Jewish Blogs

Sharing Stories, Inspiring Change

Last week, Rabbi Scott Perlo wrote a provocative article in the Washington Post in which he addressed the continuing discomfort that many Jews—even liberal, gender-equity-supporting ones—feel about female rabbis. He suggests that this puzzling phenomenon may be due to the central place nostalgia holds in many people’s feelings about Judaism. It comes as no surprise that this nostalgic vision does not include ...

Social Media Sites Get Political About Israel

Spending a week in Israel earlier this month I kept my eyes open to the way Israelis use technology. Even on my first time in Israel over 18 years ago I noticed that Israelis thirsted for the latest tech gadgets. Being a country that struggled with telecommunications early on in its existence primed Israel for a telecom revolution. In the ...

A Battle Over a Book: Haym Soloveitchik v. Talya Fishman

Our once-upon-a-time teacher at Yeshiva University has panned a new book about rabbinic cultural development.It’s a veritable battle over a book, Haym Soloveitchik v. Talya Fishman.The book is Becoming the People of the Talmud: Oral Torah as Written Tradition in Medieval Jewish Cultures (Jewish Culture and Contexts).The review by Haym is locked away to subscribers only at the Jewish Review ...

Compassion: From the Bible’s Joseph to Bruce Springsteen

Bruce Springsteen’s most recent hit single, “We Take Care of Our Own” has been played non-stop throughout this year, especially during President Obama’s re-election campaign, the democratic national convention and at his victory party in Chicago. When my father in law introduced me to the song a number of months ago, I felt conflicted by its message.On the one hand, ...

Non-Jews Doing Hanukkah

A couple years ago I wrote about non-Jews observing certain Jewish customs. I looked at such examples as Justin Bieber reciting the Shema in Hebrew before each concert as well as non-Jews maintaining kosher diets, hanging mezuzahs on their front doors, dancing the Hora at weddings and erecting sukkahs.The new trend seems to be non-Jewish celebs adopting Hanukkah rituals. While ...

Saw You On Frum Satire

Every once in a while I get back into shidduchim, I thought of a great idea to set up two people the other day and I went through the motions. This involved pictures, details into their lives an all that stuff that people could have just gotten out of the way by going out for drinks for a half hour. ...

Early Hanukkah in 2013: Jewish Calendar Fun

Whenever I’m asked if the Jewish holidays are coming early or late this year, I promptly answer that they’ll be coming on time. And that’s partially true. Rosh Hashanah will always arrive on the first day of the Jewish month of Tishrei just as Hanukkah will always begin on the 25th of Kislev. But the Jewish holidays will be coming ...

Haute Hot — Eye Candy for both Women and Men

Are you a Hot Channi looking for fashion ideas? Keep in mind that you need to follow the tznius rules (at least in public), but that’s about it. You are hot. You know it. Hashem made you hot, Koko Fit Club helps keep your tushie from sagging, and you can’t help but flaunt it just a little bit. Well there’s ...

Shidduchim: It All Comes Down to the Picture

When you strip away all the BS about family, yichus, education, hashkafa, seminary and white tablecloths it all comes down to looks. All we (both men and women) care about is how our potential shidduch date looks. Case in point, no matter how bad the date sounds to either side, the second I send the picture it’s decided.At one point ...

A Brighter Side to “Jewish Mothering”: A Review of “The Guilt Trip”

The Guilt Trip begins by introducing Andy Brewster (Seth Rogen), a thirty— something inventor about to embark on a road trip to sell his innovative organic cleaning product. Andy makes a quick stop at his mom’s (Barbara Streisand) house, and spontaneously invites her to come along for the ride. Their journey cross-country turns into an exploration of the ties that bind ...

Who Owns Jewish Ritual?

My rabbinic networks have been abuzz about the second episode of a new reality TV show on TLC called “The Sisterhood.” I first learned of the controversial episode when someone Tweeted the clip to me asking me what I thought. I then sent an article about the episode from The Christian Post to my colleagues in Clal’s Rabbis Without Borders ...

Two Snow Days In Israel!

Gotta love a mosaic pot in the snow! If you’re up for a fun mosaic project, so take a look at my DIY mosaic pot tutorial for making mosaic pots like this one, that will weather a good storm once in a while! (Meaning those of you who live in zones 5-7, with frost, and occasional snow, like our region ...