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Judaism
Israelis walking in a downpour rain while shopping at the Mahane Yehuda market in Jerusalem, April 9, 2018. (Liba Farkash/Flash90)
June 15, 2018, 3:51 pm
It’s raining in Israel, but I’m not relieved
There are agricultural reasons why summer rain is bad here, but it's the spiritual significance that has me losing sleep
By Marcy Oster
Children sitting at the Park East Synagogue, a Modern Orthodox congregation in New York City, March 3, 2017. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images, via JTA)
June 14, 2018, 5:05 am
Study: Young Jews are just as religious as their parents
Pew Research Center survey finds younger Christians and Muslims are less religious than their elders
By JTA
David Brooks speaks onstage at the The New Yorker Festival 2014 on October 19, 2014, in New York City. (Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for The New Yorker/via JTA)
June 13, 2018, 7:56 am
David Brooks opens up about his Jewish and Christian ‘bisexuality’
Well-known Jewish New York Times columnist speaks about his lifetime learning from, and flirting with, Christian ideas
By Charles Dunst
Novelist Michael Chabon, shown with his sponsor, Tamara Cohn Eskenazi, received an honorary doctorate and gave an address at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion commencement ceremonies in Los Angeles, May 14, 2018. (Hebrew Union College/Twitter)
June 11, 2018, 3:19 pm
Michael Chabon envisions a world without Jews
The novelist's increasingly mainstream views on intermarriage are morally abhorrent
By Sylvia Barack Fishman, Steven M. Cohen and Jack Wertheimer
During an outing in 1922, Walter Hollander (third from left) with friends (public domain)
May 23, 2018, 3:49 am
Who was Anne Frank’s gay Uncle Walter?
After being imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp, Walter Hollander fled Germany. Once settled in Massachusetts, he attempted to help the Frank family flee Europe
By Matt Lebovic
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
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
Illustrative: Students at the King David Victory Park school in Johannesburg, South Africa at a Holocaust Remembrance Day event in 2017. (YouTube screenshot)
January 27, 2018, 7:07 am
Who likes Internat’l Holocaust Remembrance Day?
Plenty of Jews dislike the memorial day -- they'd rather build life than wallow in death
By Gheula Canarutto Nemni
(Tabitha Kaylee Hawk/Flickr Commons)
January 23, 2018, 3:31 pm
Jewish men need to talk about #MeToo
Rejecting Harvey Weinstein, et al as role models is a no-brainer; having the conversation about sex and power is the challenge
By Daniel Brenner
Construction of a bridge going over Emek HaArazim outside Jerusalem, for the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv fast train, seen on December 20, 2015. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)
December 26, 2017, 6:21 am
Knesset okays requiring Jewish tradition as factor in Shabbat work permits
New law is part of effort to smooth out ruffled feathers in wake of coalition crisis over train maintenance work on Jewish day of rest
By TOI staff
In this Friday June 26, 2009 photo, BBC Persian service presenter Fardad Farahzad, right, gets ready to present the news, at the corporation's London headquarters. (AP Photo/Simon Dawson, File)
December 21, 2017, 5:47 am
BBC says it will insert more religion into programming
British broadcaster to feature more reports on non-Christian festivals after publication of yearlong review into its coverage of religion and ethics
By JTA
A Hanukkah menorah (Flash90)
December 20, 2017, 3:14 pm
We make our own miracles
The Maccabees sighed, rolled up their sleeves, and got to work as a community -- which earned them God's blessing
By Yitzchak Besser
The cast of "The MeshugaNutcracker! The Chanukah Musical," including guest star Bruce Vilance (center), in 2016. A film version of the musical comedy will be screened on Dec. 19, 2017 (Courtesy: Guggenheim Entertainment)
December 18, 2017, 10:25 pm
Hanukkah gets a kitschy ‘Nutcracker’ treatment for the holiday’s last night
The film version of a musical comedy based on Festival of Lights to screen at hundreds of US movie theaters on December 19
By Matt Lebovic
Illustrative: Hanukkah candles. (Flickr Commons)
December 15, 2017, 11:50 am
It’s OK God — we’ve got it covered
Hanukkah raises that important question of whether Judaism requires the Divine to thrive
By David Werdiger
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