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Jewish Culture and Halacha
Challah - a cultural yet Halacha based item (Jewish Journal)Professor Steven M. Cohen’s assessment of the future of American Jewry has generated responses by many people, myself included. If I had to...
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Yet Another Government Fraud
Granted. Modern Orthodox Jews that commit crimes are guilty of creating a Chilul HaShem. And it does happen. Sometimes to the tune of millions of dollars of illegally obtained government funds. I am...
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Good Riddance, Mr. President
Menorah lighting at the Kotel (which is on the West Bank)I would have loved to say a clear and unequivocal thank you to President Obama for his service to this country as President for 8 years. He was...
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An American Charedi in Israel
Image from Cross CurrentsI marvel at the apologetics of Rabbi Chaim Malinowitz. In last week’s Mishpacha Magazine he reacted to a cover story the week before. In that article they praised (with some...
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And He Shall Rule Over You
Susan B. Anthony. Are her views compatible with Halacha?We all had a good laugh when my Mechutan quoted this biblical passage to his ‘wife to be’ on their wedding day during the Badeken – the veiling...
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What if…
Jason Greenblatt and Doanld Trump (Twitter)I have spent a lot of time agonizing about our country’s choice for the next President. And with good reason. Even though I have tried to rationally explain...
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Parting Shots from Some Friends
Secretary of State John Kerry and the PresidentI’m not going to say, ‘With friends like these...’ tempting though it may be. It occurs to me that the similarities between the United States and Israel...
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A Change that Will Not Work
Former Conservative Rabbi Seymour Rosenbloom performing an intermarriageHow sad that it’s come to this for American Jewry. We are now talking about a new definition of Jews that will include...
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What Is… and What Could Be
Rachel (Ruchie) Freier - Brooklyn Civil Court Judge (Brooklyn Paper)One of my favorite campaign slogans was the one Bobby (Robert F.) Kennedy used during his ill fated campaign for President back in...
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The Right Kind of Rebellion
One of the most discussed topics in Orthodoxy today is Tznius. Mainly as it applies to women. On that level I think we are now in uncharted territory. I am not talking about extremist enclaves where...
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Achdus – Where I Stand
R' Y.H. Eichenstein and R' Asher Lopatin (in his pre YCT days)I often talk about Achdus here. Achdus (or unity) takes many forms. While all Jews are brothers and unified as a people - there is a...
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A Charedi Response to Sex Abuse
Zvi Gluck - head of the Orthodox social service group Amudim65. That’s the number of suicides that took place among Orthodox Jews in the year 2016. Many of those by a drug overdose. I have no clue...
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Are Orthodox Jews Racist?
Mordechai Ben David (Forward)I don’t know which is greater. My anger or my sadness. I feel both emotions competing with each other for dominance.I have come to the conclusion that there are wide swaths...
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Is a Public Service Murder Justified?
"We never abandon soldiers" say protesters of the guilty verdict (TOI)First let me say that I could not be happier that Abdel Fattah al-Sharif is dead. He was a Palestinian terrorist that stabbed an...
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On Moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem
Keneset Building in Jerusalem - the seat of Israel’s governmentOn June 8th of 2015 the Supreme Court in a 6-3 decision denied petitioner Rabbi Ari Zivotovsky registering the birth of his son as having...
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A Religious Community in Crisis
Typical Shabbos scene in Ramapo (Lohud)I agree with Monsey resident, Rabbi Yosef Gavriel Bechhofer. The Lohud article on the problems of Ramapo is balanced and fair – just as he said it is.Ramapo is a...
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Pride and Prejudice
Rabbi David Twersky; President and Mrs. ClintonFormer President Bill Clinton once commented that someone who looks like Rabbi David Twersky, the controversial Skverer Rebbe, seemed to him to be the...
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The Threat to Modern Orthodoxy
Images like this feed the resistance to the Torah perspective on homosexualityRabbi Ari Segal is right. At least mostly. But so is Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein. The issue is how the subject of...
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A House Divided
Rabbi Riskin and one of his recently ordained female rabbis (YWN)One of the most troubling developments in recent years is the creation of yet another movement in Judaism. I wish we could all just be...
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Of Godwin, Goebbels, and Trump
Ex MI-6 spy, Christopher Steele - currently in hidingAttorney Mike Godwin made an interesting observation a few years ago about conversations on the internet. He noted that if a conversation goes on...
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