Beshert | Not a Chain Restaurant
In the early 1960s, when I was about 10 or so, I was in the backseat of our family car driving somewhere in upstate New...
Beshert | Finding My Childhood Bestie—60 Years Later!
My beshert moment on that unforgettable day wrapped me in so many memories of my childhood. In the early 1940s, as kids growing up in...
Are We All Hasidim?
In a world in which any Jew is a potential target of anti-Semitism, it is the most visible Jews who are most threatened. Jews with black hats, with tight curls hanging down below their ears and black coats and women wearing modest head coverings, they are the most vulnerable. Jews in synagogues. In Brooklyn, as in Jersey City and Monsey, violence against individuals in their Hasidic communities is almost an everyday event. If someone wants to do harm to a Jew, Hasidic Jews and their communities are and have become easy targets.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Discusses Career, Role Models at Moment Awards Dinner
“This latest has been my fourth cancer bout,” Ginsburg said. “And I found each time that when I’m active, I feel much better than if I’m just lying about and feeling sorry for myself.”
The Haredi PR Problem: Bad For (All) The Jews
by Ezer Smith
There has been some outrage recently over an Orthodox custom known as metzitzah b’peh, and justifiably so: The custom, during which the mohel...
A New Jew?
by Kara A. Kaufman
A landmark study of Jewish life released today reveals the deep and sometimes surprising changes the Jewish community has undergone over the...
Not So Secular: Jews Occupy Wall Street
by Steven Philp
The Occupy Wall Street movement is populated by the disaffected and anti-religious left--that is, if you ignore the Jews. A recent article by...
A Shakeup in District 9
by Theodore Samets
In Monday’s Huffington Post, Ed Koch, the former Democratic mayor of New York City, and an outspoken supporter of Israel, did something scandalous:...
Jew vs. Jew
by Steven Philp
In light of the fact that anti-Semitism exists within contemporary society, a large number of Jews devote their time and energy to organizations—like...
Stay Salty, Smoked Salmon
by Theodore Samets
Growing up, I was scared of lox.
Well, at least I thought it was lox. Turned out, the slimy, pinkish orange, cold fish I...
G-d Comes Out on the Side of Equality
by Steven Philp
In the national debate concerning equal rights for the LGBT community, the opposition has consistently claimed that they have G-d on their side....
Jailhouse Hora
By Michelle Albert
These days, to have a truly memorable bar mitzvah, it has to be somewhere special. Like jail.
According to the New York Times, New...