Jewish Blogs

How Do You Feel About the Shoah?

The Craigslist ad below has some perfectly reasonable questions in the grand scheme of things. If you’re about to have a craigslist shabbat meal you’re bound to get some pretty strange and animated responses. Everyone has an opinion on hairy backs, the two state solution (or final solution depending on your political leanings) and your favorite Seinfeld episode, but I ...

Is Trash Talking Kosher?

When young kids are verbally harassed by other children they are taught to respond to their provokers by saying that, “sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me,” conveying the message that words are not physically damaging and therefore aren’t bothersome. While this phrase has become somewhat effective as a tool to prevent bullying, it ...

There Are No Atheists in a Foxhole or at The Dentist…

Due to Obama’s failure at giving me free dental insurance, I haven’t had a chance to visit the dentist. Due to my lack of dental visits, I haven’t really gotten to experience the fear of getting teeth work done. I know people who aren’t scared of the dentist, but I don’t know anyone who’s into going to the dentist (if ...

Review of Jerusalem: A Cookbook by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi

Prolific is the word that comes to mind when I think about cookbooks these days. There are hundreds lining the shelves of bookstores or on your computer screen-depending on how you choose to do your shopping. Either way there are a lot of cookbooks to be had, and with new ones published on a regular basis, it can be hard ...

5 Reasons Why You Are Still Single: The Kabbalah Infomercial Equivalant

I just got this piece of spam in my inbox and it’s totally awesome. I can imagine this being the type of thing that frum television channels would put on late at late when there was no programming. Instead of Chuck Norris and Christie Brinkley, you’d have someone named Baba who’s related to the Baba Sali, looking all kabalistic in ...

“Thinking Inside the Box”: Framing My Grandmother’s Life

I had never taken the time to learn much about my grandmother, Esther Rebeca Leibowich de Bortz’s past. While I knew that something in her history must have gone right—she became a renowned gynecologist in Argentina—large gaps existed between each of the detailed but disconnected anecdotes that she recounted to me over the years.My grandmother—or Bobe as I call her—and ...

Gibson Guitars Gives Dave Schneider Hanukkah Gift

Stories of airlines damaging travelers’ baggage are about as common as delayed flights these days, but a particularly dreadful mishap occurred recently. Dave Schneider, the lead guitarist of a Jewish band called the Leevees (with Guster’s Adam Gardner) that produces only Hanukkah-themed songs, was traveling on a flight from Buffalo to Detroit. The Delta flight went fine without any problems, ...

Is Naftali Bennett Jewish?

New Yorker has a long rambling article ostensibly about Naftali Bennett, who is a Jew, and a right wing politician in Israel. The article is by David Remnick, editor of the magazine and also a Jew and politically a liberal. Remnick throws into the article his historical narrative about how Israeli politics has veered further and further to the right ...

Google’s Android App Marketplace Offers Inspirational Hitler Quotes Apps

Apple has been criticized by mobile app makers for the difficult process involved in getting their apps into the AppStore. The reason for all the red tape in this process, however, is so Apple can approve each app for content ensuring there is no hate speech or racist material in the app. In France, Apple has even removed an app ...

Is Yair Lapid Jewish?

Yes Israeli politician Yair Lapid is a Jew. David Remnick wrote about him in New Yorker, and evaluated his performance in the 2013 parliamentary election, “…the great surprise was the second-place finisher, a television celebrity and political novice named Yair Lapid, who leads a brand new—but impressively greased—centrist party called Yesh Atid (“There is a Future”). Lapid appealed largely to ...

Minhagim Busters Discovers That You do Gain Weight on Shabbos!

The folks from minhagim busters have just confirmed, after a long grueling process, that frum Jews do gain weight on shabbos. It’s a common held theory that frum Jews get an extra soul on shabbos and therefore they can eat whatever they want with no fear of obesity. It has been discovered that in our times of galus this is ...

DNAinfo.com Exposes Worst Scandal of the Brooklyn Yeshivas – Lack of Education for Boys

They tell us who they are, “DNAinfo.com is New York’s leading hyper-local news source, covering New York City’s neighborhoods. We deliver up-to-the-minute reports on entertainment, education, politics, crime, sports, and dining. Our award-winning journalists find the stories — big or small — that matter most to New Yorkers.”And in a series of reports by Sonja Sharp they expose the biggest scandal of all ...