Football Fever
In this season of playoffs and super bowl, the thoughts of red-blooded Americans center on the most vital topic of the day: football. Even if we normally consider less crucial matters such as relationship...
Womens Lib Haredi-Style
An article of mine on an often-ignored aspect of the high poverty/low employment rates of haredim in Israel was published by the Forward this week. The paper chose its own title for the piece,...
Gil Tal Obligates All of Us
“Hillel will obligate the poor [to learn Torah]; Rabbi Elazar ben Charsum obligates the rich; and Yosef the evil ones” (Yoma 35b). After Rabbi Elazar ben Charsum, whose father left him one thousand cities...
Je Suis Juif
Here’s a piece of rare double good news from Gaza. First, the Egyptian army is in the process of razing Rafah, the Egyptian border town,that borders Gaza, in order to create a security zone...
Zoned Out
Challenging “pre-owned” and “correctional institution” for first place in the delicate euphemism rankings is “sensitive urban zones.” That phrase, having barged into the news cycle in recent weeks, is the translation of “Zones Urbaines...
Something To Laugh At
Unless you are Yair Lapid, looking back at the failure of your overreach. Many people, even inside the charedi world, secretly hoped that Yair Lapid’s insistence upon addressing the issue of charedi un- and...
Learning from our Past, Building our Future
How Jewish History teaches us to create a positive community for tomorrow Part I by Leslie Ginsparg Klein There is a story told about a Bais Yaakov girl in Poland in the 1930s. She...
Out of Borough Experience
Back in the fall, a candidate for the New York State Assembly made construction of major new housing in Borough Park the centerpiece of his campaign. A New York City councilman heartily endorsed that...
We’re Not Kidnappers
A piece I wrote for a Forward blog, in reaction to a mother’s lament over her newly-Orthodox daughter’s described rejection of her parents can be read here.
R Dovid Winiarz z’l
by Meir Goldberg After the holocaust, the broken survivors of the Nazi concentration camps were gathered and provided for in DP (Displaced Persons) camps. The Klausenberger Rebbe Zt’l acted as both a father and...