-A conference in Israel looks at the Reform Movement’s failure to make significant inroads in Israeli society. (The Jerusalem Post)
-Rabbi Barry Schlesinger, president of the Masorti  Movement’s Rabbinic Assembly, on some affinities that Masorti has with modern Orthodoxy in Israel. (The Jerusalem Post)
-Masorti in Israel is looking at the question of how important gender equality […]

At one point in history, the sport of boxing was dominated by Jewish men. And while those days are long gone, Orthodox Jew Dmitriy Salita is creating a name for himself in the sport. His challenge is balancing being a fighter and an observant Jew.
MJL contributer Saul Austerlitz reviews a new documentary about the […]

Welcome to the first installment of “From the Academy,” in which I (will hopefully) check in with Jewish Studies professors to find out about their current/recent research.
My first subject is Dr. Howard Wettstein, a professor of philosophy at University of California-Riverside. I asked Dr. Wettstein if he’d share what he’s working on and if any […]

Just a day after Tu Bishvat comes word that the United States continues to receive poor grades on environmental issues. The New York Times reports:
A new international ranking of environmental performance puts the United States at the bottom of the Group of 8 industrialized nations and 39th among the 149 countries on the list…
The United […]

-With Ms. Magazine rejecting an ad celebrating three Israeli women leaders, Phyllis Chesler accuses “This is a feminism that has been utterly Palestinianized,” and Francine Klagsbrun, has termed this a “feminist moment of truth.” (The Jewish Week)
-And Andrew Silow-Carroll gives his take on the real reason the ad was rejected, and what is says about […]

Most of my conversations about the presidential primaries have been about the Democratic field. But Tom over at Blogs of Zion has reminded me that we’re not all Democrats.
Says Tom: “There is a growing trend in the Democratic Party to be unable to identify real evil.”
I couldn’t have said it better myself!
Just kidding.
(BTW: Tom also […]

Everyone has different ways of learning about the weekly Torah portions: reading the actual text, studying d’vrei torah, acting out the stories. But now you can listen to raps about parsha hashavua.
Matt Bar, formerly known as the Ramblin’ MC, is working on a fantastic project where he raps each of the weekly portions, in addition […]

Tu Bishvat–often known as the Jewish New Year for trees–celebrates the coming of spring and the seven species of fruits, vegetables, and grains known to have flourished during Biblical times in Israel. With a bounty of tempting options among the seven–barley, wheat, olives, pomegranates, figs, grapes, and dates–it’s easy to be inspired. More

Israeli cinema took another step forward this morning when Joseph Cedar’s Beaufort was nominated for an Academy Award, Best Foreign Language Film.
From Wikipedia:
The story takes place in the year 2000, the year of the IDF withdrawal from southern Lebanon. The setting for the film is a 12th century Crusader stronghold in southern Lebanon, just prior […]

One of the stand-out sessions for me at this year’s LimmudNY was a panel called Can You Hear My Now? Fixed Liturgy and the Crisis of Prayer.
It included such luminaries as Rabbis Michael Strassfeld, Reuven Hammer, and Andrea Cohen-Kiener.
They each had a lot of interesting insights on prayer,the possibility/necessity of change to the service, and […]