NPR Topics: Space (Free subscription) | yesterday
A small town in Illinois is home to a number of new Jewish converts, many of them are African American. NPR's Cheryl Corley reports on the unique community in Cairo, Ill.
Shiloh Musings (Free subscription) | yesterday
There's no need for my commentary after this story from Jewish Action, The Magazine of the Orthodox Union : An Unintentional Intermarriage By Gila Davids The Cycle Continues Many young adults, raised in non-observant homes, are unaware of or unconcerned about the fact that their maternal grandmothers were improperly converted to Judaism. But these inauthentic conversions jeopardize the integrity...
baithak (Free subscription) | 6 hours ago
The most compelling case against Ramadan has been painstakingly built by the Arabic-speaking investigative journalist and feminist Caroline Fourest. The author of a number of works on the fundamentalist trends in the Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, Fourest has analysed the 100 cassettes of Ramadan's speeches and preachings, his 15 books and his hundreds of magazine articles...
Democratic Underground (Free subscription) | 12 hours ago
Source: [b]The Oregonian[/b] A divorced father who wants to circumcise his 13-year-old son against the wishes of the boy's mother is trying to take his case to the U.S. Supreme Court. James Boldt, who converted to Judaism, argues that preventing him from circumcising his son violates his constituti...
Down With Everybody (Free subscription) | 4 hours ago
[Tehran Times, May 17, 2008] Rabbi Gottlieb, one of the first ten women rabbis in the history of Judaism, on May 10 visited the offices of the Tehran Times and the Mehr News Agency, heading a delegation of 21 peace activists from the United States. The interfaith delegation included people of Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Christian, and [...]
Cross-Currents (Free subscription) | yesterday
My computer cautions me against fooling with certain manufacturer-determined system settings. Doing so, it warns, could create serious problems. Riskier still is messing around with Judaism's system-settings, determined by the ultimate Manufacturer. That lesson might be the one being learned the hard way by contemporary Jewish religious movements which, unconstrained by the Jewish religious...
A Simple Jew (Free subscription) | yesterday
Story #1: During a trip overseas, Yaakov Mendel was bitten by a mosquito, became deathly ill, and had to be medevaced back to the United States for emergency medical treatment. With fluid surrounding his brain, Yaakov Mendel's doctors suggested that his family be summoned because his death was imminent. Miraculously, he somehow slowly recovered and aside from no longer being able to fly on a airplane...
A Simple Jew (Free subscription) | yesterday
Rabbi Avraham Chaim Bloomenstiel commenting on "Don't Be Surprised Every Other Group Claims Something Similar" : Anonymous - I think that you have missed the point - any member of a Chassidus who endorses their own Chassidus hasn't really endorsed anything. If some one is an X chossid, then they are such because that Chassidus offers what they feel has the greatest personal value. The idea that the...
A Simple Jew (Free subscription) | yesterday
(Illustration courtesy of zchor.org) TZ commenting on "Consider What We Are All Doing Here" : While it is true that the Lubavitcher Rebbe who was much greater than me in all ways said all these things in this Kuntres, we have to remember two things he was the Lubavitcher Rebbe and the leader of Chabad. That said, off course he is going to say that only Chabad Chassidus teaches you in this special way...
A Simple Jew (Free subscription) | yesterday
In my personal opinion the words "pro-Israel" don't mean anything anymore since even the Israeli government is not "pro-Israel". Giving support to a Presidential candidate because he or she supports the Israeli government's policies is thus supporting further withdrawal from Eretz Yisroel.
A Simple Jew (Free subscription) | yesterday
The blessings on the Torah should be recited joyfully, as a sign of learning Torah lishma. One who recites the blessings with joy will merit children who joyfully aspire to Torah scholarship. (Shulchan Aruch HaRav 47:1)
Box Turtle Bulletin (Free subscription) | yesterday
The Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism has issued a statement in support of today's California Supreme Court Decision. The Reform Jewish Movement has long been committed to welcoming GLBT Jews into our congregations, synagogues and communal life and strongly supports legislative efforts to provide equal opportunity through civil marriage for gay and lesbian individuals. As [...]
lost in bec's world (Free subscription) | 05/15/2008
when we sat in the united states consulate in east jerusalem and i saw the american flag and i said aloud, "i love america" and a guy who must've had about ten years or so on me said in that western twang "and america loves you" i knew that there was some kind of conversation just waiting to happen. so adam and i spoke to him, a tourist from california who had come to israel from amsterdam (where big...
A Simple Jew (Free subscription) | 05/15/2008
(Painting by Martina Shapiro) Rabbi Yitzchok Wagshul commenting on So Much Chassidus - What To Learn? : There can be no greater authority on this subject than the Lubavitcher Rebbe himself. In his booklet Inyanah Shel Toras HaChassidus , the Rebbe clearly explains the true nature of Chassidus; why it is essential to Hashem's plan for the universe and for Moshiach to come; and why it was revealed only...
A Simple Jew (Free subscription) | 05/15/2008
A Simple Jew asks: Many Lubavitcher Chassidim have told me that the seforim of the talmidim of the Baal Shem Tov and Maggid of Mezeritch and other Chassidic rebbes are often written in terse and fragmented form and contain ideas too lofty to be understood on their own. Furthermore, they maintain that a person cannot truly learn Chassidus without concentrating almost exclusively on the structured and...
