Jewish Blogs

Reb Meir Schuster Tribute Website

This week marks the launch of a major grass root initiative in honor of Rabbi Meir Schuster, a legendary Jerusalem figure who has been bringing Jews back to their heritage since 1969.Now in his sixties, Rabbi Schuster has been struck by Lewy Body Disease, a rare degenerative illness with symptoms similar to both Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.For 40 years, stationed at ...

Reasons why Matisyahu shaved his beard!

My first thought upon hearing that Matisyahu shaved his beard was that it was a publicity stunt and that it was somehow orchestrated by some folks at YU to take some of the unwanted publicity away from them because of their censorship and rampant premarital sex issues. The second thought was, maybe it’s just a regular marketing tactic, I haven’t ...

Reality is No Obstacle

The recent Emmanuel litigation revealed a major flaw in Israel’s judicial system. In most suits against governmental authorities, the Supreme Court, sitting as the High Court of Justice (BaGaTZ), is a court of original jurisdiction. Yet the petitions to BaGaTZ often turn on complex factual issues, which the Supreme Court is unequipped to weigh or evaluate. The Supreme Court is ...

Reality check: Wage gap for Jewish professionals worse than national average

Much to the dismay of a number of Jewish organizations, the Senate neglected to vote on the Paycheck Fairness Act last month, effectively shelving it for the foreseeable future. The bill, which would have augmented current civil rights law to protect against sex-based pay discrimination, had received broad support from civil rights and women’s rights groups but faced opposition from ...

Real Live Learning Opportunities: Yeshivat Hadar and Limmud NY

Lots of things are great to do online. I love paying my bills online (well, maybe love is an overstatement), managing my writing online (baruch hashem for google docs), chatting with my friends online, and even doing much of my Jewish learning online. But the internet does have limits, and if you’re craving some more interactive learning, I can highly ...

Real Jerusalem Streets: Israeli Apartheid Rebutted in 24,000 Words

The Real Jerusalem Streets blog has effectively rebutted the accusations of Israeli Apartheid in a 24,000 word blog post, i.e., 24 pictures (each worth 1000 words) showing Arabs freely moving about and doing their business on the Jerusalem streets. Bravo.Yes, of course, this is not a deep investigation into the charges of apartheid. No such process needs to be undertaken ...

Reading, Writing, and a New Periodical For the Jewish Home

The badchan at Rabbi Yitzchok Frankfurter’s wedding observed that the choson had learned in Satmar, Vien, Brisk and Lakewood, whose roshei teivos (sovel) indicated that he was a man of tolerance. Many people would regard serial immersions in such different cultures as equivalent to jumping rapidly between the hot mikvah in Boro Park and the frigid one. Thinking about it is enough to ...

Razoo Corrects Its Israel Problem

If you didn’t receive numerous email solicitations from non-profit organizations during the final week of 2010, then your email server was likely down.Many of these charitable organizations that sent year end pleas for your contributions have begun using Razoo.com, which claims to have raised more than $42 million for thousands of worthy causes. Razoo’s LinkedIn profile describes the company as ...

Rav Grossman and the Paratroopers

Rav Grossman and the ParatroopersHere’s why Rabbi Yitzchak Dovid Grossman of Migdal HaEmek is one of Israel’s most beloved rabbis. His love for every Jew has no bounds.Read More: @ lazerbrody.typepad.comReaders found more information by searching for:jewish paratroopers (1)rav grossman (1)You might also like:Magnificent Time-Lapse Milky WayNo Entrance!BirdsongCareful, Sports Fans!Everywhere I Walk

Rapper’s Sabbath

Despite having eclectic tastes in many things, I have no appreciation of urban music. And so I had never heard of Q-Tip (the person, that is; the object is familiar to me). He is apparently a rapper. Presumably with clean ears. I was introduced to Mr. Tip’s existence by a Jewish Telegraphic Agency report about his embrace of the Jewish ...

Rape, Hashgocha Pratis and the GOP

As most people don’t really look things up, the notion of a “separation of church and state” in the US is not only poorly defined but also poorly understood. While this term was first introduced by Thomas Jefferson and others as a colloquial elucidation of some portions of the First Amendment to the US Constitution, it’s come to mean something ...

Rap Videos Okay in Synagogue But Not Politicians

It is often said that politics and religion make strange bedfellows. Strange or not, it is important to remember that politics and religion are bedfellows in just about every nation in the world (some more than others).I’ve noticed that in the United States, where we have a supposed separation of Church and State, it is often the synagogues that are ...