Jewish Blogs

Embarrassed and Embarrassing Mothers

In a video clip posted on the new website for MAKERS: Women Who Make America, writer Judy Blume remembers about embarrassing her mother when she discussed female masturbation on Dr. Ruth’s talk show. “My mother was horrified,” Blume recalls many years later.Perhaps because I was never a guest on national TV, I had few opportunities to embarrass my mother. In any ...

Email Plague Hits Quiet New England Community

Due to political unrest in the Jewish Community, Congregation Vikuchei Yisroel announced today that they will hold a breakaway minyan on Yom Kippur for Obama supporters and other liberals in the community. Asked about this move, Dr. Mitchy Romneyberg explained that although we begin the Yom Kippur service with the statement that we are allowed to daven with the sinners, clearly ...

Elul, Rosh Hashana, and Yom Kippur For Children

Creating Elul consciousness in the home really begins with our understanding of what Elul means. The Sefas Emes explains that there is a place within Hashem’s infinite reality where his love for us is so great that nothing can touch it. Similarly, there is a hidden spark of ahavat Hashem within each of us that can never be defiled. The ...

Elul: Five Steps To Greatness

What is the definition of greatness? What do we hope to achieve in Elul? When I posed this question to one of my children, she answered, “V’ani kirvat Elokim li tov”-And for me closeness to Hashem is good. A great person is one who can reach a level of kirvat Hashem. Rav Pincus in Nefesh Chaya, lists five steps to ...

Elana Maryles Sztokman Rebuts Rabbi Dr. Yehuda “Ronnie” Warburg’s Defense of Gender Segregation on Public Buses

We say bravo to the Forward’s blogger/columnist Elana Maryles Sztokman. She rebuts Rabbi Dr. Yehuda “Ronnie” Warburg’s unfortunate defense of gender segregation on public buses in Israel in, “The Modern Orthodox Case for Gender Segregation on Public Buses.”By the same token we do not applaud Rabbi Warburg, whose article “THE PRACTICE OF GENDER SEPARATION ON BUSES IN THE ULTRA-ORTHODOX COMMUNITY ...

Elaborate Lies with Convincing Details

Evan Fallenberg is the author of When We Danced on Water, a novel. He will be blogging all week for MyJewishLearning and the Jewish Book Council‘s Author Blog.I am probably a writer of fiction (as opposed to nonfiction) because from a very early age I loved to tell elaborate lies with convincing details.Read More: @You might also like:Improving Moral VocabularyThe Never Ending ...

Ekev – Standing Strong for Israel

A few years ago I was on my way to pick up my son from the Jewish Community Center, where he was in day care. Just a mile from the JCC I had to pull over to allow fire engines and police cars pass. I didn’t think too much of the blaring sirens and flashing lights until I realized they ...

Einstein in His Undies

As if General Motors didn’t have enough problems with the ink on the bankruptcy papers still fresh and a bunch of pissed off Union workers with lawyers and chains at the ready, now they’ve got the Israelis on their tuchus: The Detroit auto company has been slapped with a lawsuit by Hebrew University in Jerusalem for the unapproved use of Albert ...

Eight Worst Mikvah Ladies

In honor of the marriage of Heshy and Chaya I wanted to share with you my top eight worst Mikva Lady experiences.1. The Talkative Town Yenta. Lady, please stop talking! I show up once a month and I don’t want to hear what happened to you over the last four weeks. I certainly don’t want to tell you what’s going on ...

Efraim Zuroff on the Demjanjuk Verdict in Germany

Efraim Zuroff writes in the Forward (“Hunting Demjanjuk: The End of a Decades-Long Case and What It Means”) about the significance of the Demjanjuk verdict in Germany.He speculates about the impact as follows:Demjanjuk’s conviction marks the first time that a German court has found a suspected Holocaust perpetrator guilty without any evidence of a specific crime committed by the defendant, ...

Eating Jewish: What is “Jewish food?”

What exactly is Jewish food? This is the question that most people will invariably ask me after I tell them that I research Jewish food. Most people ask this question with interest, while others are incredulous that there could be Jewish food. Yet, whenever I am confronted with this question I realize that one simple answer cannot work to define ...

Eating Jewish: The Jewish Story of Chocolate

Valentine’s Day is not a Jewish holiday. These days it’s a secular holiday associated with flowers, candy hearts, and, best of all, chocolate. I wasn’t expecting to find a Jewish connection to Valentine’s Day, but after looking through my copy of Gil Marks’ Encyclopedia of Jewish Food, I discovered the that Jews actually played a significant role in the history of the ...