In my late teens, I started keeping kosher and quickly discovered that for many Orthodox Jewish travelers, pots, pans, frozen meats and cheeses are automatic suitcase stuffers for every trip. While living a life of Torah and mitzvos gives me much meaning and pleasure, and I recognize that anything good in life comes with tradeoffs, […]
Film Review: Keep Quiet “Keep Quiet” is a fascinating documentary featuring Csanad Szegedi, a prominent, unabashedly anti-Semitic leader of controversial extremist groups whose political career derails when it emerges that his own family was Jewish not so long ago — even falling victim to the same Holocaust he and his cronies have denied. Abruptly […]
In 2013 Angelina Jolie penned an impassioned Op-Ed about her risk of breast cancer and treatment plan. Jolie’s grandmother, mother and aunt all died from breast and ovarian cancers and like her relatives, she carried a mutated BRCA gene – a gene that everyone (male and female) carries, but when mutated, increases the risk of […]
As the Sundance and Slamdance Film Festivals gets underway in Park City, Utah, the world’s spotlight is turned to independent narrative films and documentaries. The Orthodox Jewish subject of filmmaker Jessie Auritt’s “Supergirl” will premiere at Slamdance this Saturday. Auritt made her debut as a feature film director and editor in her documentary, which features […]
Dear Jew in the City, When and why did Jewish boys and men start wearing yarmulkes, and are there any circumstances when a yarmulke need not be worn? M.L. Dear M.L., The practice of wearing a yarmulke (kippah in Hebrew) is an ancient tradition that has its roots as a “middas chasiddus” (an act of piety) before […]
National Jewish Book Award Winners and Finalists Orthodox Jewish authors Zev Eleff and Yehoshua November were named finalists in the National Jewish Book Awards. November’s second book of poetry, Two Worlds Exist, and Eleff’s Who Rules the Synagogue?: Religious Authority and the Formation of American Judaism and Modern Orthodox Judaism: A Documentary History all received […]
