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Gershon Blumstein

Oct 11, 2026, 5:38 PM

What Judaism Teaches About Loss and Hope

There are moments in life when we lose more than what happened. We lose what we believed would happen next. A marriage ends, and we lose not only the person but the years we imagined growing old together. A diagnosis changes...

Oct 8, 2026, 12:25 PM

I’m an ultra-Orthodox woman whose Jewish experience changed on October 7

People rally at the National Mall during an anti-Israel demonstration in Washington, October 20, 2023. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

At first, I hid my identity, but when I encountered a group spouting anti-Zionist propaganda, I spoke up - and discovered I needed a police escort to my car

Oct 8, 2026, 10:42 AM

The Entitlement Trap

This is a four-part series about narcissism in a variety of its permutations. It describes a problem, almost as ancient as Judaism, and still important today. Part Two investigates how rationalized comforts can quickly transform into a sense of...

Gershon Blumstein

Oct 4, 2026, 6:10 PM

The Judaism That Lets Us Become

What We Inherit, What We Change, and What We Give Forward I have carried a question for most of my life, though I did not always know I was carrying it. What does it mean to inherit Judaism? For years, I believed...

Sam Lehman-Wilzig

Oct 2, 2026, 6:53 AM

Bible vs. Talmud: The Irony of Haredi “Torah” Study

The cycle of Torah reading ends and begins again tomorrow on Simkhat Torah (in Israel; on Sunday, overseas). But what exactly is meant by “Torah”? It depends on who you ask. And the (very surprising) answer holds within it...

Sep 22, 2026, 2:34 AM

Kapparot in Jerusalem

My wife and I walked northwards across Jerusalem’s Jaffa Road just as Shabbat ended. It was the last Saturday before Yom Kippur, and we were out to find kapparot. This ritual involves the recitation of prayers as one swings...

Sep 18, 2026, 5:18 AM

Israel must challenge rather than engage ‘pro-Palestine’ performance politics

The Macklemore battle presents a trap that pro-Israel activists have yet to escape Two options: Either stay silent as more and more celebrities accuse Israel of genocide in ever more prominent forums, and hope the tide will pass, or wield...

Sep 17, 2026, 8:01 PM

Book Review – I Read This Over Shabbos: Reading Jewish History in the Parasha

Pirkei Avot 1:6 advises, “Acquire for yourself a friend.” In I Read This Over Shabbos: Reading Jewish History in the Parasha (Koren Publishers), Rabbi Dr. David Bashevkin shows that he has certainly taken that advice to heart. Throughout the book,...

Sep 16, 2026, 11:13 PM

I never let my children fundraise, until now

Illustrative. A Haredi yeshiva, August 29, 2013. (Nati Shohat/ Flash90/ File)

When the Israeli government cut its subsidies for Haredi Torah study, the rabbis enlisted the community to make up the shortfall. Even the girls. Even my daughter

Sep 10, 2026, 3:45 PM

The Best Books of 5786

The term People of the Book, which sounds much better in Hebrew, Am HaSefer, is indeed apt. Walk into any Jewish bookstore or browse on Amazon, and new titles arrive daily. 5786 is coming to a close, and the year, like...

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