A question about the Shabbos staple delicacy cholent stumped Jeopardy! contestants this week, and observant host Mayim Bialik helped explain the answer. As the $400 “Sabbath” category clue presented was a photo of the traditional slow-cooked stew, alongside the following: “Exodus 35:3 bans doing this on the Sabbath, hence the Jewish dish ‘cholent,’ which can […]
The secular Jewish former editor in chief of the New Republic, Martin Peretz, wrote a favorable review of Dara Horn’s new book “People Love Dead Jews” in the Wall Street Journal. However, his depiction of Orthodox Jews in the review was so unfavorable, that the WSJ has published two poignant responses to his ironic othering […]
Dear Jew in the City- What are shmittah and yovel? Thank you, Shira Dear Shira- Thanks for your question, which I assume was inspired by the fact that this year (Hebrew year 5782) is a shmittah year. Shmittah is a rest for the land of Israel once every seven years, just as Shabbos is a […]
For most of elementary school, I was the only Jewish girl in a class of over eighty kids. There were a couple of Jewish boys. While I was secular during my childhood, everyone in school knew I was a Jew. A neighbor called me a “Jewish jerk” and made guttural noises one day to explain that […]
A 13-year-old Orthodox Jewish girl was attacked as she was getting off of her school bus in University Heights, Cleveland, Ohio last week. Witnesses say that a woman in a dark-colored SUV or pickup truck threw a beer bottle at the girl and shouted anti-semitic slurs at her. The middle-aged female perpetrator was wearing a […]
After 12 years of marriage, a woman decided that she and her husband would have more joy in their lives and in their marriage by sleeping in separate beds. She writes, “When it comes to sleep, my husband and I are opposites. I like flailing around, while he sleeps like a log. I pile on […]
