Catskills, New York: Jewish Travel
Catskills Jewish History (The short, short version) Growing up a secular Jew in the 1980s and 90s, the Catskills was a place mentioned by our grandparents, where Jews used to go en masse to...
Author: tostien
Siyum HaShas: Media Covers 90,000 Jews at Giant’s Stadium
(Click on the Pictures for Larger Images) What is a “Siyum HaShas” (Completion of the Entire Talmud)? Started in 1923 in Poland, Rav Meir Shapiro began the practice of a daily learning schedule of...
Women in Judaism, Part II: Woman ≠ Man (so I learned)
This post is a continuation of “Women in Judaism, PART I: Woman = Man (so I was taught)” – read that first. A Logical Framework to the Discussion Let me preface by saying I’m...
Women in Judaism, Part I: Woman = Man (so I was taught)
“Feminist beginnings”, or “Orthodox Judaism’s Oppression” I grew up in a very liberal home, and went to secular public schools with almost all leftist teachers where we learned that traditional values discriminated against women,...
Moore’s Law and Creation of Life
Moore’s Law Alexei Sharov at the National Institute on Ageing in Baltimore and his mate Richard Gordon at the Gulf Specimen Marine Laboratory in Florida have taken an interesting approach to creation of life....
New Jersey: Sussex County
Sussex County, New Jersey is a mostly rural area in the extreme Northwest of the state, having some activities quite different than the rest of the state. This includes tours of the Sterling Hill...
Out of the Depths; Rav Israel Meir Lau – Book Review
Suffering to Greatness Now Rabbi Yisroel Meir Lau (former Chief Rabbi of Israel) epitomizes one of G_d’s answers to Iyov [Job] as to how we’re supposed to take tragedy (see Chapter 40). Why do...
Insular vs. Involved in Secular Society
Looking From the Outside, In From the outside world, Orthodox Jews tend to look sort of . . . monolithic. This tends to be the case about anything one has limited knowledge about. For...
Trophy Wives: Men Never Change – Flood to PR China, It’s All the Same
New Rich Matchmaking in China The New York Times provides more fodder for discussion in today’s article on new matchmaking services in China: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/10/business/in-a-changing-china-new-matchmaking-markets.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 The catch is, that in China, these services can cost...
Mastering a Discipline; Orthodox Surge – New York Times Article
The New York Times has an extremely positive article about Torah observant Jews, starting off with a discussion about a really nice and upscale supermarket in Brooklyn, called Pomegranate. They’ve got kosher everything –...