Jewish Holidays and Culture

Modern-day Maccabees: Will Netanyahu’s gov’t cause an Israeli civil war?

December 28, 2022

Hanukah is a warning for anyone looking at Israel today – a dark story of intra-Jewish fighting over the religious nature of this nascent nation

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Reclaiming Zionism

November 5, 2022

After a 2022 letter at CUNY declared Israel to be a committing “ethnic cleansing,” I worried about what my son will experience in New York.

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Can the Talmud save us from structural stupidity?

July 3, 2022

American social psychologist and professor of ethical leadership at New York University Jonathan Haidt published an alarming article in the Atlantic magazine earlier this year that has since gone viral.  In the piece, Why the Past 10 Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid, he asked provocatively: Is social media compatible with democracy? His somber conclusion: […]

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What was your most unique Pesach Seder?

April 24, 2022

What was your most memorable Passover Seder? Ours was in Kathmandu with 1,000 people at Chabad. Here are 10 more stories.

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Welcome to the world, baby boy

December 4, 2021

My wife, Jody, and I joined a club that we really wanted entrance to – the grandparents club. Here’s what I said at the brit milah ceremony.

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Jews are not white: Race and identity in Israel and the U.S.

November 21, 2021

Should Jews and Israelis be considered “white supremacists?” Are Jews from Arab countries “white?” If so, then who are the people of color?

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God and dinosaurs

June 5, 2021

Does Judaism believe that God planted fake dinosaur fossils in the earth to explain how dinosaurs could exist when the world is only 6,000 years old?

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Does God still demand “costly signaling?”

March 26, 2021

Pre-Passover reading: Does God still demand “costly signaling?” How halacha evolves and why that can help us lighten up this Pesach.

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Why I can no longer daven in an Orthodox synagogue

November 9, 2019

Here’s why I no longer daven in mechitzah minyans: It’s a symbol signaling that separate roles for men and women are immutable and eternal. I say no!

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Datlashim: can there be a second generation?

August 4, 2019

Last year, I wrote a column that asked the question: “how do datlashim – the Hebrew acronym for formerly religious Jews – want to raise their children?” The main response I received during the course of my research: “to be just like them”– that is, to also be datlashim. This poses a dilemma, as to […]

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