NOVEMBER 13, 2014
ANDREW SILOW-CARROLL Editor-in-Chief
JOANNE BLOOMSTEIN Special Projects Editor
DAYNA NADEL Graphic Designer
RICK KESTENBAUM COO/General Manager
ABBY METH KANTER Managing Editor
PATRICIA R. ROGERS Publication Operations Director
INSIDE In the time of the curtains
3
The kiddush cup
9
High School Games
12
Never forget
4
Matzo brei
9
Life
12
You don’t look Jewish
5
The hand that stole my heart
Personal strides
13
Unless someone like you…
6
Why Israel?
7
My wish list
Notification: Miscommunication
It lights me up
11
For the sake of Danny
15
7
Photography
11
Can we still keep shabbat?
15
String for a cause
8
The leaves
10 10
A student’s dream, a teacher’s worst nightmare 14
12
CONTRIBUTORS Phoebe Brenner, 15, attends Randolph High School. She enjoys competitive cheerleading, dancing, and tumbling. She also likes to travel to new places. Desi Brower, 15, attends Livingston High School. She loves so c ce r, b as k etb all, school, and spending time with her friends. Mack Brower, 16, attends Livingston High School. He loves to play basketball, and also enjoys cooking, playing the baritone saxophone, and hanging out with friends. Blake Chernin, 17, attends West Morris Mendham High School. Blake enjoys writing and spending time with friends. Ariel Ezra, 14, attends Bruriah HS, and is passionate about books and writing. She enjoys writing poetry, songs, and stories, and also likes to sing, bike, listen to music, and go to the beach. Justin Fiszer, 16, attends Randolph HS. He goes to Camp Ramah in the Berkshires, and loves his friends there. He also loves Israel, Friends re-runs, and cars.
Amanda Glatt, 17, attends Livingston HS. She has a passion for writing and loves reading. She also enjoys hanging out at the mall, and catching a movie with friends. Abby Ingber, 16, attends Watchung Hills Regional High School. She wants to follow in her sister Stephanie’s footsteps by writing for Nu. She enjoys soccer, the outdoors, and her friends. Sydney Luks, 15, formerly attended Glen Ridge High School and now attends the Holmstead School. Sydney enjoys writing, singing, and being social.
Marni Rosenthal, 14, attends Kent Place. She has a longstanding passion for photography. She also enjoys drawing and painting, and incorporating unusual items into three dimensional multi-media works. Sam Russo, 15, attends Golda Och Academy. He enjoys reading, cooking, hanging out with friends and visiting Israel. Benjamin Schwartz, 16, lives in West Orange and attends the Frisch School. He participates in such extracurricular activities as fencing and debate, and is thrilled to be published in NU.
Jacob Nelson, 16, attends Rae Kushner Yeshiva High School. He loves playing football, soccer, and other sports, and also really enjoys spending time with friends and family.
Tal Sharon, 16, attends Livingston HS. She loves playing soccer, hanging out with friends, and helping others. She has two younger sisters and a two-year-old puppy. Her favorite place to go is Israel.
Jake Ostrove, 15, is attends Rae Kushner Yeshiva High School. He plays basketball and baseball and loves sports of any kind. Jake hopes to study sports broadcasting and journalism in college.
Ariella Shua, 16, attends Rae Kushner Yeshiva HS. She has a passion for reading and would love to be a writer or critic. She enjoys writing, playing volleyball, going online, watching TV, and spending time with friends.
Georgia Slater, 17, attends Westfield High School where she is the Editor-inChief of her school newspaper. She also loves to spend time with friends, writing, and playing the guitar. Alexa Smith, 17, attends Livingston High School. She is a Diller Teen fellow and Iris Teen Tzedukah alumn. She enjoys creating digital images Her favorite color is purple. Hazel Solender, 15, attends Millburn High School. She plays field hockey and softball, enjoys writing and hanging with friends and family. She is excited to be writing for Nu! Jenna Zucker, 15, attends Montclair HS where she is involved with the Civics and Government Institute and Girls Learn International. She enjoys figure skating and learning about her family’s history.
COVER ILLUSTRATION Alexa Smith COVER/INTERIOR DESIGN Dayna Nadel Graphic Designer
2 nu november 2014
An enduring
LEGACY
A FEW YEARS BACK, New Jersey Jewish News approached Milly Iris with an idea. We knew that she cared deeply about the next generation of community leaders and that she understood that to build Jewish community you had to begin with its youngest members, giving them the solid foundation from which Jewish commitment and responsibility will grow. Milly and her late husband Herb were committed to shoring up that foundation, through the Herb and Milly Iris Youth and Family Philanthropy Endowment Fund of the Jewish Community Foundation of Greater MetroWest NJ. The fund’s mission is to focus on programs, like the Iris Teen Tzedakah Program, that invite young people as partners in building Jewish community. Our pitch was simple — to publish a magazine by and for the community’s Jewish teens. Milly’s response was direct: a yearly gift through the endowment that has enabled us to produce NU, a multiple-award-winning platform for area youth. Last month came the sad news that Milly had died at the age of 82. The community remembered her as a peerless planner and first-class visionary. They remembered the legacy of good works she created with Herb, including their support for what became the Jewish Federation of Greater MetroWest NJ and Temple Sharey Tefilo-Israel in South Orange. They recalled that rather than succumbing to her grief after Herb’s death, Milly rallied and continued to invest in the future of young people so that they learn the responsibility, and the art, of giving back. Those who knew Milly Iris always came away feeling amazed by her rare blend of big-picture vision and magnifying-glass attention to detail. Simply put, Milly knew how to get things done. In her memory, we will also continue to build on that legacy and to encourage the passionate Jewish teen writers who dedicate their time and talent to sharing their thoughts and ideas for their generation and our community. Herb and Milly Iris may be gone, but their vision lives on through the young lives they touched. May their daughters Roree Iris-Williams and Kerry Iris and their families be comforted among the mourners of Israel, and may nu their parents’ memory be for a blessing.