Non-Orthodox Jews frequently seem concerned that Orthodox Jews are judging them about their lack of Jewishness. On JewishJournal.com, Jason Lipeles writes: "Although he had a long beard, I wasn’t nervous or thinking that maybe he was judging my lack of Jewishness." Why would they car...

Orthodox Rabbi Reuven Spolter writes: In a "Modest Proposal" styled op-ed piece in the Jerusalem Post, Rabbi David Forman finally throws down the gauntlet. After years of trying to gain recognition from the government as legitimate streams of Judaism and years of failure, it’s time f...

I was acquainted with Candye Kane and her body of work in my previous life. I saw her play the piano with her breasts at the World Pornography Conference in 1998. She was one tough act to follow. She too has beaten a path to Torah and enlightenment. The San Diego Union Tribune reports: Although Kane...

Over the weekend, a meeting of 700 Episcopalians at a Reston, Virginia, Hyatt hotel agreed that the diocese needed to take steps toward including gay and lesbian relationships into church doctrine, resolving that relationships ought to be "characterized by fidelity, monogamy, mutual affection a...

There’s no longer a significant difference between Reform and Conservative Judaism so why not merge these two movements as well? Attorney Anita Susan Brenner writes: This week, Rabbi Eric Yoffie, the leader of the Union for Reform Judaism, suggested that due to the post-Madoff economic crisis,...

It was the very beginning of 1942 and the group of ten young men and their yeshiva dean, exiles in frigid Siberia, couldn’t believe their eyes. Betzalel Orlanski had somehow gained release from the Siberian labor-camp where he had been sent, somehow found out where they – and his wife – were l...

Rabbi Eytan Kobre writes for Cross-Currents: …JTS’s Jack Wertheimer is back on the attack against the non-Orthodox, this time with What Does Reform Judaism Stand For? in this month’s Commentary. Something must be done about that man, if only by having him join the roster at Cross-C...

Rabbi Avi Shafran (who’s charedi) writes: “Tonight I humbly ask forgiveness of the Jewish people for every act of anti-Semitism and the deafening silence of Christianity in your greatest hour of need during the Holocaust.” Those words were spoken before a crowd of several thousand ...

This’ll no doubt create some semantic confusion among religious leaders and congregations alike, but the U.K.-based Movement for Reform Judaism is issuing a new prayer book that eschews gender-specific references to the Supreme Being. It might be a hard sell, considering the results of a surve...

My computer cautions me against fooling with certain manufacturer-determined system settings. Doing so, it warns, could create serious problems. Riskier still is messing around with Judaism’s system-settings, determined by the ultimate Manufacturer. That lesson might be the one being learned the h...