Orthodoxy
A Pillar with a PastTuesday, January 8, 2013 by Lawrence Grossman | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Gil S. Perl’s The Pillar of Volozhin sheds light on the Netziv, one of Lithuanian Jewry's greatest leaders, whose own intellectual development is reflected throughout the yeshiva world today.
The Chief Rabbi of CanterburyMonday, December 24, 2012 by Simon Gordon | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
With his public defense of religion, the outgoing Chief Rabbi, Lord Jonathan Sacks, has fulfilled an important role within British society—just not the one he was appointed to perform.
The Turning of the Torah TideTuesday, December 4, 2012 by Diana Muir Appelbaum | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
“Torah Judaism today retains more of its youth than at any time since the Haskalah.” Historian Marc Shapiro recently made this remark. Can he possibly be correct?
Can Reform Judaism Get Its Mojo Back?Friday, November 9, 2012 by Evan Moffic | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
The American Jewish community as a whole cannot survive if there is no non-Orthodox movement to which American Jews can belong; in other words, survival depends on a strong Reform movement. But in light of current trends, is that possible?
Promises, PromisesThursday, October 25, 2012 by Lawrence Grossman | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
City of Promises, a new three-volume history of Jewish New York, is remarkable for the complex metamorphoses it explains—and for the 21st century transformation it doesn't mention.
Is Judaism a Proselytizing Religion?Friday, October 19, 2012 by Shlomo M. Brody | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
When Mitt Romney became the Republican Presidential candidate, some of the media attention focused on his experience as a Mormon missionary in France and asked, subtly or not so subtly, whether a member of a proselytizing religion could properly lead a pluralistic society.
Jewish Studies, Once and FutureThursday, August 23, 2012 by Adina M. Yoffie | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
It’s that time of year again—not just the High Holidays but the time when Jewish college students pore over online course catalogues and make their choices for the fall semester. Will they take Jewish Studies courses? If so, does it matter which ones?
Going the DistanceFriday, April 27, 2012 by Yehudah Mirsky | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Israel is a nation-state. In contrast, Diaspora Jewry—in particular, American Jewry—is a network of voluntary communities, constituting not just different structures but different life-worlds. While it is usually taken for granted that nation-states and their respective diasporas will grow apart, with Jews the issue is hotly debated.
Editors' Picks
Elon’s Middle Way Jeremy Rosen, Algemeiner. Menachem Elon—Orthodox rabbi, Talmud scholar, author of the magisterial treatise Jewish Law—opposed enshrining religion in Israeli law. Now he has died, and his legacy is threatened.
The Mehitzah Heresy Harry Maryles, Emes-Ve-Emunah. Today, it goes without saying that an Orthodox synagogue must have a mehitzah separating men and women in worship. But one great "decider" of the 20th century thought otherwise.
Remembering David Hartman Gil Troy, Jerusalem Post. Rabbi David Hartman, who died in Jerusalem this week at 81, leaves a legacy of theological works and educational institutions that will continue to shape Judaism and Zionism for modern Israel.
Smashing the Idols Josh Yuter, Jewish Press. Has veneration of gedolim, great rabbis, become "the single greatest impediment to intelligent religious discourse in the Orthodox Jewish community"?
Misunderstanding Midrash Moshe Shamah, Jewish Ideas and Ideals. Maimonides wrote that those who take the Midrash literally "destroy the Torah’s glory and darken its brilliance," but many Orthodox teachers today do just that.
Criticizing the Biblical Critics James Kugel, Kavvanah. Modern biblical criticism, for all its sophistication, treats "only the literal meaning of the Bible’s words on the page, divorced from Judaism’s age-old traditions of interpretation." (Interview by Alan Brill)
The Science of Muddling Through Gil Student, Torah Musings. Drawing on Burke, Chaim Navon argues that women will gradually assume larger roles in Orthodox Judaism—and that those who demand sudden change risk doing more harm than good.
Limmud Turns 33 Clive Lawton, eJewish Philanthropy. "As far as I remember, this was the first time in the Jewish world that Orthodox Jews could hear what Reform Jews really thought and vice versa."
Community, Covenant, and Commitment George E. Johnson, Jewish Ideas and Ideals. While Joseph B. Soloveitchik ruled out religious collaboration with non-Orthodox Jews, he advocated political unity. But since his death, American Jewry has fractured.
Another Ceiling Broken Yair Rosenberg, Tablet. Treasury Secretary nominee Jack—Jacob—Lew is currently White House Chief of Staff and already the highest-ranking Orthodox Jew ever to serve in the federal government.