Two Brooklyn Orthodox Jews were attacked unprovoked this week in horrific incidents which the NYPD are investigating as hate crimes. In the first assault, a 23-year-old man was shot in the head with a BB pellet in a caught-on-camera drive-by shooting. He was seen on camera clutching his face and stumbling to the sidewalk. He […]
“Upper West Side Story” would be the perfect name for a show about a modern Orthodox girl with a passion for theater, and the star of the show would be Amy Guterson. This off-broadway actress who studied theater with some of the greats, like Uta Hagen, went on to found a Chasidic seminary for the […]
Dear Jew in the City- My son recently started putting on tefillin. Is there anything meaningful that I can share with him about this mitzvah? Thank you, Allison Dear Allison- Nope. Not a thing. I’m kidding. There’s actually quite a bit one could say about the significance of tefillin. It always struck me as strange […]
Lilac amethyst stones are beautiful and rare, but the one recently found on an archeological excavation in Jerusalem has the distinction of being over 2,000 years old, and the oldest such sample to contain balsam, a plant that is mentioned in the Torah multiple times. The stone itself, which is just a third of an […]
Turn away from evil, do good, seek peace and pursue it. ס֣וּר מֵ֭רָע וַעֲשֵׂה־ט֑וֹב בַּקֵּ֖שׁ שָׁל֣וֹם וְרָדְפֵֽהוּ׃ I always understood the verse from Psalms in a simple way: remove yourself from bad behaviors, busy yourself with good ones, seek peace, and pursue it. It seems pretty straight forward. Recently, under the guise of our Tikun […]
After reaching the number four spot on the UK music charts ten years ago, Alex Clare had to make an important decision. He was offered a spot touring with new superstar Adele, but since some of the tour dates were on Shabbos, he passed on touring with her. His record label was tolerant for a […]
