Pondering the state of American Jewry
Comedian Jerry Lewis has died at age 91. Lewis, as you might have guessed, was changed from something else, in this case: Levitch. Vanity Fair has an interesting article about a film Lewis made that was never finished, never aired, called The Day the Clown Died. Had it been released, it would have been among …
Israel just got 232 new North American immigrants, thanks to the organization Nefesh B’Nefesh, and one of them is Talia Friedman, daughter of the American Ambassador to Israel, David Friedman. Of his daughter, Ambassador Friedman said, “We’re so proud of her, we love her so much, we just want her to be happy and this …
The keen divide between American Progressives and Conservatives may be no wider than that which exists between American Jews. Last week, in response to the apology issued by Camp Solomon Shechter for raising a PLO flag. Actor Joshua Malina penned an op-ed for the Jewish Journal and his “deep disappointment” for the apology and at …
The most shocking piece of news about American Jews this week is that covered by The Mike Report, regarding the raising of a Palestinian flag at Solomon Shechter camp in the Pacific Northwest. This, just one week after the Salomons of Halamish were brutally murdered by a terrorist pretending to be a Jew in Shabbos …
The latest contretemps in Jerusalem is about who has control over the Temple Mount. So far, the Arabs are winning. In 1967, the Jews liberated the Temple Mount, but Moshe Dayan gave it back the Jordanian Muslim Waqf Authority to administer and since then, Jews have not been allowed to pray there. The Arabs are …
As the Western Wall controversy seems to drag on and on, all the “usual suspects” need to get their two-cents published. Thomas Friedman did his usual diss Israel thing and wrote a piece for the NY Times called Israel to U.S. Jews: You Don’t Matter. Many commentators dissected this piece and pointed out its falsehoods. …
A new study by the Jewish People Policy Institute (JPPI) suggests that non-Orthodox American Jewry is dying out. The reason? The current generation of non-Orthodox American Jews is not having children. Those who are, are having non-Jewish children, by dint of intermarriage. Here’s the breakdown: 15 percent of non-Orthodox Jews age 25-54 have a Jewish …
In my inbox last week was a missive from a think tank, the Jewish People Policy Institute (JPPI). The board of directors of this group “has decided to establish a working group to look into the relationship between religion and state existing in Israel. “JPPI believes the decisions taken this week by the Israeli government regarding …
While American Jews feel hurt and ignored at Israel’s latest decision regarding the Western Wall, it could be they don’t fully comprehend what it means. There already is a place within the Western Wall area where men and women can pray together. That would be the space created for this purpose at Robinson’s Arch. Jewish …
An article by Ben Sales cites the 2013 Pew “Portrait of Jewish Americans” as saying that religion isn’t very important in their lives. How do we know these people are really modern orthodox? Because they said so. The same poll says that a quarter of modern orthodox Jews don’t light Sabbath candles. Could it be …