“Conversion Crisis in Israel Boils with New Appointee”, a piece in The Forward, focuses on the conversion crisis in Israel but it highlights how the crisis has extended even further and how Modern Orthodox conversions have been affected.
With “No More Illusions”, Jerusalem Post Op-Ed contributor, Reuven Hammer proposes a way to circumvent the Chief Rabbinate in Israel and still keep Jewish conversions kosher. But the comments on his piece highlight that the issues around conversion may never be so simple. I’m glad that some of the people commenting don’t have his address… Continue reading Another Way for Jewish Conversion in Israel
“Right of Reply: Secular conversion – an oxymoron” is my latest Op-Ed in The Jerusalem Post. Talk back here or talk back there, I’d love to hear your opinions.
As if the economic crisis weren’t enough? Washington Post writer Jim Hoagland tells it like it is about Bernie Madoff in “The Madoff Generation”. I’m getting all these end of the year requests from Jewish charities and I’m wishing that I could give at all. I’m sure that too many of us are finding ourselves… Continue reading MADOFF
Check out one Spanish blogger’s interesting take on Bush ducking “zapatos” (Spanish for shoes). Then in case you missed the real thing, check out the clip on the BBC website. I was never a big fan of George but I thought he handled ducking shoes really well at the press conference. Talk about a culture… Continue reading Sorry I missed it
According to a post on Vivir Latino, a blog I just discovered, “a study released by the America Association of Retired People (AARP), at least 82% of Latinos 45 and older do.” The post says, “[The study] sort of plays to the stereotype of Latino’s faith as being more “folky” and less real and respectable.”… Continue reading Miracles, miracles, everywhere…
Teens with a group of professors and students from Yeshiva University and students from Alianza Dominicana to the “Sosúa: A Refuge for Jews in the Dominican Republic” exhibit at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in NYC’s Battery Park City. They boarded a bus from Washington Heights for the field trip. Redefining Community:Ari Hart Builds a… Continue reading A Very Rough Draft of an Interview with Ari Hart of Uri L’Tzedek
The war against singular identities is still being waged over at the Forward where Sadia Shepard’s op-ed, “Targeting Tolerance in Mumbai” has sparked heated debate about whether or not there’s such a thing as a hyphenated identity. Take the time to weigh in with your two cents. Here are some of my arguments for hyphenated… Continue reading Identity Crisis: Sadia Shepard & Weighing in on Hyphenated Realities
“Integration of Mixed Families”, an op-ed in the Jerusalem Post, has gotten me riled up. As a Modern Orthodox convert, I suppose that’s to be expected. It proposes in not so coded terms that conversion must change in Israel because it’s currently being held hostage by the haredi rabbinate. And whether or not that seems… Continue reading Secular Conversions, eh? The Current State of Jewish Conversion
Really, can Israel survive without Judaism? In a story by the Canadian Jewish News, “Israel must embrace Judaism to survive: Nobel laureate”, Nobel Prize laureate Robert Aumann, left, warned last week that Jews in Israel may not survive as a nation unless they em-brace Jewish values. Ah, Israel, I remember thee well. In case, you… Continue reading Can Israel Survive Without Judaism?
Memoirs of a Jewminicana 