As a graduate student in Pittsburgh and London between 2007 and 2015, I sometimes felt that only Orthodox groups such as Aish HaTorah and Chabad sponsored activities for Jews my age. These groups succeed because they engage in active outreach (kiruv) and create a charismatic vision of Judaism, requiring little buy-in from the attendees. However,…
Rabbi Michael Feshbach has been offering introductory courses to Judaism at his Reform synagogue in Chevy Chase, Maryland, for the past seven years and attracts a range of students — unaffiliated Jews, non-Jewish spouses, even groups from nearby Christian churches. The small classes might meet in the sanctuary of Temple Shalom, where the rabbi will…
Getty Images Reading the article was wrenching. It was a first-person offering, on the website Kveller, by the non-Orthodox mother of a young woman who had adopted Jewish observance and in the process (at least in her mother’s telling) had jettisoned all respect for — apparently, all feeling for — her parents. The mother described…
It’s time to let go of the incorrect assumption that all ultra-Orthodox Jews try to turn away as much as possible from the outside world. You’d be wrong to think that all of them spend every waking moment at serious study, prayer and work. It turns out, at least in some cases, that Haredim just…
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