Archives for posts with tag: israel

“From Costa Rica to Israel”

January 24, 2014 //
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Screenshot of my story on the New Voices home page

It was hard being Jewish. There were no Shabbat dinners or daily prayers in my life, so I felt Jewish a grand total of three times in Costa Rica. I had to seek out spiritual enlightenment, and that usually only happened within the walls of the synagogue.

That stood in stark contrast to Israel, where being Jewish was pervasive and, by extension, easy. Everything around our hotel on the Kinerret closed on Shabbat, forcing time for reflection and relaxation. Kosher food is bountiful. Hebrew is omnipresent.

But I felt just as Jewish at services at B’nei Israel as I did when I was surrounded by it in Israel. 10 hours in a shul in Latin America was as spiritually fulfilling as 10 days in the Holy Land.

Read the rest of my reflection on my travels at New Voices.

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Categories Costa Rica, IFSA-Butler, Journalism, Middle East, New Voices, Opinion

“Don’t Call Me Half-Jewish”

January 9, 2014 //
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Zach Cohen at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, the holiest site in Judaism.

Me at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, the holiest site in Judaism.

I have no plans to leave the Jewish community. I believe in God, I believe in our collective responsibility to repair the world and my second trip to Israel last month solidified my complex love for the Holy Land.

But by alienating me and other patrilineal Jews, the Jewish community risks our departure from a community that is shrinking every day.

See the rest of my essay at InterfaithFamily.com, a blog dedicated to covering interfaith marriages and relationships.

UPDATE: March 7 at 1:07 a.m.

A recent discovery: The essay was also syndicated to The Jewish Journal in Massachusetts North Shore area. h/t to Judy Matfess, finance officer of The Jewish Journal and, coincidentally, my roommate’s mother.

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Categories Clips, Opinion

Some New Year reflections

January 1, 2014 //
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Picked up a girlfriend in Chicago, and we still get along almost a year later.

Finished my tenure as editor-in-chief of The Eagle, one of the best weekly student newspapers in the country.

Interned for a phenomenal five months at PBS MediaShift.

Lived for four and a half months in Costa Rica, the most verdant country I have ever had the pleasure to call home.

Traveled in Israel, which I have always called home.

Secured my last internship of my academic career at The Washington Post, a newspaper I have revered since moving to DC three and a half years ago.

Through good times and bad, I could count on friends and family to be there for me.

I’ve made some enemies, I’ve made more friends.

I’ve had some sucesses, I’ve made more mistakes.

I cried, but I more often I laughed.

There have been good days and bad.

I don’t regret a second.

Come at me, 2014. I’m ready for you.

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Categories Costa Rica, Journalism, Middle East, Originals to zachccohen.com, PBS, The Eagle