Religion

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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Sex and religion come together in new podcast

July 7, 2019

Sex and religion are two of my favorite topics. So when I heard about this new podcast, I knew I’d have to write about it. A review.

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Judaism’s honesty problem

January 6, 2019

Does Judaism actually encourage dishonesty? Two stories from Rabbi Aaron Leibowitz during a talk at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies.

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My problem with Maoz Tzur

December 9, 2018

Do those who live their lives according to a strict reading of the biblical narrative have a greater propensity to seek revenge?

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Religion as complementary medicine

October 15, 2018

I’ve been looking at religion all wrong. Does religion need to make sense rationally? Or is it more like complementary medicine – a cultural placebo?

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Can Startup Nation save Israel from itself?

August 5, 2018

The Nation-State Bill. The Surrogacy Law. The detention of Rabbi Dubi Haiyun. Where did the words of Israel’s Declaration of Independence go?

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The death of rational Judaism

June 25, 2018

Nearly all Jews today are “rational” in that we know which thoughts and behaviors to assign to the religious domain and which remain beyond it. But can that kind of Judaism survive?

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Please don’t pray for me – here’s what you can do instead

May 7, 2018

“But you’re so healthy. You work out, you’re always hiking, you don’t smoke. And your wife’s a vegan. How could this have happened?”

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What datlashim want: “children just like us”

April 1, 2018

Will your datlashi children be driving to and from your Seder this year? Rabbi Shlomo Riskin says that’s OK – even into and out of Efrat.

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Fateful decisions, cancer and faith

March 7, 2018

Everything was worked out in the battle plan against my lymphoma. Or so I thought. I was scheduled to start a combination of chemo and immunotherapy the coming Sunday morning. The chemo would zap the cancer cells that had grown mainly on the lymph nodes around the back of my abdomen, while the immunotherapy would […]

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