Summer is a terrific time to explore the great outdoors. Home gardens, roadside farm stands and farmers’ markets are overflowing with a wide variety of fresh vegetables and fruits that are ripe for the picking. Simple suggestions to make mealtime preparations a breeze: • Serve foods that can be enjoyed cold or at room temperature […]
By Dovid Bashevkin No one is quite sure when this crisis began. Some point to the four symposiums on the future of Modern Orthodoxy that appeared in various Jewish publications within a six-month period; others suggest the growing trend to service “teens at risk of becoming at risk.” A third school of thought, albeit a […]
In the competitive world of professional comedy, it pays to have a hook—some distinctive feature of biography or appearance that sets one performer apart from another. Among Orthodox comics, Yisrael Campbell has the I-was-a-Catholic/My-aunt-was-a-nun angle all to himself. And he’s the only one who had a series of brit milahs on the way to becoming […]
Since his recent petirah, much has been said and written about Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, zt”l, one of the greatest posekim of the post-World War II era. Nevertheless, despite his very public profile—as awe-inspiring as it is—Rav Elyashiv was a very private person. Although Rav Elyashiv was surrounded by many people—even great talmidei chachamim—they convey […]
The crowds at comedy clubs around New York City aren’t sure, at first, what to make of the Orthodox woman on stage with a sheitel (wig) and long flowing dress. Is she really a comedian? They quickly get their answer: Yes. In her routine about life as an Orthodox homemaker, as wife and mother and […]
A small-but-growing number of people involved in the highest levels of professional comedy are observant Jews
Tremendous pressure is placed on one who addresses the role of humor within a Torah perspective. The push to “open with a joke” is intimidating enough when the subject matter is standard fare, but when the subject is humor itself, the sense is that the bar is significantly raised as to the quality of the […]
Rabbi Yosef Mendelevich’s tenacious struggle to keep Torah in Communist Russia is documented in his book Unbroken Spirit: A Heroic Story of Faith, Courage and Survival (Jerusalem, 2012). But in a recent interview with OU
On the night of June 20th, 2010, a horrific car accident left Rabbi Yehuda Simes paralyzed from the neck down. Crushed by the ceiling of his minivan,
Many parents think that you can build a child’s self-esteem simply by showering him with constant compliments.