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The City of Bet Shemesh Responds
By Akiva Spiegelman, Guest ContributorBet Shemesh City Hall (Ynet)A few days ago, I expressed my view about the controversy in the city of Bet Shemesh. It was based on the description of events in a...
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True Believers and Extremism
The Taliban - true believers (CNN)I am so sick of extremism. And I don’t just mean Jewish extremism. I mean extremism in all its forms. to be clear, I do not mean that there is never a time for...
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Halacha and Quality of Life Issues
Alta Fixsler (TOI)I’m not sure what hypoxic ischaemic brain injury is. At least not the extent this injury affects the quality of life of a child to whom this happened. My guess is that the quality of...
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Is Avigdor Lieberman an Antisemitic Tyrant?
A classroom in Meah Shearim (VIN)An antisemitc tyrant. This is what the Charedi politicians have called Avigdor Lieberman, Israel’s new Finance Minister.There is no love lost between the Charedi world...
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Portrayals of Orthodoxy - Fact or Fiction?
Scene from the Netflix series - Unorthodox (Fortune)UpdatedUpdated*Once again I am experiencing mixed feelings. Which I suppose might be my nature as a centrist (small c). The reason I am a centrist is...
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Breaking Bad Jewishly
Julia Haart in her former life (NYP - warning: very untznius pictures at this site)The series premieres on Netflix today. Julia Haart - born Talia Leibov -will tell her story in this - the latest entry...
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Being Overly Stringent Can Break You
In light of all the online discussion about the new Netflix series, ‘My Unorthodox Life’ which focuses negatively on Orthodoxy’s modesty laws - a Facebook forum to which I belong that features...
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The Truth of Orthodoxy - Revealed
Dr. Leslie Ginsparg Klein (Torah in Motion)This might be overkill. But a featured Times of Israel post about Netflix’s My Unorthodox Life by Dr. Leslie Ginsparg Klein is so ‘on the money’… so thorough,...
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How Could God Do This to Us?!
The greatest tragedy to befall the Jewish people is the destruction of our Batei Mikdash - the first and second holy temples in Jerusalem. Today, Tisha B'Av, is the day we commemorate that tragedy by...
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A Thousand Words Versus One Picture
Yisroel Besser is the Deputy Editor of Mishpacha Magazine. He is also one of their more intelligent and open minded columnists. Two weeks ago, he wrote a beautiful tribute to one of Judaism’s most...
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Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield
Ben and Jerry at a 2016 protest rally (Fortune)Once again we see a demonstration of the damage caused to the very soul of American Jewry by assimilating without the Torah as their guide. Until the...
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Stupid is as Stupid Does
Hospitalized COVID patient (NIH)If I were truly evil - I might say something like this: I could not be happier that anti-vaxxers and the vaccine hesitant have chosen not to get vaccinated against...
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Outreach - Orthodoxy versus Heterodoxy
It’s a toxic culture. That seems to be the conclusion of a lengthy investigative report about Jewish youth groups. Three such groups were found to be breeding a toxic sexual culture for teenagers. The...
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Is Ideology the Enemy of Achdus?
Image for illustration purposes only (NPR)A poll was taken recently - the results of which were reported in the Jerusalem Post. It revealed some interesting statistics about the polarization that...
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Removing the Kashrus Monopoly from the Chief Rabbinate
I admit to being somewhat conflicted. I have long ago come to the conclusion that the State of Israel requires a strong rabbinic body to oversee religious issues. If Israel is going to remain a Jewish...
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Government Fraud as an Income Option
R' Yizchok Ziberstein (Wiki)There has been a lot of legitimate anger expressed by many of us against the fraud in which so many religious Jews have been caught. To say that this is a massive Chilul...
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The Congressional Kangaroo Court
Adam Kinzinger (R) named to House Committee probing Capital siege (NYP)I know I’m going to upset my friends on the left. But as always that will not stop me from telling the truth as I see it. Which in...
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Gafni and Ben Gvir
UTJ member of the Keneset, Moshe Gafni (TOI)Disgusting. It is the height of Chutzpah for Charedi MK, Moshe Gafni to call Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett a murdererbecause of Israel’s spike in...
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Is Orthodox Judaism Dysfunctional?
Screenshot of Allison Josephs' I24 interview on 'My Unorthodox Life'Let me quickly answer the question asked in the title with a resounding NO! But one would be hard pressed to know that based on what...
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Equality of the Sexes
Image for illustrative purposes (TOI)It’s a worthwhile compromise. Everyone benefits even though it is not to the extent they wish it was. The issue is the secular humanist values (the hallmark of...
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