Jeffrey Woolf, at The Blogs

Apply for a Blog

Dec 24, 2018, 12:29 PM

Modern Orthodox Imbalance

In preparing a talk I recently gave on Redefining Modern Orthodoxy in Israel, I had occasion to revisit Prof. Jack Wertheimer's superb essay, 'Can Modern Orthodoxy Survive?' and the responses thereto. The article and the responses (save one) provided...

Nov 7, 2017, 10:56 PM

Don’t Give In…Bring Hadar and Oron Home!!!!

Over three years have passed since Lt. Hadar Goldin and Sgt. Oron Shaul fell in the defense of Israel and its people, during Operation Defensive Edge. For over three years, Hamas has held their bodies hostage as part of...

Jun 16, 2017, 6:49 PM

Thoughts on the intermarriage wars

Conservative Judaism is losing its last deference to Torah, and the same impulse is burning at the edges of Orthodoxy

Jan 22, 2017, 10:57 AM

Leave Ivanka Trump’s Judaism Alone!!!

I am thoroughly and totally disgusted by the blatant and vicious shaming of Yael (Ivanka) Trump, especially by ostensibly Orthodox people. Facebook and Twitter are ablaze with snide, smarmy comments that call into question the sincerity (and by extension, the...

Nov 28, 2014, 3:41 PM

The Twilight of the (Children of the) Gods

A spectre is haunting Israel— the spectre of Judaism. All the descendants of Israel's Founding Fathers have entered into a holy alliance to exorcise this spectre: Academics and Intellectuals, Major Generals (ret.) and Winners of the Israel Prize, Socialist...

Nov 21, 2014, 3:24 PM

To Eulogize and to Cry — R. Moshe Twersky HY’D

When the sons of Aaron, Nadav and Avihu, died the Torah states (Lev. 10, 3): Then Moses said to Aaron: 'This is what God has said: I will be sanctified through those that are near to Me, and I...

Jul 2, 2014, 11:58 PM

Answered Prayers?

For eighteen days, our people clung to the desperate Hope that Naphtali, Gil-ad and Eyal would be found and return to their families. That hope found indelible and ineffable expression In an unparalleled outpouring of prayer and loving-kindness that...

May 23, 2014, 6:28 PM

Deconstructing Amos Oz

The renowned Hebrew writer represents a literary tradition that wants to eliminate Israel's Jewish identity

Mar 18, 2014, 12:55 PM

Vetting the ‘Jewish State’

For weeks now, we've all been reading about Prime Minister Netanyahu's demand that the Palestinians publicly acknowledge the legitimacy of the State of Israel as a 'Jewish State' (or, as Herzl termed it 'The State of the Jews.'). The...

Oct 2, 2013, 12:09 AM

The Bell Tolls for American Jewry: Thoughts on the Pew report

The Pew survey's bleak outlook for American Judaism contrast sharply with findings that Israeli Jewish life is thriving

Load more

About Me

Jeffrey Woolf is an Associate Professor in the Talmud Department at Bar Ilan University. He is both a Medieval and Renaissance Jewish Historian, and an Orthodox Rabbi who is a long time advocate of the creation of a uniquely Israeli form of Modern Orthodoxy.

Contact Me