Who is a Charedi Rabbi
Elior Chen is off to jail, to serve a well deserved and long sentence for multiple counts of child abuse. For years, Chen operated his own cult, teaching his “disciples” that child abuse was...
Category: Religion
The Cultural Jew Within
Are our observances truly religious, or do they sometimes devolve into rote?
“Liberal Denominations Face Crisis”
That’s not me, it’s The Forward. Jews are finding less reason to be part of liberal synagogues, while liberal synagogues are finding less reason to be part of a denominational body. The shteibl model...
Thank You, Dr. Murray
Writer and educator Dr. Erica Brown penned a thoughtful piece for the New York Jewish Week on January 25, in which she addressed the concept of Jewish peoplehood. “The niggling tension of Judaism as...
Sad, Not Stunning
The Baltimore Jewish Times calls them “stunning:” the results of the new demographic survey commissioned by the Associated: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore. They highlight both the tremendous growth of the observant community and...
Swearing off the “U” Word
Does affirmation of the Jewish religious heritage… make haredim “extremist”? Considering the other candidates for that word today?
Left-Wing Rabbis Condemn Right-Wing Pundit
Someone tell me why this is news? For the record, I don’t know what point Glenn Beck was intending to make about George Soros, and he may have exaggerated about the extent of Soros’...
The Forward Backs Off
… and should be commended for it. Readers may recall that several months ago, I lampooned The Forward for categorizing support for Sholom Rubashkin as having “exposed the vastly different worldviews that can exist...
College Students Not Learning Much
This is the headline on CBSNews.com, describing a study published in a new book “Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses.” Given that students are going to courses and acquiring lots of new information,...
Jewish Traits Gone Bad
I have long suspected that the Jewish stereotypes invoked by comedians, impolite pundits, and anti-Semites contain some grain of truth. After all, even a powerfully positive middah, or personal trait, can, if mangled or...
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