Our homepage this week features an article about the Karaites, a sect of Judaism that rejected the authority of the Talmud and served as a significant foil for the rabbis of the early Middle Ages.
It makes sense, therefore, that this article is in our Medieval History section. That is, it made sense until last […]

Jewish bloggers have written their first reviews of the recently launched Jewcy.com and they’re not being generous.
- Ariel over at Blogs of Zion writes:
The artwork is amazing — the content, well, not so much…I don’t really care whether Jews are at the top of the evangelical movement, or what a porn-star’s mother says about her […]

Today is author Don DeLillo’s 70th birthday. Sure, he’s not Jewish and — as far as I can remember — has written only one significant Jewish character (Murray Siskind from White Noise), but he’s one of America’s great novelists — and probably my favorite — so I thought the occassion worth noting.
Interestingly, DeLillo was the […]

In anticipation of Leo Baeck’s 50th yahrzeit on Sunday, I’d like to highlight a few other aspects of his thought. Baeck was, in many ways, a prototypical product of Classical Reform Judaism. His religion was, to its core, Ethical Montotheism — and both of those words were key for him. Baeck was very much a […]

The Letters section has always been my favorite part of Jewish newspapers, and the Jewish Week isn’t letting me down. Today’s issue includes a letter that suggests that Borat is actually a Muslim conspiracy to malign Jews. Here’s a taste:
I have seen the film called “Borat,” and I am appalled and disgusted by it…
I’ve been […]

There’s a new kid on the Jewish media block. This week, while the older generation was in LA listening to Israeli politicians thank them, the next generation was launching its latest attempt to engage Jewish life with some sophistication and style: Jewcy.com.
Jewcy is a sort-of Slate for Jews, focusing on thought-pieces with an intellectual/cultural bent. […]

Yes, I’ve already suggested that lists like the Forward 50 are somewhat random, but that doesn’t mean we can’t be happy for our friends who made it! First and foremost among those is our good friend Rabbi Jill Jacobs over at Jewish Funds for Justice, who was noted for authoring a responsa that called for […]

I heard God mentioned approximately 26 times at the GA and all 26 came during the same speech: Rabbi Naomi Levy’s pre-Olmert address at yesterday afternoon’s plenary.
The rare bit of God-talk got off to a strange start. Because of a technical glitch (possibly having to do with the teleprompter), Levy was standing at the microphone […]

On Monday, at the United Jewish Communities General Assembly, after Benjamin Netanyahu finished his Iran fright-fest, veteran Canadian politician Irwin Cotler took the stage and for the most part followed Netanyahu’s lead. Cotler also warned of Iran’s nuclear plans, citing their “state sponsored genocidal intent.”
A former McGill University law professor and an expert on […]

This week, MyJewishLearning looks back on the life and thought of Leo Baeck, a theologian whose name graces many institutions and buildings, but whose actual writings are vastly underappreciated. Baeck died 50 years ago this month on November 2, 1956 (Heshvan 28 in the Jewish calendar — which this year falls on Sunday, November […]