I’m not exactly sure when certian people in the frum community decided to make tznius into the cause of all the calamities that befall the Jewish people, but it seems that the two major causes of evil in this world…
Tag: orthodox
I don’t trust Orthodox Rabbis don’t have beards
I received this disturbing comment the other day in response to this post: While I agree with you on the gay marriage issue, I can tell you that some of the greatest Orthodox rabbis of the 20th-21st centuries were clean…
I am not Orthodox: Chabad propaganda
If you ever ask someone who’s of chabad stock if they are chabad, they will generally respond to you that they’re just Jewish and that they don’t like labels. No one likes labels, but for the sake of deciding where…
How badly did you treat your secular teachers in yeshiva?
The secular teachers in yeshiva get the short end of the stick, many schools, including mine weren’t too great in their care for the secular studies department. Sure, we were supposed to graduate with a regular regents diploma, with a…
What are the most important issues facing Orthodoxy?
As a sociologist of the frum community, I’m on a constant quest to figure our strange little community out. In the process of this, I’ve ruffled a few feathers, stirred a few pots, and pissed off some of those folks…
Tikkun Olam is not Jewish Value
Hey Hesh, Huge fan here and I have a question that’s been bothering me ever since I started reading your blog. I’m sure that if anyone can answer the following question you can. I’ve noticed that Orthodox Jews tend to…
Intermarriage: An open letter to Orthodox and Conservative Rabbis
An open letter to Orthodox and Conservative rabbis: Guest Post by Laura Cooper You say you’re against intermarriage, you know there’s a 50% intermarriage rate, and you know some kids who come out of those marriages aren’t going to be…
To the outside world, frum Jews are just rude
I may cook for the most goyishe restaurant in the world, but it’s still pretty frum when you look at the random little events that take place or that I get asked about by the servers who take things at…
Is orthodox Judaism sexist?
Of course it’s sexist by today’s lackluster ethical morally depraved standards, we have dropped so far down the moral scale in the last 50 years that anything remotely reeking of religion is automatically shoved into the sexist closet. Ever since…
OU admits that Jewish teens have sex
It’s real nice to see that at orthodox organization is approaching the idea of abstinence, whether or not I agree or disagree is not the point, the point is that they have enough balls to acknowledge that unmarried folks in…
Tzedakah: The frum communities best attribute
I would like to retell a story that I heard from Rabbi Levine of San Jose’s Congregation Am Echad: An Israeli man had just finished collecting money in South Florida to marry off his daughter, he was on his way…
Orthodox Gays struggling to establish community in Israel
The biggest challenge in my mind to the Frum Gay community which is just in its beginnings is trying to introduce itself into mainstream orthodoxy, this is toughest because you can never hope or imagine to change the halacha, because…
The little Jewish community that could
I can’t believe everyone’s so young, it seems like the last time I was here everyone was much older, had that many members died since Rosh Hashanah? I’m wondering this and I approach the Rabbi to ask him where all…
Orthodox shul is going to allow women to lead kabalas shabbos
So Avi Weiss can’t get the go ahead to ordain women as Rabbis (would he call them Rabbits to be that much more Zionist?), but apparently they are cool with him letting them lead kabalas shabbos and I’m down with…
The Orthoprax Rabbi: What it’s like to be an atheist rabbi of an orthodox shul
Someone sent me the link to a new blog called Orthoprax Rabbi. It is written by the supposedly atheist rabbi of a modern orthodox congregation that claims he keeps his true beliefs under wraps in order to keep his job.…
Off the derech and looking for a shidduch
I have a lot of friends who are culturally orthodox, but aren’t necessarily religious and I’ve got to thinking about how to set these folks up. Lots of the folks I know simply don’t follow the path they grew up…
My response to Rabbi Steven Pruzansky’s article on Orthopraxy
There’s been a lot of talk in the Jewish Blogging world about the following article written by Rabbi Steven Pruzansky in this past weeks Jewish Press. I have copied and pasted the article here with my responses to each of…
The Mission Minyan: If Orthodox and Egalitarian were possible
We walked in during pisukei d’zimra and there was already a large crowd of people gathered. I took a seat all the way to the right of the room and looked around. A few people said “Good Shabbos“, asked me…
RE: Is the word Goy offensive? Good comment from a non-Jew
This was posted the other day in response to the post Is the word goy offensive? Hello all, I’m not sure if this will post or not. I have been learning a lot reading these posts. I have a bit…
I don’t wear pants anymore
Aliza on Pants Jews are funny. That’s what people keep telling me. But I wasn’t born Jewish. I was born Dominican. So if we’re going by genes here, I’m probably really good at baseball and shimmying my hips. Not so…
Interview with an orthodox lesbian
For those of you living under a rock, there was a brutal attack on a Gay community center in Tel Aviv this weekend in which 2 people were killed and 11 wounded, as expected the comments on Vos Iz Neias…
Orthodox Jews don’t drink Manischewitz
The only reason I have ever witnessed orthodox Jews drink Manischewitz, is because my yeshiva was located 60 miles from their winery and would get free wine in return for the slave labor offered them in the form of rabbinical…