Jewish Blogs

Words and statements that make you sound frummer than you are

I was at work a few weeks ago and I noticed one of my friends eating so I went to say hi, he had with him a possible employee for the community kollel here and I guess he was showing him around. I’m not sure exactly what would sell a really frum person on living in the Bay Area, I’m ...

Women’s Liberation and Jewish Identity: Bringing it home

Last week, I had the great privilege of attending the conference “Women’s Liberation and Jewish Identity: Uncovering a legacy of innovation, activism, and social change.” (JWA was a conference sponsor, and you can check out Judith Rosenbaum’s response to the conference here!) As a research intern for Professor Joyce Antler, the conference convenor, this past summer, I spent hours reading short essays, ...

Women of the Wall Leader Arrested for Carrying a Torah

Following the arrest today of Anat Hoffman — chair of Women of the Wall, and former Jerusalem municipal council member — for being a woman holding a Torah at the Western Wall plaza, Hoffman offered me her first-hand account of this morning’s events. She said: We did nothing wrong. We were fully within the guidelines of the Supreme Court ruling ...

Women front and center at this celebration of Jewish American Heritage

Jewish women were definitely front and center at the first ever White House reception marking Jewish American Heritage month. Appropriately so, since it was a woman – Representative Deborah Wasserman Schultz – who spearheaded the Congressional campaign to establish Jewish American Heritage month. It was another woman – Marcia Zerivitz, who put the bug in Wasserman Schultz’ ear; and yet another ...

Women and Talmud Study

[Editors’ Note: As a follow-up to a recent discussion, Rabbi Grossman sent us this article, which presents the oft-misunderstood theoretical framework underlying the traditional Orthodox perspective on women and Talmud study. It was originally published in Tradition magazine (Vol. 28:3) as part of a symposium on women’s education.]Present-day discussions on this theme often overlook an obvious question: how do men ...

With new technology comes new halachic questions

With recent advances in technology there are bound to be a whole bunch of halachic issues that arise. In order to preempt these issues I have thought about the following issues that may be debated amongst the great rabbis of our time, even if they happen to be in jail. If they were to genetically modify a pig to chew ...

Wise Fridays: Once We Were Slaves

“Once we were slaves in Egypt, and the Lord brought us out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. And if the Holy One Blessed Be He had not taken our ancestors out of Egypt, we, our children, and our children’s children would still be enslaved to Pharaoh in Egypt.”Read more : @ myjewishlearning.comYou might also like:Paul Rudd–DJ ...

Window Sill Gardening Pleasure

This photo of the window sill right outside my kitchen window was taken looking down at my lovely little garden. No regular garden, but rather a window sill garden, that’s easy to care for and gives me non-stop pleasure all day long. You don’t need a garden or even a patio to enjoy growing some simple summer blooms, all you need ...

Win a free iPad 2 from WebYeshiva.org!

WebYeshiva.org combines traditional Torah with the latest technology and is giving you the opportunity to win abrand-new 16GB iPad 2 loaded with great WebYeshiva.org content.The new model is up for grabs and all you have to do is enter your first name, e-mail address and birthday for a chance to win.Want even more entries? Suggest our sweepstakes to your friends, and each one ...

Wimbledon: Longest Match Ever

At Wimbledon, John Isner won the fifth set, 70-68, finally beating Nicolas Mahut in the longest tennis match ever recorded in tennis history. I was curious whether Isner might be Jewish based on his last name, but a quick Web search answered that question.Read More: @ blog.rabbijason.comTags: longest match ever, wimbledonVisitors found this page by searching for:jewish membership wimbledon (1)You might also like:My Rabbi ...

Will the yeshiva world ever quit smoking?

The walls in my yeshiva dorm were painted white, thus one of the favorite places to stash cigarettes was to tape them outside of the package to the wall. It was a strange practice, made even stranger when those same folks would take the cigarette off the wall, tuck it behind their ear and tell the dorm councilor they were ...

Will America’s Next Top Model Be Modern Orthodox?

There has been a lot of talk lately in the Jewish community about a particular contestant on the CW’s reality hit America’s Next Top Model (ANTM). Esther Petrack, an 18-year-old, self-identified Modern Orthodox Jew is an aspiring model on the show. When asked by Tyra Banks, the show’s host, whether or not she observed Shabbat, Esther said yes and proceeded ...