Women are allowed to chant the Scroll of Esther on behalf of men if no competent men are available, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, the spiritual leader of Israel's Sephardi community, ruled in a landmark decision liable to outrage many of his Ashkenazi counterparts. From Vos Iz Neias, or Haaretz, and loads of ...

Did you hear that Rabbi Weil convened a special OU meeting/retreat of some sorts in Los Angeles with six of the top rabbis in the country? What went on there? A source says: "It was a rabbinic training event for nearly – and newly – ordained rabbis. Jonathan Rosenblatt, the rabbi fr...

I nearly ran out of the sermon screaming this week. Our rabbi is great, and his sermons are unusual - they're actually worth listening to. He's one of the rare people I will make an effort to hear, rather than sneak out to avoid; he doesn't say obnoxious stuff or stupid stuff, and quite often he say...

I know rabbis who are all over-joyed by the sincerity of the goyim they are converting to the one true faith. What gets me is that these rabbis actually believe what these potential converts tell them about their motives for conversion. The rabbis want to be flattered in themselves and in their fait...

Among the most ridiculous things I see in Orthodox shuls are the fights over the right to various honors such as aliyot (call to the Torah), davening for the congregation, or reciting the Torah or Haftorah portion. I see rabbis who talk about leaving a shul because they’re not given the right ...

There are three lawsuits back and forth between the Mischels (caterers) and Young Israel of S. Beverly Hills (on Pico and Shenandoah). The latest was the Mischels trying to evict the shul from what they claim is their property. For some reason, I can’t find that damning Los Angeles Times artic...

I love the writing Lilit Marcus, who’s revived Jewcy.com. She comments: "I know that a large part of the reason I am so insecure about my religious identity is because of men I’ve dated and their judgments on my Jewishness. When I was dating a modern Orthodox guy, he considered me &...

Here’s a report on a former Los Angeles rabbi (at the Conservative shul near LAX) and a very sweet man: "I am over the moon. I’ve never been happier." That’s Rabbi Michael Beals, of Congregation Beth Shalom, on Barack Obama and the promise he holds for strengthening Jewis...

Until I was 20, I used to go to church almost every Sabbath. I never recall security guards. Yet I have almost never been to a shul on Shabbat that did not have a security guard. Here’s the email from YICC: Dear Members, In light of the situation in Israel, we will be extra cautious this Shabb...

Here’s the second part of my interview with author Solomon Schimmel. Listen to the interview here. Read reviews of the book "The Tenacity of Unreasonable Beliefs: Fundamentalism and the Fear of Truth" here. Solomon: "To the extent that I am ethical and moral, I don’t want ...