What Does Conversion Really Mean?

By Shmuel Rosner
Published on March 18, 2012

The Challenge of Offering Moral Rebuke in the Workplace

Published on March 7, 2012

Guest Post by Rabbi Seth Winberg Defending Rabbi Dov Linzer’s New York Times Op Ed

Published on February 13, 2012

Ethics Plan Would Raise Sanctity of Business

By Rabbi N. Daniel Korobkin
Published on March 18, 2009

An observant Jew was once brought before the judge on counts of tax fraud. Seeing the kippah-wearing Jew before him, the judge innocently asked, “Mr. Schwartz, you are clearly a God-fearing man. How do you explain your immoral behavior?”

Donation of Organs Has Support of Most Rabbis

Published on March 11, 2009

It was a decision based on a widespread misunderstanding in the Jewish community, locally and nationally. A young boy not yet 10 years old lay brain dead in a Los Angeles hospital after suffering a severe head injury in an accident. The attending physician explained to the parents that their son was brain dead.

Jewish Agency wants changes in Israel conversion policy

Published on November 20, 2008

It calls on the government to establish Jewish religious courts that "will base themselves on appropriate moderate and tolerant prior halachic decisions to allow the conversion process to move forward.

Personalize your ketubah without breaking the law

By Michele Alperin
Published on October 10, 2008

Although the Orthodox community is committed to the existing ketubah document, whose language comes from the Mishnah, Blau said he has no problem with a bride and a groom making additional agreements and commitments, as long as they do not controvert Jewish law.

Trendy, traditional and taboo:
An incomplete guide to Jewish funerals and burial

By Jane Ulman
Published on August 7, 2008

While not everyone is jumping on the 'I gotta be me' funeral bandwagon, a funny thing is happening on the way to the mortuary. When it comes to thinking about the end of life, be it in the business of funeral homes or in the minds of Jews everywhere, the world is changing.

Meat packing raid stirs larger ethical and economic concerns

By Amy Klein
Published on May 22, 2008

Agriprocessor raid's effects ripple across the community

Halacha is just a click away at online yeshiva

By Amy Klein
Published on May 4, 2008

Like other virtual learning and videoconferencing, Web Yeshiva students see and hear each other and the instructor in the virtual classroom.

Appropriate response to killings rests in Torah

By Rabbi Naftali Rothenberg
Published on March 27, 2008

The pain felt by the family and near environment of any murder victim is deep and traumatic. The murder of adolescents in an educational institution is horrifying. But a murder that takes place within the walls of the house of study, the yeshiva, amplifies and extends the grief and suffering beyond the families that lost their dear ones and beyond the victims' close surroundings.

‘Non-Jewish’ Jews endure challenges living in Israel

By Dina Kraft
Published on January 3, 2008

In Israel, the "non-Jewish Jews," as some Israelis call them, are everywhere. They drive buses, teach university classes, patrol in army jeeps and follow the latest Israeli reality TV shows as avidly as their Jewish counterparts. For these people -- mostly immigrants from the former Soviet Union who are not Jews according to Israeli law -- the question of where they fit into the Jewish state remains unanswered nearly two decades after they began coming to Israel.

New Conservative seminary leader outlines goals

By Ben Harris
Published on September 8, 2007

"Numbers don't keep me up at night; Israel keeps me up at night," Eisen said. "I'm worried about the security of Israel, and I'm worried about the apparent decline in attachment on the part of American Jews to Israel. This literally, from time to time, keeps me up at night."

Law Committee’s gay ruling stepped outside Halacha

By Rabbi Joel Roth
Published on December 14, 2006

Despite the popular view of what we were arguing about, I believe that the subject of gays was not what we were really divided over. It happened to be the specific subject that revealed the real fault lines in the committee, and in the Conservative movement in general.

Battle of the sexes reaches Talmudic teachings—why can’t girls learn Gemara?

By Amy Klein
Published on October 26, 2006

The question of whether Talmud is indeed part of Jewish learning for girls and women in traditional Orthodox education has come under debate in the last two decades in Orthodox circles.

View on Eisen From L.A.: Thumbs Up

By Amy Klein
Published on April 27, 2006

Local reaction was positive -- with an element of wait and see -- to the choice of Stanford professor Arnold Eisen as the new, de facto leader of the Conservative moment. Eisen, who isn't a rabbi, will take over this summer as chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York.

The Agunah: A Modern-Day Nightmare

By Alexandra Leichter
Published on March 17, 2005

These two cases vividly illustrate the current problems of the modern day agunah (a woman chained to an unwanted marriage), because halacha (Jewish law) gives the husband the sole, unfettered power of divorce. While under Ashkenazic tradition a woman can withhold her "consent" to such a divorce, the remedies available to the victim of a recalcitrant husband or wife differ substantially.

How to Approach   a Grieving Jew

By Michal Lemberger
Published on August 12, 2004

Grief erases all regular rules. All the logic that has ever seemed to govern one's life suddenly seems useless. More than useless, it seems pointless.

Jewish Law Favors Stem Cell Research

By Nancy Sokoler Steiner
Published on July 29, 2004

Even as Ron Reagan makes a case for stem cell research at the Democratic National Convention, Californians may take matters into their own hands. In November, the state ballot will include a 10-year bond issue, which would generate $3 billion for stem cell research.

Religious Court Serves as First Resort

By Gaby Wenig
Published on July 1, 2004

In downtown Los Angeles, three judges are deciding a case involving tens of millions of dollars and dozens of properties. The judges aren't dressed in robes or seated behind wooden podiums with a court reporter close at hand. Instead, the three bearded rabbis are sitting in a small conference room at a table piled high with documents they peruse carefully.

Q & A With Robby Berman

By Julie G Fax
Published on March 18, 2004

Robby Berman was a journalist living in Israel writing about organ donation when he came across some alarming facts: Out of 200 people who were declared brain-stem dead in a given year, only 70 families agreed to organ donation -- giving Israel the lowest percentage of organ donors in the Western world.

In Sickness and in Taffeta

By Carin Davis
Published on November 13, 2003

As a woman prepares to say "I do," her friends prepare to stand by her side in purple puffy dresses and lavender dyed shoes. In sickness and in health, in velour and in taffeta, in chartreuse and in lemon. As her bridesmaids, they will participate in a tradition that may be as old as Judaism itself.

Your Letters

Published on January 23, 2003

In our studies at Beth Chayim Chadashim's (BCC) Queer Jewish Think Tank, we are not throwing out the halacha, nor are we bending and twisting the texts to suit our own devices ("A Conservative Challenge," Jan. 17).

Planning Ahead Can Save on Health Care

By Gaby Wenig
Published on December 26, 2002

Because elder care can be an enormous drain on an individual's resources, with nursing homes costing in excess of $100 a day and home care costing even more, planning ahead and buying long-term-care insurance is one way of preventing the costs from being too overwhelming.

Cape Town Clash

By Moira Schneider
Published on November 28, 2002

The heart of the dispute centers on whether Sea Point must observe the standards of halacha demanded by the country's chief rabbinate in Johannesburg, or whether it can adopt looser standards.

Ethics and Ironies

By Rabbi Avi Shafran
Published on November 14, 2002

In our sex-saturated -- and in fact, as a result, sexist -- society, men and women eschewing handshakes to avoid any semblance of misplaced sexuality might seem a bit much to many.

Stroke of Halacha

By Miranda Pollack
Published on July 4, 2002

My mother is in a nursing home now. Every month or so she has to be taken to the hospital for a week.