There is a war raging in our usually quiet south Florida community. A war over education and it has Jews facing off against Jews.

What I find completely flabbergasting is that the quest to keep Ben Gamla’s (the new Hebrew language public charter school) doors shut has been…

Claim of Jewish ritual murder in the Middle Ages stirred considerably more commotion in the Jewish media than in the Muslim world may be a hopeful sign. Or it might just testify to the depth and breadth of the longstanding belief in Arab and Asian countries that, why,…

A crematorium recently opened for business in Israel, for the use of citizens who want their remains reduced to ashes.

A decade ago, just over 20% of Americans who died were cremated. In 2005, the rate had risen to 32%. The Cremation…

The setting sun doesn’t panic most people. Most people, though, aren’t Orthodox Jews stuck in traffic on the New Jersey Turnpike an hour before the onset of Shabbat, when Jewish religious law forbids driving a car.

I generally stay off highways –…

You suddenly begin noticing signs bearing Arabic script in buses. What do you do?

Well, what bus riders in Richmond, Virginia did was call the local Transit Authority to find out what it might know about the signs, which had been turning…

God has a sense of humor. Bet you didn’t know that. Most people think of God in very serious terms and concepts such as great theological issues like why bad things happen to good people and the like. But there are those moments when God likes to step…

American Jews are learned in everything but Jewish texts

The American Jewish community is one of the most learned and sophisticated communities in Jewish history, in everything except Jewish texts. As Jews, we are illiterate.

This phenomenon has its roots in…

Part 1 in a 5-part series of essays on Jewish Literacy

What is Jewish literacy? What does it mean to be Jewishly literate? Who is an educated Jew? Paula Hyman, professor of modern Jewish history at…

The Baratz kids know their Bible studies, thanks to the education they receive at Brauser Maimonides Academy in Hollywood. According to their mother, Lisa, the children, ages 7 to 15, have "an overall expertise in Judaic studies and higher Bible studies. It's a terrific program that has given them…

Seventeen-year-old Shloimie was raised in a "frum" household.  Everything about Shloimie's family, from the children's Jewish names to their father's long beard and tzitzit, to their mother's covered hair and long skirt exude "frumkeit."  Except Shloimie.

Shloimie's father reminds him to take his black hat for davening,…