Dear Jew in the City, Why do Orthodox Jews walk everywhere? Sincerely, Driving Dear Driving, Do we? I literally hadn’t noticed. It’s tempting to say that it’s because fresh air and exercise are good for you – which they are – but I suspect that’s not what you’re experiencing. In all likelihood, you’re encountering […]
Rabbi Simcha Weinstein knows what it means to be called to something. As the longtime Chabad emissary (shaliach) at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, Weinstein has spent years helping students navigate questions of meaning and purpose. But one of the deepest callings of his life emerged much closer to home. When one of his sons was […]
If you’re a person who cares about negative stories involving Orthodox Jews in the news, the recent agunah cases that keep popping up are quite troubling. If you’re a person who cares about people, ALL agunah cases are quite troubling. Since I am both, I have been pretty bummed out lately about how to deal with […]
Dear Jew in the City- In the new movie Guardians of the Galaxy, aliens from all over the universe team up to save the day. What does Judaism say about life on other planets? Sincerely, Spaced Out Dear Space- It may not surprise you that people think a lot about the afterlife. Is […]
Poland is disgustingly beautiful in the spring. I went to bear witness where my people were annihilated, but I never expected to see plains and hills so deep and richly green. I never saw such vibrant rows of yellow flowers. The weather was perfect. I wanted to mess it up, spit on it, hack at […]
Growing up in secular America, it was always a major event when they would broadcast The Ten Commandments on one of the major, primetime networks. Although I watched it on a television screen decades after it “played on the big screen, it still took my breath away – even as a child of the eighties, […]
