presented by the Hillel Women's Series in recognition of Sex Week. Come to this panel to hear from a representative from Faith Aloud, a local organization whose mission is to promote reproductive justice through the moral power of religious and ethical communities. ALSO- a rabbi will speak about how Jewish values speak to reproductive choice.

GREAT STUFF HAPPENING this week and next... I'll report more details as they come.

Cara

Underpass Painting!

Good News! We will be painting the underpass (actually it's the sphere to be a bit more specific) tonight around 8 PM! We're painting to advertise for the Northwoods concert this Saturday night! Since I'm usually banned from touching any paint due to my lack of artistic competency, I usually am the one who runs and gets food/drink for everyone involved. I usually buy ice cream sandwiches but considering it's 17 degrees outside right now I think I'm gonna get hot chocolate. Thus, stop by for free hot chocolate and help paint the sphere! It's really fun (I promise)!.

Challah For Hunger in Studlife!

Click here to see a really great audio slideshow about Challah For Hunger through stud life online. Some really awesome pictures and great commentary from the people who have been baking and selling challah this semester! Also, yesterday 80 loaves of Challah were sold in about two hours! Great job guys!

Want to go green?

Going green has become the new trend in some many things, and now the Union for Reform Judaism is becoming part of the movement as well. Check out their website http://www.urj.org/green/ that gives a lot of info on the relationship between the environment and Jews and a lot more!

CNN: Pope outrages Jews over Holocaust denier

According to CNN, the Pope has re-invited a Bishop into the Catholic Church (who had previously been excommunicated) who has denied that Jews were killed in gas chambers. The article is really interesting and provides a lot of into on Jewish relations with the Catholic Church. Read the article and tell us what you think

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/01/26/pope.holocaust.denial/index.html

SAVE THE DATE!!

Tuesday, February 24th at 7:30, Anita Diamant (the author of the Red Tent) is speaking at Graham Chapel. Anita Diamant is an American author of fiction and non-fiction books. She is best known for her most successful novel, The Red Tent, which was a New York Times best seller. Join Wash U students for a book discussion on The Red Tent, Tuesday February 17th and 7:30pm. We will talk about the book to prepare for Mrs. Diamant lecture one week later. If you would like to be part of that discussion, contact Jessica@stlouishillel.org or 314-935-9043. You must RSVP for the book discussion no later than Feb 3rd.

Jewish Life and Leadership Event--This Thursday 7 PM Friedman Lounge

Now that we've got one semester behind us, come learn about how to get more involved in leadership positions with all the Jewish groups and institutions on campus. We'll have student representatives from Chabad, Hillel, CDF and UJE talk about the events, programs and groups that are operating on campus as well as who to contact in order to learn more information. Members of the JSU Executive Board will be on hand to answer any questions and provide more info about our upcoming elections! Feel free to bring your dinner and we'll also have free snacks and drinks!

Shabbat Rocks!

On Friday, January 23rd at 6:00pm, St. Louis Hillel will be hosting a "Shabbat Rocks" musical service. The service is multi-denominational, and designed to combine music from different traditions in Judaism to create a unique Shabbat experience. Through voice, guitar, and percussion, we hope that this interactive service will bring people together so that we can pray as one Jewish community through song. The service is open to anyone who would like to attend, both in the Washington University and the wider St. Louis Jewish community. No musical experience is necessary, just a love of Jewish music and a desire to pray as a community. We are excited to see you there!

Israel in the New York Times

Two interesting opinion pieces regarding the situation in Israel in the New York Times today. The first, which can be found here, is by Thomas Friedman who has written for many years about the conflict in the Middle East as well as other international affairs (Friedman incidentally lives on a huge estate on a major road like ten minutes from my house back in Maryland. His front yard is probably like 7 acres or something). The second article, which can be found here, is by Jeffrey Goldberg a writer for the Atlantic Monthly (Goldberg served in the IDF and worked as a prison guard). Both articles focus on the viability of a peaceful arising out of the current conflict.

Stand With Israel Shabbat Dinner

Come to Hillel for a special Stand With Israel Shabbat this Friday, January 16th. Services begin at 5:45 and dinner is at 7. You can make reservations on the Bon Appetit website or just come on Friday because we always order lots of food. See you there!

WE'RE BACK!!!

Hello, Hello Everyone--I know it's been a while since the JSUniverse has last been updated but look for that to change. In fact, we will now be posting to the blog multiple times a week. Once a week we will also be posting the week's events so make sure to check out the blog to learn that latest about what's going on in the WashU Jewish community. I came across two interesting reviews of biographies of two famous Jewish leaders. Joel Kraemer's Maimonides:
The Life and World of One of Civilization’s Greatest Minds
and Adam Kirsch's Benjamin Disraeli focus on chronicling the life and times of these two famous Jewish men. Both Maimonides and Benjamin Disraeli held prominent positions the government of countries with a minority Jewish population. Pretty interesting stuff. Enjoy!