Yoatzot: What We Learned
Contrary to some of the rather strident reactions to the recent piece, I would rank the article one of the most successful ever to appear in Cross-Currents. Despite the imputing of all kinds of...
The Presidency of Yeshiva University: The Harder Questions
Rabbi Michael J. Broyde And the race is on: already, before a search committee is formed, everyone is discussing who should be the next President of Yeshiva University. Lists and attributes abound, but these...
New Articles, and Thanks to God
I was asked by Jewish Action to expand upon and flesh out the issues in my Cross-Currents article about rabbinic dignity, for a Jewish action article on the subject; the Jewish Action article was just published, accompanied by...
Money DOES Grow on Trees-Chocolate Chanuka Gelt
Looking for something to sink your teeth into during Chanukah? Try the halachos of chocolate Chanukah gelt and the history of Jews and chocolate. Halachic questions are as numerous as chocolate beans in a...
What Has Changed in Thirty Years? – An Interactive Discussion
Jewish Action, the Orthodox Union’s quarterly, celebrates its thirtieth anniversary with a number of articles marking the event. An Orthodox high-quality, glossy color publication was ahead of its time in 1985. It anticipated those...
The Price and Success of Contemporary Orthodoxy: Sociology or Theology?
In analytical Torah study, we learn to distinguish between a siman and a sibah – to differentiate between that which is a symptom and that which is a core factor which gives rise to...
Mah Nishtana HaTerror Hazeh?
The death of Ezra Schwartz became a national tragedy for America, Why has his tragic murder merited the attention it has received?
Schiller, Fartaytsht un Farbesert
One of our readers with an impish sense of humor sent me a link to a recent performance by the Jewish People’s Philharmonic Chorus of Schiller’s Ode to Joy in Yiddish. [WARNING: It is...
Truth Means More Than Numbers
Despite the great efforts of great rabbinical leaders and explicators of Jewish thought and belief, every generation has seen Orthodoxy lose the fealty of numbers of young people during their lives, meaningful demographic losses....
Of Labels and Fables
In European Union countries, the words “Product of the West Bank (Israeli settlement)” will now replace “Product of Israel” on labels of foodstuffs, cosmetics and other consumer goods produced by Jewish-owned enterprises in Yehudah...