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Aug 28, 2026, 6:36 AM

Bring Your Congregation into the Black Book of Life

Times are Tough for Temples

Congregations across the United States and around the world are struggling to keep their doors open. Fewer people are becoming members; synagogues and temples are being forced to merge to be financially viable; even twice-a-year Jews are dwindling. Part...

Karen Reiss Medwed

Aug 25, 2026, 3:26 PM

The Rabbis Who Didn’t Sell Their Houses

Last week, seventeen new rabbinical students began their studies with Hebrew Union College. None of them sold their house, or moved to a new town, to do it. And still, to launch their studies as Rabbinical School students, we...

Aug 20, 2026, 6:01 AM

The High Holy Day Survival Guide for Partners of Rabbis

Wisdom Within

If you find yourself in a new relationship with a Rabbi, this short survival guide for making it out of the High Holy Day Season alive is a must-read. If you know of, or are related to someone in a...

Salior Ben Hamou

Aug 11, 2026, 6:08 AM

Hague Convention Case With Excess Legal Baggage

Two doctors, three countries, two children—and one court forced to answer the great question of international family law: Who pays for Mom’s plane ticket? People imagine international child-abduction cases as legal thrillers. A parent crosses a border. Emergency papers are filed....

Aug 4, 2026, 6:24 PM

10 stories about my grandfather-in-law, Rabbi Norman Lamm

Rabbi Lamm with Yeshiva University student Mikey Butler. Courtesy of the Lamm Legacy. Used with permission.

Known for his ideas, Rabbi Lamm was also a grandson, a disciple, an embattled university president, and a caring person who never lost sight of the individual

Mordechai I. Twersky

Jul 26, 2026, 5:52 PM

The Ethics Yeshiva University Teaches—and the Ethics It Must Face

'A life of Torah cannot be compartmentalized,' Yeshiva University declares in announcing its new ethics initiative. Forty-two years after covering a similar announcement for The New York Times, the author asks whether that principle also applies to the university...

Sarah Segal-Katz

Jul 3, 2026, 3:08 PM

One year after the ‘Daughters of Zelophehad’ ruling: A marathon, not a sprint

The Supreme Court of Israel building
Photo: Lael Klein / Gluya Magazine

Today, the 18th of Tammuz, marks exactly one year since the ruling in the petition over women's right to sit the Chief Rabbinate's ordination exams (the "Yoreh Yoreh" track) on the same terms as men. The presiding justice, Noam...

Allen S. Maller

Jun 29, 2026, 6:33 PM

9th of Av: On Failures of Political and Religious Leaderships #2

When Jews mourn the two destructions of Jerusalem and its Holy Temple on the 9th of Av (July 22-23, 2026 this year) they begin with reading the Biblical Book of Lamentations and feel tears of sorrow, pains of grief,...

Naomi Marmon Grumet

Jun 25, 2026, 1:56 PM

The mikveh experience is holy, not a political bargaining chip

A mikveh attendant supervises a woman immersing. (Heidi Levine, via The Eden Center)

When Rabbi David Yosef urges women to humiliate other women, he contravenes Jewish law and opens the door to undermining his own authority

Sarah Segal-Katz

Jun 25, 2026, 12:49 PM

No place for shaming at the mikveh

Screenshot from the footage of Chief Rabbi David Yosef, aired on Channel 12 by reporter Eli Hirschmann

Sadly, the chief rabbi, Rabbi David Yosef, has once again spoken in a way that wounds women. Only last week he chose menacing language toward those seeking to sit for the rabbinate examinations (myself among them). He sought to...

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