Tag: Jewish Studies

“Rashi’s Commentary may have shaped Judaism and the Jewish people more than any other work except the Bible and the Talmud.”

University Provost Selma Botman suggested the move improves the utilization of faculty members, but there are more truthful-sounding explanations.

"We’re thrilled to see an increase in top-notch students from diverse backgrounds and nationalities who are choosing to study at Hebrew University."

More than three dozen scholars from around the world will gather online to share new research and discoveries on the Dead Sea Scrolls.

A convert to Judaism who, with her late husband, Paul, author of "An Orphan in History,'' helped many assimilated Jews to seek out their Jewish heritage.

The University of California, Berkeley is launching a Center for Jewish Studies. The university made the announcement of the center, for which it allotted $1...

Many conservative pundits write and lecture on the threat of radical Islam. Almost none, however, possess political power. Geert Wilders is an exception. Head of the Netherlands’ third largest political party – the Party for Freedom – Wilders is on a mission to halt Islam’s advance in the West.

Looking for inspiration? Read Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch. This is my general rule of thumb, which is why I was thrilled when the ninth (and presumably last) volume of the Collected Writings of Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch (Feldheim Publishers) came out a few weeks ago.

The Middle East is ablaze with political revolution. Tunisia, Yemen, Egypt, Libya, Syria – the list of countries keeps growing. All is quiet, however, on the Israeli front. The question is: Why?

Recently, while doing research for a news article I was writing for The Jewish Press, I found myself watching a YouTube clip concerning Jewish homosexuals. About two minutes into the clip, my heart suddenly dropped. There speaking on my computer screen was a young man I had once known as a sweet frum boy. Today - as I discovered from the YouTube video - he is an open homosexual.

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal by Yale Professor Amy Chua - "Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior" - has inflamed passions across the country. The blogosphere is ablaze while The New York Times, Newsweek, Time and hundreds of other news outlets have run articles and often angry opinion pieces debating the wisdom of Chua's authoritarian - some argue abusive - parenting tactics.

Although Israel's economy stands strong amid a world recession, the political future of the Jewish state has perhaps never looked bleaker. Iran's nuclear threat looms large, Israel's West Bank settlements may soon become part of a Palestinian state, and Jerusalem stands threatened with division.

Professor Daniel Rynhold may teach modern Jewish philosophy, but his recently published book is titled, An Introduction to Medieval Jewish Philosophy.

"Wouldn't it be nice if the days were long all year round?" commented my son at six o'clock in the evening as we sat down to dinner to the backdrop of the completely black outdoors.

Ever since I can remember, my husband's practice has been, like many men, to buy me a lovely bouquet of flowers for Shabbat.

The only real lesson that Marc H. Ellis wishes Jews to learn from the Holocaust is that Israelis are behaving like Nazis and that Jews who assist the Palestinian violence in achieving its aims are ethically equivalent to those few Germans who rescued Jews in World War II from the Gestapo.

You. Yes, it is you that I'm talking to.

Dear Mrs. Weisberg, The present era is particularly harsh, especially for the families in Israel.

I'm not sure what spurred it, but this morning, during my davening (prayers), my mind wandered.

Dear Mrs. Weisberg, I enjoy your column and was deeply touched by the "bittersweet" simcha at the bris of your friend's Down Syndrome child that you wrote about several months ago.

I drove home from work on that uneventful sunny Tuesday afternoon as I do every other day.

The deeper message behind our vigilant search and removal of chometz for Pesach is the need to remove any vestige of spiritual chometz from our beings and personalities.

Against the backdrop of rolling valleys and mountains, and a sun bathing creation with its warmth, creation awaits it finale.

Shavuot is considered the time when we "married" G-d or cemented our relationship with Him after our "courtship" on Pesach, during the Exodus from Egypt. The Luchot (Tablets with the Ten Commandments) is compared to our Ketubah (marriage contract) and explains the responsibilities of each of us in this relationship.