So here’s a copy of the new letter Pico-Robertson’s Modern Orthodox rabbis are sending to local businesses owned by Jews. Will this high profile campaign do any good or will it only make rabbis feel good for grandstanding on a complex topic? I want to emphasize one sentence from this new...

Shortly after the Slifkin ban came out, well-known haredi Rabbis Aharon Schechter, Matisyahu Salomon and Aharon Feldman were invited to address a Modern Orthodox gathering in Teaneck, New Jersey. The idea was to promote healthy dialogue between haredim and people like us. Unfortunately but predictab...

Thirty five years ago, the presidency of Yeshiva University almost went to intellectual Emmanuel Rackman. In a few years, it will likely go to administrator Steven Weil. Rabbi Jack Riemer writes in The Jewish Week: Rabbi Rackman is still ahead of the times, and unfortunately, more ahead of it all th...

Because he did not apply. Rabbi Korobkin was the runner-up to Steven Weil in the 2000 search for a successor to Abner Weiss. He did not throw his hat in the ring this go round. By temperament, Rabbi Korobkin is more of a scholar than a pulpit rabbi. I believe he’s pursuing a PhD in Islam at UC...

As I was walking home from work, there were Menorahs lit up in many houses. Some lit several, others lit up one and yet some turned on their electric Menorahs. I felt this warm fuzzy feeling seeing wonderful flames twinkling at me. My mind was then made up: my Menorah will now be lit up on our windo...

YU President Richard Joel sent out a letter Tuesday stating that the university lost $110 million, or 8%, of their endowment that had been invested with J. Ezra Merkin’s Ascot Partners; Ascot Partners had in turn invested their entire funds with Madoff.  The letter also states that the school...

  A comment on my blog by Michael sparked off a series of emails between us about Modern Orthodoxy. He sent me a series of links about various aspects of MO. I printed one essay for Shabbat reading and read it on Saturday morning. It had been a while since I last read anything as stimulating as ...

Rabbis Steven Weil of Beth Jacob, Elazar Muskin of YICC and Yosef Kanefsky of Bnai David-Judea all rank at the top of any list of America’s leading Modern Orthodox rabbis. Various Angelenos are honored in the Forward’s latest list of 50 influential Jews. As with the following case, the p...

Gary Rosenblatt, the Modern Orthodox Editor of The Jewish Week in New York writes: Last Wednesday, the day after the elections, Elliot Prager, the principal of Moriah, a Modern Orthodox day school in Englewood, N.J., was approached by a 9-year-old student in the hallway, who asked him if he was afra...

Mark writes on Hirhurim about Modern Orthodoxy (MO): I’ve encountered numerous people who claim that they’re MO and while sometimes they share similarities, many times they’re worlds apart. For example, I recently encountered a young man and his wife in a park where I took my child...