About a decade ago, a short time after I arrived in Oak Park, Michigan, I visited a doctor for a checkup. I already knew the drill. He’d come in, examine me, draw blood and adjust my medications based on the results. The examination began, and everything was going well–until the doctor started talking. “If you […]

As flames enveloped the Warsaw Ghetto, a Polish resident of the city’s “Aryan” side, observing the incineration of his Jewish neighbors, was overheard remarking with

One of the biggest challenges of the Seder night is keeping your children engaged and excited throughout the Seder. Especially today, when kids are used to constant stimulation, it seems almost unfair to demand that your child sit through hours upon hours of divrei Torah. Keep in mind that the more involved your child is […]

Especially in these difficult economic times, preparing for Pesach can cause many to feel stressed. But who says Pesach has to be costly? We spoke with two well-known home organizers and came up with some money-saving tips. 1. Stick to basics. Many people feel the need to “keep up with the Schwartzes” by trying new, […]

Many of us think that because we can’t have bread, rice, pasta or grains on Pesach, we need to offer our families lots of starchy side dishes. Why not try a healthier alternative? Simply include fresh fruits and vegetables when planning your menus. CREAMY CARROT SOUP Makes 6 servings Simply dill-icious!   1 tablespoon olive […]

Week after week, month after month, year after year, as the global Jewish community continues the unceasing cycle of Torah reading, we have the ability to study the weekly parashah in greater depth and with a new perspective.

Prayer is an intimate conversation of the heart. It is a personal discussion with the Almighty, a laying bare of one’s innermost insecurities and needs.

What is it that distinguishes mankind from the rest of the animal world? Most readers would respond that it is Man’s power of reason, or his ability to speak, or perhaps it is the fact that he has a soul that makes him unique. These responses are consistent with the term Homo sapiens, which literally […]

In an essay written on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the United Nations, Andrzej Szczypiorski, a Polish writer, addressed the question of “What kind of world will the next generation face?”1 In his essay, he asserted that society’s reliance on science and technological advancement to create a better world is mistaken. From earliest […]

Leaders on the Hill Part II of our series on a new crop of young American Orthodox political leaders—all under forty-five—who are working to improve American life and society. At a rabbinical convention in 2003, the star speaker was Tevi Troy. He was addressing the conference to describe his experience as an Orthodox Jew working […]

              One of the major themes of this year’s Orthodox Union (OU) convention was the primacy of mesorah. Learning from some of the leading scholars and thinkers of our generation about our unique heritage, which has held us together as a people over the centuries, was enlightening and inspiring. […]

At The Frisch School, a teacher uses a Smart Board to teach a Navi class. Courtesy of Rabbi Tzvi Pittinsky There is no question that technology can transform–and in some schools already is transforming–Jewish education. Teachers often bemoan the fact that students who have been in yeshivah their entire lives often have difficulty deciphering a […]

In critical ways, technology has transformed how we live. This has been true, in a sense, for more than two centuries or since the Industrial Revolution gained full steam, but never more so than in the recent period as new developments and their application have come rapidly. Technological developments have not been in the form […]

The first week Josh Kahn began working as the director of communications for Congressman Patrick McHenry (R-NC), a big story broke about an hour before he had to leave for Shabbat. “I was not really settled into my job,” says Kahn. “I barely had my BlackBerry working.” Nevertheless, he pulled things together quickly. Really quickly. […]

An Argentinian student of the Jewish Online School taking a Torah class. Courtesy of the Jewish Online School With the ongoing tuition crisis, many are thinking outside the box when it comes to providing a quality Jewish education. Enter a slowly growing, though by no means widespread, trend: virtual learning. In 2009, Yeshivas Ohev Shalom […]

Is the Sefer History? The future of the Sefer, the Jewish book, is currently uncertain, but not for the reasons you might think. Jews have been traditionally called the “People of the Book.” We maintained a culture of literacy even before public education became a societal goal. My non-Jewish business colleagues are often surprised when […]

Technological developments are often aimed at solving the world’s great problems: feeding the hungry, reversing global warming, curing disease. But what about the world’s most pressing problem, at least from a Jewish mother’s point of view: the “shidduch crisis”? Dr. Tova Weinberg, an exuberant retired dentist who is the shadchan-in-chief of SawYouAtSinai.com (SYAS), has been […]

A candidate running for public office who coolly alleges that she hates politics may be a bit of an anomaly, but that’s not the only thing that sets Adeena Bleich apart. At thirty-three, Bleich, a Democrat, is younger than the majority of political candidates. A graduate of Pitzer College in Los Angeles County, Bleich earned […]

“This is a story about kiddush Hashem, not about any individual,” says the rabbi who stood at the center of one of the more fascinating episodes in recent history. The rabbi is Tzvi Teitelbaum, founder of MesorahDC, an outreach organization serving the Georgetown University campus and the greater Washington area. The story began a few […]

While technology has given us many near-miraculous inventions that have certainly improved our lives, it has ushered in a number of problems. Knowledge might appear to always be good, but this is clearly not so. The Torah refers to the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Nuclear science has brought great medical advances and […]

Despite the surge of traffic on the Jewish dating sites, many frum single men and women are choosing to stick with the time-honored tradition of turning to a shadchan, preferring the assistance, connection and sage advice of a live intermediary. A growing number of them are finding all this—plus their soul mates—with the help of […]

Close to 8,000 Falash Mura-descendants of Ethiopian Jews who converted due to missionary work and persecution–live in the Gondar region of Ethiopia. The Israeli government plans to bring them all to Israel within the next four years. Photos from Atalia Katz’s photographic exhibition “Voice of Ethiopia,” which captures the day-to-day life of Ethiopian Jews. The little-known […]

The Carmel Forest: before and after the devastating fire–the worst in Israel’s history–that claimed the lives of more than forty people. Photos: www.sasson-photos.com “And the fire of Hashem descended and consumed the elevation offering and the wood, and the stones, and the earth; and it licked up the water in the trench” (I Kings 18:38). […]

The publication of a book by one of the leading Jewish thinkers of our time, a man whose mastery of Torah texts is matched by profound insight and remarkable eloquence,

Rashi By Elie Wiesel Random House Books New York, 2007 90 pages Reviewed by Avigdor Bonchek When I saw that noted Holocaust survivor and Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel recently wrote a book on Rashi (Rabbi Shlomo Itzhaki), the famous Bible commentator, I was reminded of a question Rashi asks in his Torah commentary: “What does […]

I was born in America, yet I consider myself a refugee. As a young adult, I fled the secular world for one truer to my soul. Although I am forever grateful for that decision, I sometimes feel like a woman without a country. No matter how hard I try to segue into frum culture, I […]