(JTA) — I grew up in the Williamsburg and Borough Park neighborhoods of Brooklyn. At my Orthodox Jewish day school, I studied the Torah and Jewish law. Our rabbis, many of whom had been trained in the great Talmudic academies...
(JTA) — Like many others, I quickly saw that something important was missing from the New York Times op-ed this week about the 25th anniversary of the Million Man March.
The piece, by Natalie Hopkinson, a professor at...
(JTA) — The intermediate days of Succot in the holy city of Brooklyn are normally a time of singing, prayer and communal fellowship. This year the celebrations were marred by violence.
(Israel Hayon via JNS.org) – The Israeli left likes to claim its no-holds-barred fight against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his supporters is an ideological struggle that pits the forces of democracy and old-time Zionism against...
(JNS.org) – As we are about to celebrate Simchat Torah—a holiday defined by its communal gatherings, and the critical importance of physical proximity and traditions like dancing with the Torah—I find myself thinking of the...
(JTA) — When he heard about President Donald Trump’s COVID-19 diagnosis on Friday, Adam Zemel felt many competing emotions: “fear, confusion, anger, guilt, and yes, satisfaction.”
Writing on Alma, Zemel, a former synagogue administrator and current writing...
Less than 24 hours into the month of October and in advance of one of the nation’s most tumultuous presidential elections, Donald Trump found a way to shock even those who had...
(JNS.org) – He did it again. When presented at the first presidential debate of 2020 with another opportunity to make a straightforward condemnation of white supremacists, he refused. Or at least that’s what many headlines...
(JNS.org) – The apoplexy on the part of Democrats in general and Jewish liberals in particular to the appointment of Amy Coney Barrett to the U.S. Supreme Court was to be expected. Anything that President Donald...
(JTA via Kveller) — When I was in rabbinical school, we were taught some pretty solid information about death and burial. It was academically correct and historically accurate — it was actually one of my favorite...
