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Jun 21, 2026, 6:15 PM

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love K-Dramas

My daughter kept plugging a Korean historical drama on Netflix about a cooking competition, and I couldn’t understand the appeal. I’m a reader, and not much of a cook. Why would I waste time on a fantasy cooking show in...

Tobey Finkelstein

Jun 11, 2026, 12:26 PM

If only just a few Haredim were calling police ‘Nazis’ and women ‘shiksas’

Haredi protesters attempt to block traffic on a road in Beit Shemesh during a demonstration on June 9, 2026. (Israel Police)

Ultra-Orthodox rioters are no longer fringe extremists: I watched local teens block cars and my Haredi neighbors cheer them on – as the police did nothing

May 31, 2026, 9:25 AM

The Quiet Weight Israeli Children Are Carrying

In one Beit Shemesh classroom supported by JOIN Israel, an elementary school student tried to explain what the war years had felt like. “There was a war,” he said softly. “And I got scared… a little bit. It was hard....

May 27, 2026, 4:20 AM

Why the Chareidi & Dati Leumi Divide Goes Deeper Than Strictness

We are looking inside a world that outsiders flatten (David Katash, FrockInStock.com).

It is not a frumkeit ranking, but a question of religious instinct, cultural memory, and which world feels like home. Recently, I saw an online discussion on Imamother — a popular online forum for frum women — about whether there...

Sharona Margolin Halickman

Apr 9, 2026, 9:58 PM

Instruments of Punishment and Atonement

Midrash Tanchuma (Beshalach 21) links our Torah reading in Parshat Shmini which speaks about the death of Aharon’s sons, Nadav and Avihu, to our Haftara which tells the story about how Uzzah died because he touched the Ark of...

Isaac Steven Herschkopf

Mar 5, 2026, 2:25 AM

The Holiest Sanctuary: Where The Sun Always Shines

"A home is a... stronghold amid life's storms and stresses, a refuge... a sanctuary." -Letters and Papers from Prison, Dietrich Bonhoeffer (written 1943-45) "Sanctuary" has two meanings, a religious edifice, or a safe refuge. Dating back to pre-Christian Greek and Roman temples,...

Mar 2, 2026, 10:58 AM

From Boca to Beit Shemesh: A New Oleh Confronts War on His Doorstep

Rabbi Josh Broide made aliyah from Boca Raton several months ago. On day two of Iran's assault, he drove to Beit Shemesh to witness the aftermath — and found himself searching for words. Rabbi Josh Broide had been living in...

Feb 23, 2026, 5:10 AM

PHOTO ESSAY: Tel Socho – A Springtime Blessing Close To Home

Sun-Kissed Lupines (Avraham Wald)

Some landscapes reveal themselves only to the patient heart, and Tel Socho is one such place: a small hill in the Elah Valley where heaven seems to touch the earth each spring. The easiest way to reach this spot...

Jeremy M Staiman

Aug 28, 2025, 6:39 PM

An Idol in Shul

Three guesses what this is about: A reference to the placing of a statue in the Holy Temple, which we mourn on Shiva Asar b’Tamuz. Nope. Was an inappropriate symbol discovered during the construction of a new synagogue?? Uh-uh. Was the Shul treasurer caught...

Jeremy M Staiman

Apr 20, 2025, 11:42 PM

A Plague on Both Your Houses! An Untasty Tradition

Photo: The Biblical Museum of Natural History, Israel.

Plagues come in different shapes, colors, and sizes. Modern medicine has all but eradicated many of history’s most notorious medical plagues, such as the Black Death and smallpox. Coronavirus, which claimed somewhere between 5 and 17 million lives, gave us...

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