Good evening and welcome to Jew in the City’s 6th Annual All Star Awards – the greatest night in orthodox jewish professional success. I tend to write speeches last minute and as I was deciding what I wanted to say, a wave of panic swept across me as I wondered if we remembered to schedule this event in […]

What does it mean to leave everything behind? To reject the ideas a person grew up with, and commit instead to new ideals? Is it possible to maintain anything of the past when embarking on a new life? When we first meet Rivka, she seems basically perfect. Avraham has tasked his servant with finding the […]

This Portuguese Jewish Community Couldn’t Afford a Rabbi. Now It Made a $1 Million Movie Coming to Amazon. A decade ago, the tiny Jewish Community of Porto didn’t have enough money to hire a rabbi or even fix the roof of its synagogue. Today, this Orthodox congregation of 400 people in northern Portugal has enough […]

The story of Yaakov’s surreptitious acquisition of the blessings his father intended for Esav is well known. This episode, coupled with the Torah’s declaration of Yitzchak’s love for Esav, leads many readers to misinterpret Yitzchak’s feelings for each of his sons. While some assume that Yitzchak loved Esav more than he loved Yaakov, the text […]

Hi JITC- What is the Torah view of Marijuana use? Is there a difference between medical and recreational use? Thanks, T.K. Dear T.K.- This past summer, my wife and I vacationed in Utah. One of the tourist destinations recommended online was the Brigham Young University Museum of Paleontology (which is really fun to say). My […]