Pondering the state of American Jewry
According to a report on the first conference of North American Jewish school principals that recently took place in Jerusalem, Jewish leaders from the U.S. and Canada asked the Israeli government to subsidize tuition to Jewish schools. As anyone who tries to keep a Torah-observant lifestyle in the United States knows, tuition has become so …
We already knew that novelist Michael Chabon and wife Ayelet Waldman are not on Israel’s side in the Arab war against the Jews. But now Chabon has come out against Jews marrying Jews. Significantly, he did so in an address to the latest graduating class reform rabbis at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion …
A recent article in Mishpacha Magazine, from Rabbi Moshe Grylak relates a story about Israeli Jews who have moved to the U.S., and how intermarriage is affecting them. In the story, one expat Israeli blames another expat for the fact that his son is about to marry a non-Jew. Why? Because the congregation didn’t offer …
If Chanuka was all about remaining true to Torah Judaism and not giving in to secular Greek culture, how is it possible for the holiday to remain relevant to Jews in America, the majority of whom are not orthodox, and are unlikely to marry Jews? Chanuka must be more than the Jewish version of Christmas. …
The Conservative Movement has issued a clarification regarding its stance on intermarriage that has many rabbis up in arms. Pretty much, it’s just a doubling down of a double message: We don’t perform marriage between a Jew and a non-Jew. We welcome interfaith couples. It’s a stance that makes no sense. Because either you welcome …