Jewish Blogs

Artscroll Discovers That 95% of Their Books are Never Opened

After surveying 10,000 of its customers, Artscroll has discovered that 95% of the books purchased were never opened and merely used for interior design purposes. Artscroll was curious about whether people purchase their books for actual usage or just for looks after one of their interns mentioned that her father owned 3 sets of shas, the entire gadol biography collection, ...

Is Jonathan Krohn Jewish?

No and yes. According to the Times, the young (former) conservative is being brought up as a Christian. So no, definitely Jonathan Krohn is not Jewish by religion.Update: At 17, Krohn was doing teshuvah – repenting his conservatism – i.e., he adopted liberal ideas and went to study philosophy at NYU. MSNBC reported in the video clip below, wherein Lawrence O’Donnell ...

Reclaim the J.A.P.

Like, oh my g-d! Like, like really…If it looks like a J.A.P. and sounds like a J.A.P., is it a J.A.P. (Jewish American Princess)?Maybe you knew this girl in middle school, or maybe you were this girl in high school: a naïve, airhead Jewess living in a bubble, with no regard for the world beyond the tip of your nose. ...

New App Warns Drivers Approaching a Gay Mob

Orthodox Jews in Israel celebrated a new app that works on kosher phones, the app is designed to warn drivers when they are coming upon a gay mob. Many unfortunate incidents happen in Israel when the Ultra-Orthodox happen upon gay mobs, so someone bright enough to create an app to warn of such abominations is being called a hero by ...

Imagine an Off The Derech Utopia

Imagine a Neo Hasidic community, where you can believe in evolution, the Big Bang and the FSM, you can play basketball, football and hockey, wear a t-shirt, jeans and Rashi-gatches, unlimited masturbation, loads of kishka, kugel and cholent, you can eat lobster on Yom Kipur and pizza on Pesach, you can have premarital relationships and sex, you can listen to ...

Inventing the Past: Michael Broyde and Morton Smith

The Jewish Channel’s Steven I. Weiss continued his outstanding investigative reporting with a new story on Rabbi Michael Broyde of Emory University, “Investigation Reveals Additional Questionable Identity With Connections to Broyde’s Scholarship”. It now appears certain that Broyde invented letters by two imaginary rabbis to support his opinions on religious matters. Weiss also found that an 83 page article published ...

Southern Shabbat Dinner: What, No Shrimp?

Delish post today on the Forward’s The Jew and the Carrot about NYC’s City Grit, a culinary salon that hosted a four-course Shabbat meal last week. But questions remain.First of all, what the hosanna is a culinary salon? Can I get my toes done there while noshing? Sounds awfully lofty to be taking on the Southern Shabbos meal.I’m not denying ...

Eat Less; Swim More

Strange advice from USA Today, “Double up: Diet, exercise together are key to success”. We’ve known all along that if you want to get into good shape you need to eat less and swim more:Folks who want to get in better shape and eat healthier are often encouraged to make one change at a time, but a new study finds ...

Gun Control and Orthodox Woman Rabbis: Both Slippery Slopes

Gun control is one of the few debates that are not even worth having, chances are that you’ve made up your mind based on your own little file full of statistics, studies, and facts to support whatever side you’re on. It’s actually one of the few debates where people come armed (no pun intended) with statistics, I guess you can’t ...

Sexual Violence and Judaism: As a Community, We Need To Do More

In 2010, the Center for Disease Control & Prevention found that one in five women and one in 71 men have been raped in their lifetime. These numbers are startling. I know what you’re thinking— why are you bringing this up on a Jewish blog? This sort of thing doesn’t happen in our community. It happens to other people.Sexual assault and intimate ...

I Reach for Words

I started reaching on Monday. This is what I do in times of crisis; I reach. I reach for small acts of healing and care, for the tiny slivers of tenderness that tenuously hold together the places we crack when the weight of the world’s brokenness is unbearable.I reach for the people I love; for connection and reassurance and care; ...

The Sabbath Soccer Dilemma

Though no one will ever accuse me of correct religious observance, since becoming a Jewish mother I’ve always maintained that Saturdays are meant for rest (and the occasional mani-pedi.)Shabbat at the Yenta house starts with candles on Friday night and usually ends with Havdalah, but sometimes we forget or we’re out and we just sing “Eliahu Hanavi” loudly (especially fun ...