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Quicken Loans founder Dan Gilbert, addresses attendees at the former site of the JL Hudson Co. department store, December 14, 2017, in Detroit, Michigan. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)
June 12, 2018, 2:59 am
Jewish-owned Quicken Loans now kosher for Orthodox borrowers
US lender adopts halachic technicality so it can issue lines of credit to those concerned about usury
By JTA
Funeral of Rabbi Aaron Panken, Westchester Reform Temple, May 8, 2018. (Screen capture, YouTube)
June 4, 2018, 3:29 pm
Saying goodbye with dignity — in Scarsdale, NY
Laying Rabbi Aaron Panken to rest was sad and comforting; it also drove home what's missing at Israeli funerals
By Anat Hoffman
Illustrative photo of a gun. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)
May 31, 2018, 3:20 pm
The Torah forbids using guns for fun
What do Jewish texts and rabbinic authorities have to say about gun control? Quite a lot
By Jonathan Muskat
The entrance to the offices of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, Jerusalem. (Flash90)
May 25, 2018, 3:08 pm
Marriage is a basic right, ’til the rabbis pull rank
A new bill aims to extend the reach of Israel's Rabbinate, the very body creating the problems the law is supposed to fix
By Peter Buchsbaum
Former senator Joe Lieberman and Rabbi Ari Kahn. (Courtesy, Ari Kahn)
May 18, 2018, 2:27 pm
Learning Torah with Joe Lieberman
The former US senator is spreading the word on Shavuot, celebrating one of the greatest paradigm shifts in history
By Ari Kahn
Ruth on the fields of Boaz by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld (cropped) (Cc via Wikipedia)
May 18, 2018, 1:57 pm
Ruth didn’t have to convert to ‘Orthodox Judaism’
If you really understand Jewish law, you know that legal categories do not address every case in the same way
By Francis Nataf
From the frontpiece of Shulhan Arukh, the Code of Jewish Law. (Wikipedia)
March 21, 2018, 1:55 pm
The Rabbinate won’t let me take its exams
By not letting us female students of Shabbat, kashrut, and more establish our expertise, the rabbis quash the Torah
By Chamutal Shoval
The building of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel in Jerusalem. (Flash90)
March 16, 2018, 5:21 am
Outcry after Chief Rabbinate bars women from exam on Jewish laws
Orthodox women threaten lawsuit after request to take test on family purity rejected for no apparent reason; activist calls move 'illegal'
By JTA
Illustrative: Yeshiva University’s Chag HaSemikhah ordination celebration, in March 2010, feted 200 or so rabbis who had been ordained in the previous four years. (Yeshiva University/JTA)
March 13, 2018, 1:30 pm
When Yeshiva College gags women it is my business
Blocking a female student from teaching Torah because men might hear her affects the whole Modern Orthodox world
By Deborah Klapper
A rack of prayer shawls at Congregation B’nai Israel shows the unique style of tzitzit used by Karaite Jews. (David A.M. Wilensky)
March 11, 2018, 2:36 pm
Are Karaites more Jewish than Jews?
If Moses arrived in a time machine, he'd surely recognize more Karaite practices than rabbinic ones
By Bill Slott
Moses on Mount Sinai, painted circa 1895-1900, by Jean-Léon Gérôme. (Wikimedia Commons)
March 9, 2018, 1:24 pm
Who still sees the wonder of Judaism?
Religion is the art of knowing what to do with amazement and how to protect it from complacency
By Nathan Lopes Cardozo
Illustrative: Danish soldiers guard the synagogue in Copenhagen, Denmark, on September 29, 2017. (AFP PHOTO / SCANPIX DENMARK / Mads Claus Rasmussen)
February 23, 2018, 11:49 am
Should synagogue-goers be armed?
Jewish law requires that we protect ourselves; to do so responsibly means strict and effective weapons-training
By Shammai Engelmayer
Cover of Jewish Law as Rebellion, by Nathan Lopes Cardozo. (courtesy, Johnny Solomon)
February 15, 2018, 12:32 pm
Jewish law — far more than a dry, unbending code
Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo faults halacha handbooks for a lack of legal creativity; he misses the mark (review)
By Johnny Solomon
An exhibit at'Mamzerim, Labeled and Erased' at the 2017 Jerusalem Biennale. (Nurit Jacobs-Yinon)
From the WebFebruary 14, 2018, 4:48 pm
In modern Israel, being born a ‘mamzer’ can lead to a life of secrecy and stigma
The New York Jewish Week: An in-depth dive into the little-known ancient Jewish law that still has very contemporary impact
By Michele Chabin
Illustrative: Students and teachers from Seminar Ha'kibbutzim protest against the deportation of African asylum seekers, in Tel Aviv, January 24, 2018. (Tomer Neuberg/ FLASH90)
February 11, 2018, 3:22 pm
Israel must protect its foreigners
Both Judaism and democratic values demand that we treat African migrants humanely, for they too are created in the image of God
By Benjamin Lau
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