Jewish media outlets were surprised and delighted by a recent viral video of two Bais Yaakov girls rapping about Dor Yesharim, a genetic testing organization. I was delighted, too. Surprised? Not at all. While there was nothing shocking to me about two Orthodox teenage girls rapping, the responses to the video have been both surprising…
The New York State Legislature is currently considering two bills, one introduced by Assemblywoman Ellen Jaffee in early May, the other by Sen. David Carlucci and Assemblyman Kenneth Zebrowski in January, to strengthen existing legislation requiring nonpublic schools to meet the state’s minimum education standards. But Jewish leaders and groups who are usually very vocal…
The Israeli government says that Haredi parents and schools — rather than the government itself — are to blame for denying secular education to ultra-Orthodox youth in Israel. That was the government’s response to a lawsuit filed by 53 ex-Orthodox individuals against the Ministry of Education for failing to teach them basic secular subjects like…
Yeshiva University is establishing a new graduate program, the Katz School of Graduate and Professional Studies, with a $25 million gift. The donation from Mordecai and Monique Katz was announced by Yeshiva on Monday. The Katz School will offer degrees in fields such as marketing, allied health, community education, data science and cyber security. Programs…
The 130-year-old Jewish Theological Seminary of America is embarking on a $96 million multi-year modernization that will keep its storied past safe — and carry the spiritual center for Conservative Judaism into the next century. JTS officials on Monday said they have put together a deal to sell one old dorm, a small parcel of…
The offices of One Month, Mattan Griffel’s startup in SoHo, are the first I’ve ever seen that have a wine fridge en suite. They also feature a fridge stocked with kombucha, and a pillow adorned with a smiling image of Griffel and his One Month co-founder, Chris Castiglione. When Griffel met me at the office…
In the 1921 Yiddish children’s book “The Wind That Got Angry,” by Moyshe Kulbak, an “old, wandering wind” finds himself booted out of his village when a thaw sets in. He tries to find somewhere in the woods to rest. He’s tired and wants to sleep, but no one wants him around. The oak tree…
In 1984, my time was mostly divided among school, preparing for my bar mitzvah and playing Castle Wolfenstein on my family’s Apple II+. Castle Wolfenstein was a game about a prisoner escaping from a Nazi bunker. The bunker is labyrinthine, with multiple levels. I knew every inch of it. Everywhere there were guards, but they…
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