Dear Jew in the City- When should a rabbi be consulted? It seems that in some communities rabbis are asked about every mundane detail of life, things that aren’t even related to Jewish law. Other times, people talk about consulting rabbis on a halachic matters when really it’s just a matter of opinion. So […]

  Read The Groundbreaking Orthodox Film Story That’s Now An Award Finalist The Haredi world is generally viewed as an insular patriarchal community that shuns movies, but a fledgling, shadow film industry has been growing quietly for a decade within the confines of this improbable universe. These flicks — dozens of them — are produced, […]

Thousands of years ago our prophets spoke of a day when Jews, who had been exiled and spread around the world, would gather and return to the land of Israel. A man named Michael Freund, founder and director of Shavei Israel, might be helping to bring this millennia-old navuah to fruition. Shavei Israel, which means […]

  Dear Jew in the City- If there’s no Temple anymore, why are we still counting an Omer that’s not even being brought? Didn’t other Temple-related actives just cease after its destruction? Thanks, Losing Count Already   Dear Count, That’s a pretty good question. Let’s first explain what “counting the omer” is. Leviticus chapter 23 […]

Now that “Fake News” is well established as a thing, Reza Aslan has introduced us to “Fake Documentaries” via his CNN Believer series which aired last week. I’ve read that his coverage of Hindus and Catholics was pretty awful. Critics have said he focused on fringe groups with little legitimacy while offering no context or overview […]

  The Grape Juice Wars of Passover Orthodox Jews bless and drink a cup of wine three times on the Sabbath and four times at each of the two Seders for Passover. The almost 150-year-old American titan of grape juice: Welch’s, whose name is practically a synonym for grape juice, and the 129-year-old Manischewitz, the […]