How the 2000 Los Angeles Jewish Federation Census Was Calculated to Undercount Torah-Observant Jews

The Jewish Federation's census of Los Angeles Jewry remains controversial. Even as the United States continues...
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Tarbut Goes Topless

The letter whose text is reprinted below this commentary has been sent by the Administration of the Tarbut v'Torah...
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On the Increased Urgency for a New Jewish Educational Vision to Guide the Pedagogic Model of Tarbut v’Torah (TVT)

When I was ordained in March 1981 with s'mikha from HaRav HaGaon Harav Yosef Ber Soloveitchik zt"l and Ra...
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Census And Non-Census

Jewish population statistics fascinate me. As with other kinds of surveys, they tell some truths, misrepresent...
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The Price of Freedom

To facilitate pidyon shvuyim (redeeming captive Jews from secular prisons) we are commanded to go so far as to...
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A Mindset that Drinking Is Not Cool, Vodka Vomiting Is Not Cool, Crookery Is Not Cool

When I attended yeshiva high school, everyone kvetchedabout the school: kids kvetched about the teachers, th...
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On Bernie who Madoff with the Loot — Fifty Billion

It was said of Lev Bronstein, a revolutionary in post-Czarist Russia, who -- to dissociate himself from his Jew...
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To be alone

It took my divorce to understand fully all of those sermons that I had preached over the years about caring for t...
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Orthonomics — Losing Our Best and Brightest

The issue of Orthonomics, like the weather, is much discussed but not much acted upon. Perhaps it is too compli...
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American Jews: On Bars and Mitzvahs

"If I had the power, I would annul the bar mitzvah ceremony as it is observed in our country because it is know...
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Bar & Bat Mitzvahs: Spending Ourselves into Oblivion

Bar Mitzvahs typically are foolishly extravagant to a degree that is Jewishly unjustifiable. Nothing about bein...
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A Mitzvah Resolution

We all have favorite mitzvot: slowing down the pace on Shabbat, building a sukkah, frolicking at Purim, studyin...
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Yeshiva Education Matters — More Than We Realize

In California, people (not necessarily Jewish) who home-school also have a network that connects them. So, for...
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Contrasting cultures

The single largest gathering in American history in honor of Torah study will take place at the New Jersey Mead...
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On the Obsolescence of “Orthodoxy” and the Timeliness of “Observance”

We in the Observant community – my preferred term – historically have reflected, to our shame, a reduced sens...
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Rosh Hashanah — The Next Thing on My List

With Rosh Hashanah on the horizon, we pause to take stock: What is a year? We do not get many of them in a l...
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Running Interference: Hank Greenberg as Mixed Metaphor

When a Torah-observant rabbinic figure participates in a Church service honoring a newly elected American Presi...
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Jews and American Conservatism

Last year, when voters in the Queens-Brooklyn Ninth Congressional District of New York elected Bob Turner, a so...
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Always the Jews — not: Give the maniac credit for what he is

The search for truth and understanding is not helped by searching endlessly for a Jewish angle in every cockamami...
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Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, Ed McMahon, Billy Mays: Counting the Stars and Numbering the Days

Last week’s news was dominated by the deaths of three celebrities: Ed McMahon, who entered our homes as Johnn...
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When Professors Throw Rocks

Disagreements should be settled with words, not deadly weapons. That's a basic rule of civilized society, and it...
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Time to Pardon Jonathan Pollard

1. Pollard did a terrible, terrible thing. 2. A terrible thing. Just terrible. 3. Horrible. And he messed...
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Kol Nidre- 5764

Kol Nidre -- Yom Kippur Our theme for these Days of Awe – for this year’s High Holidays – is to Return...
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I am My Kid’s Dad, My Mom’s Kid, and My Torah’s Defender: Radio’ing for Help from Dr. Laura

The Laura Schlessinger stuff has been circulating enough that a brief comment is warranted. And because she is...
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On Obama, Democrats, Republicans, Israel, and the Futility of Knowing Who Are Friends

I did not vote for Obama, instead choosing to vote as the exit polls told us that most Jews in Orthodox circles...
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