Putting a healthy, wholesome meal on the dinner table every night can be quite challenging, especially if you’re a working mom. However, healthy doesn’t have to be complicated. The following recipes require minimal effort and provide maximum results, using ingredients that are readily available. They’re also perfect for the upcoming High Holidays or Shabbat. FOOD […]

Today’s rabbi needs to be a CFO, fundraiser, program director and mental health professional rolled into one A strong cup of coffee in hand, he stares at the computer screen, putting the final touches on his Shabbat derashah. He then reviews the latest building campaign spreadsheet, adds the name of an addiction specialist to his […]

If you had asked someone a hundred years ago to name the defining characteristic of kashrut in America, they would probably have answered “corruption.”

What was it like to be an Orthodox rabbi in America a century ago? By Aaron I. Reichel Much of what we take for granted about today’s Orthodox rabbinate was considered revolutionary 100 years ago. Preaching a sermon in unaccented English was virtually unheard of in those days. And there were few, if any, Orthodox […]

It is easy to forget that the jovial pulpit rabbi leading the song sits in Britain’s House of Lords.

Sam Finkel, inspired by what he learned when visiting the Eran Shamir Village Museum of Mazkeret Batya during a tour guides course, spent five years researching and writing a work of nonfiction that reads like a historical novel—the stuff

Grasping a basketball in his enormous hands, Doron Sheffer looks slim and nimble enough to hit the court again as he greets a visitor to his home on Moshav Amirim. The glorious March afternoon in this hilly community with breathtaking views of the Galilee’s mountains seems light years from the snow and chill of New […]

In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, we published “Seeking Answers with Humility,” an article exploring the Jewish response to pain and suffering. The article, which was adapted from an address by Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein but was not reviewed by him, included a reference to Rabbi Yitzchok Hutner’s approach to suffering. Below, Rabbi Lichtenstein offers a […]

When my ancestors came to Britain at the turn of the twentieth century, they settled in South Wales. They would travel around the hills and dales, hawking their wares with the sole phrase in English that they knew

Since its establishment in 1898, the OU has had one overriding goal: to strengthen and fortify traditional Jewry. Over the years, the OU has addressed the broad range of challenges facing American Orthodox life, combating intermarriage and assimilation, making kosher certification more reliable, advocating for Israel, unifying and supporting synagogues, reaching teens and college youth, […]

  Thermal wonders from the ancient world  According to our tradition, there are four holy cities in Eretz Yisrael. Jerusalem, of course, is one of them. The others are Chevron (Hebron), Tzefat (Safed) and Teveria (Tiberias). Chevron is the site of Ma’arat Hamachpelah, the first piece of land purchased by a Jew in the Land […]

The Jewish Jordan’s Triple Threat: Physical, Mental, and Spiritual Lessons From The Court By Tamir Goodman and Judy Horowitz Goodman Diversion Books New York, 2013 84 pages (also available as an e-book) Reviewed by Dov Kramer One of my favorite movies from my teenage years was Airplane! One of the notable scenes (and surely there […]

After Shacharit services at his Queens synagogue one recent Friday morning, Rabbi Yoel Schonfeld, as on most weekday mornings, drives right back to his home. To check his e-mail. Several e-mail messages have arrived overnight from members of his congregation, Young Israel of Kew Gardens Hills, and from members of the wider Jewish community: personal […]

Misconception: God’s choice of Mount Moriah as the site for the Beit Hamikdash is based on a midrash involving two brothers who expressed their mutual devotion to each other by each surreptitiously giving of his grain to the other. Fact: This beautiful and widespread fable has no basis in traditional Jewish literature. Background: The holiest […]

Movers & Shakers: Sixty Prominent Personalities Speak Their Mind on Tape By Elliot Resnick Brenn Books, 2013 344 pages Headlines are often misleading. They tell you what is newsworthy, what is unusual. They don’t tell you about the important people who make the world run smoothly. Elliot Resnick’s Movers & Shakers introduces readers to people […]

