Watch the Tzedakah Bowl, LIVE!

TC Jewfolk is livestreaming the Tzedakah Bowl, the annual flag football event at the Metrodome on Christmas Day. This year there’s Ultimate frisbee too, and barring technical difficulties, we’ll be […]

Share Your JDate Story And Win!

If you have a JDate story, we want to hear it! You just might win two tickets to the cocktail party at the JCC Annual Benefit, featuring keynote speaker Greg Liberman, CEO of Spark Networks.

Michael Kaplan Loves Cleaning Carpets

Meet Michael Kaplan. He’s a cool Jew in town that runs a carpet cleaning business. I bet you thought you’d never see that sentence ever. But it’s true! He runs the Twin Cities branch of Zerorez, a green carpet cleaning company that truly puts the customer first. But rather than me explain what makes the company (and him) so cool, we’ll let Michael explain.

Feminism and J Street

The grassroots lobbying organization J Street has a main goal to find a two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians. A lot of focus has been given at this conference to the plight of the Palestinian people, the humanity on both sides of the conflict, and the desire from both sides for peace. To feel so strongly for peace, not just for Israel’s sake but for Palestine’s, requires a keen sympathy from J Street supporters for The Other. J Street as an organization doesn’t focus on women’s rights, but that ethos of sympathy for the Other extends not just from Jews towards Palestinians, but also from men towards women, and it’s been evident everywhere at this conference.

Minnesota J Street at the National Conference

Now in its fourth year the 2013 J Street National Conference attracted around 3,000 people from all over the country. Late yesterday we sat down with two Minnesotans: Ron Garber, Chair of J Street Minnesota, and Aaron Rosenthal, Steering Committee Member of J Street Minnesota.

First Day Coverage of J Street Conference

Welcome to TC Jewfolk’s coverage of the 2013 J Street National Conference. We’ll be covering the ups and downs, highs and lows, talls and shorts, heavens and hells and all the other size-related metaphors for the entire conference. Your fearless reporter did this kind of thing once before at the AIPAC conference in March, so while I’ll try as much as possible to talk about the J Street Conference as its own thing, I’ll likely sink into comparing the two quite a bit.

IDF Song "Sunshine." The New Israeli Soldier?

It’s an interesting predicament Israel finds itself in. For the first 50-60 years of her existence Israel needed both tough soldiers and the image of tough soldiers to fight for and earn global legitimacy. Now she seems to have it, but the pendulum has swung the other way: the Israeli army is too harsh, too tough. It’s criticized for terrorizing Palestinians while Israel’s doctors are simultaneously helping every sick and wounded person that comes through their doors—often to little or no acclaim. I guess time will tell whether this new image of the Israeli soldier will replace the old one, and whether that will do more harm or good. For now, let’s just enjoy the “Sunshine.”