Jewish Blogs

Time to Sparkle

I had to do some deep and major digging the last couple of years. Transitions whacked me in the face a-plenty, and the best way I can describe the other side of all that turmoil, trauma and tumultuousness, is with one word:Nothingness.I have come to a point where I feel nothing – emptiness.But, I feel, ya’ know?It’s just a feeling like ...

Reproductive Rights in Texas: Here I Am.

I am a Jewish-Texan who is supportive of women’s reproductive freedom. That’s quite a description and it’s not easy to be all three in this state. In a state where both the Senate and the House of Representatives are led by the conservative majority, being a Jewish-Texan supporter of women’s reproductive rights is like being an endangered species living on ...

Was Marc Rich Jewish?

Jewish-American billionaire Marc Rich, who invented oil trading and was pardoned by then US president Bill Clinton over what had once been the biggest tax evasion case in US history and busting sanctions with Iran, died on Wednesday from a stroke in Switzerland at 78.Rich fled the Holocaust with his parents for America to become the most successful and controversial ...

The Yenta, the Conservatives and Attorney General Sam Olens at the JEA

Ooooh, nothing like pissing off the alterkockers before 10am.Yesterday, Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens came to speak at the Jewish Educational Alliance, and before I could even start asking him annoying questions, I got into it with two extremely conservative members of the community about Edward Snowden, the NSA and President Obama.“Snowden’s a traitor!” groused one gent. “Should be extradited back here and ...

Non-Congratulations to the New Non-Rabbis

Thirty years ago, in 1983 we were happy to start sending our women Jewish Studies major graduates at the University of Minnesota to train to become rabbis in the Reform movement. We told them to go out and become full head rabbis of synagogues, not assistants or educational directors. Some did. We were proud.This week we read of the non-ordination ...

Caroline Kennedy: the Daring Swimmer

In the article we read about a surprising facet of her life. She is an avid open water swimmer.…A few years ago, Mr. Hughes made an offhand comment that he and his partner, Dr. Richard Friedman, a psychiatrist who directs the psychopharmacology clinic at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell hospital, made a ritual of competing in Swim for Life, a 1.25-mile event in ...

Do You Really Need to Ask a Rav?

The purpose of this article is to challenge the firmly entrenched idea within the Torah community that rabbinical counsel should be sought in all crucial life decisions or halachic quandaries. In this article, I will argue why the rigid interpretation of this belief may have made sense in the past, but no longer does.The widespread conviction that when in doubt, ...

NYC Triathlon Swim: My Hudson River Diary

Minute Zero: Coming down the ramp onto the race-start-barge in the Hudson River at 99th Street.Goggles, check; swim cap, check; stopwatch on zero, check. Interview with the race announcer over the public address, I’m Tzvee from Teaneck, New Jersey. Yes, it’s my first triathlon; yes, I’m on a relay team.Line up, look into the river. Fourteen other swimmers in my ...

Baal Teshuva Schlemiel

If it is to grow, change, and thrive, every new or emerging culture needs to see itself. Whether in film, comic strips, or novels, all artists worth anything will tell you that works-of-art can help a culture to take account of itself: where it’s come from, where it’s at, and where it’s going to. That said, I think its imperative ...

3,000 Universes

The Talmud in Sanhedrin says that someone who saves one life is like someone who saved an entire universe. If this is true, then Irena Sendler saved nearly 3,000 universes.Since its inception, Yad Vashem has been in the forefront of identifying and honoring Righteous Gentiles saved Jews during WWII. Many of these individuals hid Jews in their homes or organized ...

10 Ways to Know You’re in a Modern Orthodox Shul Without Going into Shul

Anyone with a kindergarten level of Jewish education can tell they’re in a modern orthodox shul, the mechitza, the seating style, the siddurim, the flags, there are literally dozens of ways to tell. However, being able to tell you’re in a modern orthodox shul without actually stepping foot into the sanctuary can make things a little harder. I thought of ...

From Openness to Heresy

Outright heresy is emanating from the heart of the YCT rabbinic world. No, this time we are not dealing with Open Orthodoxy (as YCT founder Rabbi Avi Weiss refers to his movement) innovating novel practices that can sort of be reconciled with minority or exotic halachic opinions, nor are we dealing with Open Orthodoxy promoting yet another new brand of ...