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Jun 26, 2026, 6:52 PM

Treasure Trove: Pin the Pickle on the Jewish People

From the Herzl and Zionism Collection of David Matlow, Toronto (www.herzlcollection.com). Photograph by David Matlow.

Over 100 million plastic pickle pins have been handed out by the H. J. Heinz company since they were first introduced as a marketing promotion at the World’s Columbian Exposition held in Chicago in 1893. This particular pin was...

Jun 26, 2026, 3:48 PM

A comic strip that takes a serious look at the Orthodox community

An unmarried woman – an “older single” by the standards of the Orthodox Jewish community, where most women are married by their early twenties – was discussing her situation the other day in the office of Dr. Meir Wikler,...

Jun 25, 2026, 10:09 PM

A Story Not About Jews

It is a story all about the Jews, yet the Jews play no role in it. It contains some of the most common phrases in Jewish life, yet they are not the words of any Jew. This week's Parasha...

Jun 24, 2026, 9:00 PM

Torah Judaism: A Sadness I Never Expected to Feel

Today I watched images of protests, demonstrations, and roads blocked across Israel. What surprised me was my emotion. It was sadness. A deeper sadness than I expected to feel. I grew up in two separate religious Jewish communities in London,...

Jun 23, 2026, 5:22 AM

Who Decides What Is Real?

Who is a Jew? Who Decides What Is Real? Crypto meets religion. Image © Ivan Bassov, 2026. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.

Bitcoin, Ethereum, and the Question of Identity When people argue about Bitcoin, Ethereum, or even questions like “Who is a Jew?”, they often assume there must be a single correct answer hidden somewhere. But in reality, many questions of identity work...

Saundra Sterling Epstein

Jun 20, 2026, 1:57 PM

I saw Orthodox acceptance of LGBTQ Jews grow. Now it’s evaporating

(JTA)

Rabbis and communities must stay committed to inclusion despite political and cultural pressure. If they don't, the results will be devastating

Jun 19, 2026, 11:52 PM

The Pierced Ear: Torah’s Ownership Mark

The image tells two stories side by side. On the left, a Hebrew servant stands willingly at the doorpost. His master pierces his ear with an awl. The servant smiles with joy and devotion, choosing permanent service out of...

Joseph C. Kaplan

Jun 18, 2026, 11:59 PM

That Best Portion of a Person’s Life

A few short weeks after my back surgery, my wife, Sharon, had toe surgery, leaving us with a total of two good feet between us. The surgeries brought us closer together in one way, since, after mine, she drove...

Paul Mendlowitz

Jun 14, 2026, 9:44 PM

How the Ultra-Orthodox Rabbis Destroyed Reason and Common Sense – Victims Galore

There was a time when Judaism produced giants who saw no contradiction between Torah and reason. The greatest example remains Maimonides, the Rambam, who was simultaneously a rabbi, physician, philosopher, scientist, and legal scholar. He believed that the human...

Jun 11, 2026, 1:56 PM

Book review – Rabbi Yitzchak Hutner’s Theology of Meaning

The Riemann Hypothesis is the most famous and important unsolved problem in mathematics, concerning the distribution of prime numbers. Mathematician Terence Tao has explained that the main obstacle to proving the Riemann Hypothesis is not a lack of effort,...

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