By Kelsey Eiland The Mixed Ethnicities Student Headquarters (MESH) at UCSC is a registered SOAR organization that brings together students who identify as mixed to create thoughtful dialogue while celebrating diversity and creating visibility in the community. I spoke with…
Harry Styles Gone Jewish?
By Amanda Botfeld Harry Styles, British hearthrob and lead singer of the boy band One Direction, has been raising eyebrows recently over his “Jewish” identification. The teen pop-sensation has his sister’s name tattooed in Hebrew on his arm, wears a…
What is a Jew?
By Chloe Sehati You could call Judaism a religion, a culture, a race, or even a nation—all have been done before, but which one is right? Is a Jew someone who keeps all the commandments of the Torah? Is a…
Mental Health and the Holocaust
By Kelsey Eiland After the concentration camps were liberated in 1945, Holocaust survivors began the difficult task of adjusting back into society. The transition was not easy; survivors often had to bury trauma and suppress pain. A lack of mental…
“Exodus: Gods and Kings” Movie Review
By Perry Fein The second of the Five Books of Moses sets the scene for the outlandish 3D Biblical epic, Exodus: of Gods and Kings, by Ridley Scott. The movie – touting big names including Christian Bale, Sigourney Weaver, and…
Science Doesn’t Exist
Amanda Botfeld and Kelsey Eiland Editor-in-Chief and Outreach Coordinator Illustrated by Rose Teplitz A Saudi cleric made headlines last month for claiming that, contrary to scientific fact, the sun rotates around the Earth. He explained his conclusion in a video in…
Shots Fired in Copenhagen
By Perry Fein On February 14th ,2015 a Danish café and cultural center called the Krudttønden hosted a lecture and discussion titled “Art, Blasphemy, and Freedom of Expression”. One of the speakers was Lars Vilks who had previously been targeted…
The Torah-ification of AEPi
By Jeremy Kahan Until recently, Santa Cruz’s AEPi had always gone to Shabbat at Chabad and Hillel once a quarter, but, unfortunately, that was about the extent of its Jewish activity. Not all of its brothers were Jewish and the…
The Jewish Legacy in Vietnam
Written and photographed by Kelsey Eiland This quarter I studied abroad in Can Tho, Vietnam. In an attempt to understand the idiosyncrasies of a young nation with a rich past, I began searching for a community like Leviathan that felt like…