Jewish Identity: Who is a Jew? Compiled by Baruch Litvin Ktav Publishing House, Inc. Jersey City, 2012 372 pages In 1958, an embattled Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, on orders from a Knesset committee, sent inquiries to fifty Jewish scholars around the world concerning the “Who is a Jew” issue (i.e., how should Israel register the […]

Chumash Mesoras HaRav—Sefer Bereishis Compiled and edited by Dr. Arnold Lustiger OU Press/Ohr Publishing Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, the “Rav,” was the towering rabbinic thinker of the twentieth century. In addition to his wellspring of Torah knowledge, the Rav taught, wrote and lectured extensively on Chumash. The Rav, however, never wrote a systematic commentary on Chumash, […]

Listening to God: Inspirational Stories for My Grandchildren By Rabbi Shlomo Riskin Maggid Books Jerusalem, 2010 445 pages Reviewed by David Olivestone   When I moved to the Upper West Side of Manhattan in the early 1970s, during the heyday of Lincoln Square Synagogue and Rabbi Shlomo Riskin’s tenure there, I was quite unprepared for […]

In Search of Torah Wisdom: Questions You Forgot to Ask Your Rebbi By Rabbi Yisroel Miller Mosaica Press Brooklyn, 2012 400 pages Rabbi Yisroel Miller’s In Search of Torah Wisdom: Questions You Forgot to Ask Your Rebbi is a refreshing example of principled pluralism. He is a Litvak, a Lakewood-trained yeshivah devotee, unafraid to state […]

As back-to-school season is upon us, parents are once again dreading the grating task of packing lunch for their kids. In recent years, many day schools and yeshivot have wisely begun to focus on nutrition to combat the pediatric obesity epidemic and improve our children’s health, but the new rules limit parents’ choices. It used […]

We all know the midrash: Once upon a time, many, many Rosh Hashanahs ago, Hashem looked into the Torah and used it as a blueprint to make the world—to make us.

Shiurei HaRav: The popular Shiurei HaRav series presents sophisticated insights into the Torah and the world of Talmudic scholarship based on shiurim given by Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik. Renowned scholars Rabbi Hershel Schachter, rosh yeshivah at the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary of Yeshiva University, and Rabbi Menachem Genack, CEO, OU Kosher, are co-editors of […]

Letters to President Clinton: Biblical Lessons on Faith and Leadership Edited by Rabbi Menachem Genack OU Press/Sterling Publishing Letters to President Clinton celebrates a unique chapter in the annals of American political and religious history: a written dialogue between Rabbi Menachem Genack, CEO of OU Kosher, and former President Bill Clinton, which spanned more than […]

Is It Possible to Raise Healthy, Well-Balanced Torah-Observant Children as A Single Parent?

View from the Candidate Along with semichah, rabbinic hopefuls need stamina. The road to the rabbinate entails interviews—lots of them. If he passes those, he’s on his way to “the proba” (Shabbat tryout), where the finalists among the candidates vying to become a shul’s new rabbi take their turns acting as rabbi of the community […]

The Chameleon in the Closet By BJ Rosenfeld 2010226 pages Reviewed by Jack Abramowitz   I rarely read memoirs. So what are my credentials for reviewing The Chameleon in the Closet? As a teen, I became more religious than my family, and over the years, I was privileged to observe many such religious transformations through […]

The Sages, Vol. 3: The Galilean Period By Rabbi Binyamin Lau Maggid Books Jerusalem, 2013 420 pages Rabbis are just like other people in that each has his own personality, strengths and interests. Rabbi Binyamin Lau’s popular Pirkei Avot classes in Jerusalem, published in multiple volumes in Hebrew and now in English translation, explore the […]

          By Yamin Levy It’s been fifteen years since Confronting the Loss of a Baby was published, and a lifetime of births, bar and bat mitzvahs, weddings and the usual ups and downs of family life. Too many people continue to need the book, the calls and letters flowing at a […]

It is a sad but well-known statistic that the largest and fastest-growing bloc of American Jewry is the unaffiliated. Depending on where in the United States you live, anywhere from 60 to 80 percent of the Jews in your city ages forty and under have no affiliation whatsoever to Judaism—they don’t belong to a synagogue […]