Rabbi Berel Wein’s view of Jewish history

Thoughts on religion, society and life by a very opinionated rabbi

Behind the scenes at OU Kosher

The distillery was soon unable to keep up with demand when hand sanitizer’s third primary ingredient, glycerin, proved hard to come by.

When Covid broke in March 2020, I had one overriding concern: how would we supervise a massive cheese plant in the Midwest?

Stranded on a Polynesian island

Meet the OU’s Senior Rabbinical Representative of Europe

Paying tribute to those who served on Covid’s Jewish frontlines

Rabbi Ari Schonfeld By Steve Lipman Two days after Covid forced Yeshiva Beis Hillel of Passaic to close its doors, Rabbi Ari Schonfeld went online. His eighth-grade class at the northern New Jersey day school missed “one day, maybe two,” before he resumed teaching on Zoom. A week after the school closed, Rabbi Schonfeld went […]

Rabbi Mordechai Willig By Sandy Eller Posekim are no strangers to dealing with life-and-death questions posed to them by shul rabbanim as various situations arise. But as the pandemic struck, there were numerous instances when Rabbi Mordechai Willig found himself juggling well over a dozen such she’eilot simultaneously, a situation that was anything but common. […]

Rabbi Jonathan Morgenstern By Steve Lipman About half a year before the pandemic struck in the United States, Rabbi Jonathan Morgenstern, rabbi of the Young Israel of Scarsdale, took part in a study mission to Israel sponsored by a Middle Eastern peace organization. The orientation for the mission included a session with other participants via […]

Sara Lea Wetstein By Steve Lipman Summer began three months early in Baltimore last year. At least it did for a staff member of one Baltimore day school. A native of New York City’s Washington Heights neighborhood who has lived in Baltimore for two decades, Sara Lea Wetstein serves as food services director and IT […]

“Rafi” By Steve Lipman During his eight years as an emergency room physician “BC” (Before Covid), Rafi* saw “just about everything.” Heart attacks. Broken bones. Infections. Emotional breakdowns. Standard stuff for the doctors and nurses who staff an ER, the medical profession’s first line of defense for many physical and mental conditions. In the year-plus […]

Yvette Kaweblum By Steve Lipman During the first weeks of the pandemic, Yvette Kaweblum, a Mexico-born resident of Boca Raton, Florida, rarely left her home; she self-quarantined to keep herself and others safe. Then the elderly mother of a close friend died. And Kaweblum, a founder of the Boca Raton Synagogue Chevra Kadisha burial society, […]

This is not a monolithic community, and therefore there are going to be multiple stories . . . multiple realities . . .

A great rabbi once told me: God closes one door and opens another. I hope the second door opens quickly.

Overnight we went from filling twenty [home delivery] orders to 120—sometimes even more than 150 a day; it flooded the system.

Just because the pandemic seems to be winding down, the economic impact is not over for everyone.

For locally owned businesses, new clients and sales are so often based on networking and word-of-mouth

Eleven shuls in four communities were surveyed at three time points during the pandemic.

Facing a challenging job market, what can new graduates expect in the months ahead?

Faith doesn’t just promise answers; it expects us to live with questions.

Investing in a synagogue’s future

Recipes for the Nine Days

A masterful compendium of philosophical and theological discussions

How the study of eruv is really the study of community

If we explore the lives and times of the rabbis, we better understand their teachings in Pirkei Avot.

Why camps play such an important role

It isn’t often that an email from Microsoft arrives in my inbox containing a profound theological lesson.

How do we accommodate the human desire for newness within our traditional religious framework? The concept would seem to present as a contradiction, especially in a modern world that constantly seeks that which is new and exciting, the latest trend or gadget or idea, while as Orthodox Jews we are forever and steadfastly committed to […]

As a young couple in Norfolk, Virginia, Sora and Jerry Wolasky got involved in the local NCSY chapter when the rabbi sought their help with the shul. Sora began to organize Shabbatons and brought advisors into the area from Baltimore for the chagim, giving public school youth the life-changing opportunity to learn more about their […]