Reasons Why I Made Aliyah
One of my favorite bloggers, Treppenwitz, had a post yesterday beginning the saga of how he and his family made aliyah. While I’ve had this post in my blog bank for a few weeks now, I felt inspired by Trep’s story to put this up sooner rather than later.
Shortly after making aliyah with my family [...]
Gershom Gorenberg on the Israeli Conversion Crisis
We received the latest issue of Moment Magazine in the mail today and it has an interesting Op-Ed piece in it by Jerusalem based journalist Gershom Gorenberg on the recent conversion controversy in Israel.
Here is a snippet for anyone who is interested, with points of interest underlined by yours truly.
Israel’s Supreme Rabbinic Court [...]
Video: Jew and Jewer Episode One – Speaking Hebrew
This week my wife is at AJU taking a one week intensive Intro to Hebrew course, so needless to say when I cam across this video I found it to be both timely and relevant to what’s going on at home this week. However besides the personal relevance ‘stuff’ I also believe this video might [...]
Big Tent Activism in Israel
Last month the Jerusalem Post ran an interesting story about a group in Israel called “Kehilat Tzedek”.
Here is a snippet from the article.
One woman prays in a synagogue where gender separation is strictly enforced. Another is a member of a mixed-seating congregation that bars homosexuals from rabbinical ordination. A third belongs to a movement [...]
Israelis in Captivity
I received an email yesterday from my rav in America announcing a worldwide prayer/tehillim recitation on behalf of abducted Israeli soldier, Cpl. Gilad Schalit. At 11 AM (Eastern time) on Wednesday, 2 July 2008, Jews everywhere are asked to recite Psalm 121. (This translates into 8 AM on the West Coast, 4 PM [...]
The Conversion Dilemma Saga Continues…
Hi All,
If you haven’t checked out The Sephardi Perspective blog on the Jerusalem Post website, I highly recommend doing so. While I live in the U.S., I have been to Israel, and it is my passionate hope to make aliyah one day; as a result, I spend lots of time “in” Israel vicariously through [...]
"Na Nachs" and Living a Joyful Judaism
Hi All,
Haaretz recently had a nice little piece on the “Na Nachs,” the offshoot of Breslov Hassidut that one sees everywhere in Israel, and increasingly in New York and elsewhere in the U.S. The group is known for the distinctive kippot they wear, which sport the slogan/mantra of the group, and the practice they have [...]
More Conversion Meshuganas - Deaf Need NOT Apply!
I just came across the following on the Ynet site:
Anyone inflicted with a severe hearing and speech impediment cannot undergo Jewish conversion. This harsh statement was recently made by Rabbi Avraham Sherman of the Chief Rabbinical Court, in a ruling now made public.
And here is why incase you were wondering!
Any conversion preformed on the [...]
Not Quite a Cop-Out: Some of my Favorite Jewish Stops on the Web
Hi all,
Well, as some of you know I’ve been a rather infrequent visitor lately, let alone contributor. Hopefully I’ll be around more frequently now. But feeling a little uninspired (writing all day at work on grant proposals will kill one’s ability to think creatively ;)), I thought I’d share some websites I like, [...]
Don’t Worry. Be Israeli!
As a sort of companion post to Avi’s Jerusalem video, I wanted to share an article I recently came across from the online Asia Times, entitled “Why Israel is the world’s happiest country.”
It’s rare to think of Israel in any terms other than negative ones these days. Our unenviable geographic position, our corrupt government, the [...]
I’m hoping to write...
1) http://www .jewber...
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