Maury Litwack, the director of state political affairs at the Orthodox Union, has over fourteen years of public policy and political experience. In his role at the Orthodox Union, Maury develops and implements state-by-state advocacy plans for the OU’s many communities around the country. Prior to working with the Orthodox Union, Maury served as a […]

Poignant recollections of the OU Kosher posek for nearly three decades, composed by Rabbi Belsky’s colleagues and friends at the OU.

The petirah of Rabbi Chaim Yisroel Belsky was a tragedy for the Jewish world at large as well as for our close-knit OU community. We at OU Kosher had the privilege of having Rabbi Belsky work closely with us over the years, and we had the opportunity to experience first-hand his exceptional gifts.

Rosh yeshivah, maggid shiur, rav, ba’al tefillah, mohel. Rabbi Chaim Yisroel Belsky, zt”l, held all of these titles as well as one more: posek for OU Kosher. What made Rabbi Belsky such an outstanding posek? Below are a few of the exceptional qualities I merited to observe while working with him.

Rabbi Belsky was someone who fought for the truth; he never gave a thought to how popular his position would be, or what others would say.
Below is but a sample of the breadth and scope of Rabbi Belsky’s wide-ranging rulings and how they affect every kosher consumer:

Rabbi Chaim Yisroel Belsky was not your conventional gadol. A gadol, by definition, is someone larger than life. Rabbi Belsky was not just a “larger-than-life” figure, he was truly an enigma.

Like any boy raised on Brooklyn Dodgers turf, he loved to play ball and ping-pong and roller skate. But that didn’t stop him from becoming a diehard Yankee fan. Or an American gadol.​

What does it mean to be a woman with a leadership role in the Orthodox community?

My job offers the ultimate professional fulfillment. The Jewish ideal is to be a lifelong learner and to continuously be involved with things that nourish and mature your Jewish identity. A lot of women at my stage in life don’t have that luxury, and I’m so grateful to OU-JLIC for giving me that platform.

We live in an age where women are more learned than ever before. Women want to be challenged to think, and they appreciate the intellectual rigor of an in-depth shiur. Yet challenging the mind without engaging the heart is too limiting. People are searching for meaning. I try, with my shiurim, to provide a message for life, to nurture the soul as well as the mind.

While I almost always write my own job description—not neatly fitting into existing frameworks—I think you can only do that for so long before fatigue sets in. It’s kind of crazy to have this conversation in virtually every workplace:
“What should we call you?”
“I don’t know.”

To me, the question of leadership is not necessarily about how I find fulfillment or the impact I want to have. It’s about asking, “Why are we here?” It’s about serving HaKadosh Baruch Hu to the best of my ability; doing what He wants in the way that fits the values and standards of Judaism.

Oh, sure, I knew all about leadership. I knew that the trait theory was passé and would turn up ludicrous hypotheses; for instance, that through studying Napoleon and Caesar one can deduce that great leaders must be left-handed and shorter than 5’4”. I knew that the difference between good leaders and good managers lay in asking “how” versus asking “why.” I even had a master’s in adult learning and leadership to boot. So yeah, I knew all about leadership.

Everyone has his or her own mission. You follow the dots that God has given you and you go with it. There are women who derive immense satisfaction from working full time, and there are women who thrive as stay-at-home moms. We all have to respect each other’s choices. That ability to value everyone’s unique role comes from learning Torah.

My beloved high school Navi teacher, Rabbi Ebstein, z”l, a survivor who tried hard to make the messages of the ancient prophets relevant to our Beth Jacob Esther Schoenfeld high school senior class, would often ask us: “What is the reason you are in this world?”

By Aviva Weisbord 1. Take responsibility: We lead because there’s something that needs to be accomplished. 2. Offer a vision: People join when there is a clear purpose and end-goal. 3. Make a team: We really can’t do it all ourselves! 4. Build relationships, not hierarchies: Believe in the positive qualities of the people you […]

Modest. Radical. Pious. Revolutionary. Staunch traditionalist. Proto-feminist. All of these words have been used to describe this woman. Even more than eighty years after her death, Sarah Schenirer is consistently invoked to defend diverse viewpoints on contemporary issues.

If you drive around different parts of the US long enough, you are likely to encounter two bumper stickers asserting two contradictory ideas. One states, “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.” The other states, “More guns, more death.”

With mass shootings and terror attacks in the news with frightening frequency, it is only natural for the average civilian to want to be able to defend himself. What are some of the halachic issues concerning purchasing or carrying a gun?

A few months ago, Jessica, a thirty-year-old woman,1 called the offices of the Beth Din of America. She said she was getting married in one month at a destination wedding in Italy. The Orthodox rabbi whom Jessica had approached about officiating would only agree to do so if Jessica could obtain a get from her first husband, Barry.

I was shocked. How could this venerable synagogue with its lofty reputation and history be in such a position? Knowing my professional background (thirty years in development as western region executive director of the American Friends of Bar-Ilan University in Israel), Muhlstein asked me to meet with the shul rabbi and president and to work on a strategy to “dig out.”

Though centuries have passed since Rambam served as a guiding light for the Jewish people, he remains one of the most widely studied Torah scholars. Now, thanks to Rabbi Levy, we can gain an appreciation for Rambam at the Maimonides Heritage Center.

The following scrumptious summer recipes are packed with brain-boosting ingredients that can help you outsmart Alzheimer’s and dementia. They’re simple to prepare and use easily available ingredients, so they’re perfect for those hot summer days when you don’t feel like cooking heavy, time-consuming meals.

I don’t think there is any one on the Jewish scene today who combines the breadth, creativity, insight and eloquence of Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks . . . . But none of that kept me from being a little disappointed by his latest book, Not in God’s Name: Confronting Religious Violence.

As people of religious spirit, we look to Tehillim to help us overcome the hardships of life as well as the challenges of remaining faithful, of defeating despair, of maintaining courage against all odds and of prevailing over a frightening force of Evil.

We pray and recite blessings in Hebrew, study sacred Hebrew texts and speak Hebrew in Israel. But what is this language? Where did it come from and how did it become the de facto Jewish language after centuries of Yiddish, Ladino and other Jewish languages?

And so there I was, a few months later, standing under Josh and Margot’s chuppah reciting the sixth of the sheva berachot. It felt surreal.

Echoes of Sinai, the fifth and final installment in Rabbi Ari Kahn’s Echoes of Eden series, calls attention to the ways Sefer Devarim retells, expands on and explains earlier sections of the Torah.