The questions were probing and at times invasive (in a positive way), the discussion was penetrating and on occasion tense, and I came away having learned a ton about the root causes and deeper significance...
(This article first appeared on Arutz Sheva.) When you do not like the facts, ignore them. When you do not like the situation, pretend it is not so. This sentiment can unfortunately...
Analogizing to competition sports, rabbinic debate usually resembles nothing more exciting than tiddly-winks or croquet. Last week, however, rabbinic sport turned to mud-wrestling. The slimy stuff flew between supporters and detractors of the RCA...
“As if the situation here was not sensitive enough,” groused an incredulous MK Yoel Hasson (Hamachaneh HaTzioni). He was referring to Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely’s comment that her “dream is to see...
It is unfortunate that Open Orthodox opponents of the new RCA resolution have vilified the resolution and the RCA in the secular Jewish media, issuing a flurry of attacks in The Jewish Week, Forward and...
The statement regarding Open Orthodoxy by the Council of Torah Sages of Agudath Israel is not about women rabbis, politics, or excluding Jews from the Jewish community. It is about integral components of traditional Jewish belief, and truth in advertising.
According to the foremost Council of Rabbinic scholars in the United States, “Open Orthodoxy” is not a form of Torah Judaism, and any ordination (“semicha”) granted by any affiliate to its graduates does not confer any rabbinic authority.
JOFA (Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance) continues to be disappointed by the RCA’s insistence that only men may assume positions of “rabbinic status,” which as far as we can tell, amounts to nothing more than an...
Last week afforded me an opportunity to sit with a group of Jews spanning the gamut of American Jewry – resolute secularists, members of non-Orthodox congregations and Orthodox Jews – to discuss Jewish unity...
Intermarriage is probably the reddest line that exists for Orthodox Jews. There are Jews who identify as Orthodox yet are not fully careful about kashrus, about certain aspects of Shabbos observance, and so forth...
