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 […]

A few years ago, when my son (then 5) and my daughter (then 8) were playing “mitzvah pirates” – a game they invented where they sailed the seven seas in order to help people  –  my son took one look at my daughter and told her, “Girls can’t be pirates.” (In his world of “pirates,” […]

What do you get when thousands of comedians from dozens of countries go head to head in The Laugh Factory’s “Funniest Person in the World” competition? Six finalists, including an Orthodox rabbi named David Kilimnick. The competition, which took place this past month in Finland was created in the hopes of bringing peace to the world through […]