On Tuesday afternoon, I thought my neighbor was making a bbq and that it was about to rain. Neither of those things turned out to be true. Instead, the “bbq” and gloomy sky were a result of wildfires in Canada. This phenomenon is affecting 90 million Americans at the moment. I have a weird confession […]
Important change is happening in the Belzer Hasidic community. Unfortunately, when someone decides not to remain religious anymore, they can be cut off from their family and the community they grew up in, which often, is all they know. This doesn’t always happen, but it exists, and it is now being both publicly addressed and […]
You may be aware that religious Jews do not work on Shabbat. You may also be aware that religious Jews do not do a whole slew of things on Shabbat, such as igniting a fire or even turning on lights. You are certainly aware that turning on the lights isn’t a whole lot of work. […]
Dear JITC, I know you’re not meant to “shop around” in matters of getting a psak (a ruling in a matter of Jewish law). But can you ever seek a second opinion and, if so, how? Best, Josh — Dear Josh, Thanks for your question. It dovetails very nicely with another topic that we discussed […]
Florida, North Carolina, New York, Georgia…each day it seems like a different state is reporting antisemitism— numbers are increasing rapidly. We just marked Yom HaShoah — Holocaust Remembrance Day — a time devoted to ensuring a terror even remotely in that realm doesn’t happen again. With stories percolating that feel eerie, much like pre-Holocaust times, the possibility […]
Noemie Lopian’s father wrote a book called, The Long Night, that sat on a shelf by itself in their house. It was a constant, living in the background of her childhood. When Noemie read its contents, she was 36 years old. What she found out changed the course of her life. It was her father’s […]
