Over at New Voices Magazine (my day job), we launched a new blog this week that Jewschoolers might be interested in. It’s called the Global Jewish Voice and it’s a way to jump-start a wider conversation that we normally have at New Voices. While New Voices is normally American or Israeli (and occasionally Canadian) in scope, the Global Jewish Voice is a fully international conversation about the lives of Jewish students and young adults.
The blog is staffed by 10 writers reporting on their lives on campus, in the workplace and at home. They are writing in from every corner of the globe, including Israel, the US, Chile, Spain, China, Canada, the UK and–no joke–Serbia. The blog’s student editor is based in Portland, Ore. There’s also an open submission policy.
A few highlights so far:
Reporting from the West Bank, Liran Shamriz describes the constant dilemma of being an army soldier and same-time sociology student:

This could quickly turn to riots – we need to get the hell out of here. We don’t even have bulletproof vests – any jerk in the street can knife me and disappear. I started to walk toward the trucks and my phone blinks again, this time from a Facebook message: “Shlomo gave us grades! I got a 91! I think he is good after all, he probably didn’t even check that well… how much did you get?”

Meanwhile in Chile, sometimes the struggle is more symbolic of living Jewishly in a non-Jewish world. University student Maxamilliano Grass is on the vanguard of Jewish student activism and pro-Israel work in a country with 75,000 Jews—and over 400,000 Palestinians:

Our mission is to empower Jewish students so they can feel entitled to be a part of national debates and during that process, feel confident in being openly recognized as Jews. In the end, showing that we can care for our country and love Israel at the same time is necessary. There is no contradiction.

In Nanjing, China, Naomi Nason, a Northwestern University student studying abroad, is encountered a striking likeness of her mother in the guise of a roommate who always demands that she put a sweater on.
On other side of the world, in Seville, Stefanie Groner (also a Northwestern student abroad) discovered that in pork-hungry Spain, she’ll have to stick to vegetarianism for the semester.
For those who appreciate internet geekery, the blog (based on a design from WooThemes, with special modifications from Leslie Bass) has this great Google Maps widget that puts a pin in the map for the point of origin for each blog post:

The Global Jewish Voice is an initiative of New Voices Magazine in partnership with AJC: Access and the World Union of Jewish Students.