Religion

Jerusalem Youth Chorus Records with Israeli Pop Superstar David Broza

January 31, 2013

I’m not sure what who was more excited – our 15-year-old-son Aviv who was about to meet one of Israel’s biggest pop stars, or his parents, given that Aviv had actually never heard of said star. But we had – my wife Jody’s mom even has a picture of her with David Broza from a concert he […]

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Religious “Hot or Not”

January 14, 2013

When our daughter was a junior in a religious high school in Jerusalem, the institution instituted a modesty check. One of the teachers was stationed at the front gate to the school and gave the girls a thorough look up and down before pronouncing whether they were dressed modestly enough to enter. Girls were sometimes […]

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New Israeli-Made Documentary Takes Us to the “Fringes” of Jewish life

December 19, 2012

The most remarkable thing about Paula Weiman-Kelman’s new documentary, “Fringes,” is how unremarkable it is. I don’t mean that in a bad way. Rather, the Jerusalem-based filmmaker’s latest movie, which opened to a sold-out theater at the Jerusalem Cinemateque’s Jewish Film Festival last week, presents the lives of three communities on the “fringes” of Jewish […]

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Insourcing Judaism

September 25, 2012

It is Friday afternoon and the Tel Aviv Port is hopping. The lounge chairs at the beach-front restaurants and pubs are packed as patrons fill up on seafood and down decadently prepared cocktails and imported beer. Joggers, roller-bladers and cycling enthusiasts whip around the curved wooden plaza, fashioned after the waves of the water below, […]

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Srugim Co-Creator Tells All in Jerusalem Lecture

May 3, 2012

Poster advertising Laizy’s appearance in Jerusalem For its three season run, I was hooked on the Israeli TV drama Srugim. The program told the tale of four religious (and one formerly religious) young Israelis living in Jerusalem’s singles-centric Old Katamon neighborhood, affectionately known as the “swamp.” The show won praise from both religious and secular […]

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The Most Memorable Seder

April 10, 2012

Chabad Kathmandu As an early icebreaker just before we began to read from the Passover Haggadah Friday night, my wife Jody asked the assembled family and guests to name their most memorable Seder. For me, there was no question. Exactly one year ago, our family was sitting in a luxurious ballroom at the Yak and […]

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Gur Hasidim and Sex: Haaretz Spices it Up

February 16, 2012

The “Beis Yisroel” with his Hasidim They say that nothing sells newspapers like sex and Haaretz had a doozy last week: the second part in an expose (OK, just a spicy research study) on the sex lives of a particular group of ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel – the Gur Hasidim. The article was the talk […]

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No more lying for “religious” girls

February 10, 2012

We know a girl named Liat who lied to get out of doing army service. Despite living a secular lifestyle, she told the army she was religious, which gave her an automatic exemption. She then made matters even worse: instead of signing up for national service, which most non-haredi religious girls do, she instead fled […]

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Hanukah, Extremism and Light

December 27, 2011

Maccabee t-shirt on sale from Australian website Hanukah is probably the most confounding holiday on the Jewish calendar. If we move beyond the toys and the gelt of 20th century Christmas catch-up, the story itself has been interpreted in so many ways that it’s difficult to get a lock on the pshat (the simplest understanding). […]

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Yes, That Bacon is Kosher

October 12, 2011

Don’t worry…it’s 100% kosher (picture from Zac Johnson who makes and sells kosher bacon. http://www.jewishbacon.wordpress.com) Growing up, I didn’t have a very strong Jewish background. I never had a bar mitzvah, Yom Kippur was just another school day and Shavuot, well, what’s that? But Shabbat, now that was special – that was the day we […]

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