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Featured Stories

My Conversion: A Confession

Saving Face: Domestic Abuse in the Jewish Community

Urban Outfitters: An Affront to Sensitivity

Considering the Holocaust, Will Israel Have the Balls to Recognize the Armenian Genocide?

My Conversion: A Confession

Stranger, you know me even if you don’t. (My friends, I’m sorry if this is how you’ll learn.) You know me because I am your classmate; I am an acquaintance, your neighbor or brother. There is a possibility that we have spent thirteen years in the same school, or have seen each other every Shabbat [...]

Saving Face: Domestic Abuse in the Jewish Community

Most people would agree that domestic abuse is an issue that plagues many families. According to the American Bar Association Commission on Domestic Violence, about 15-25 percent of families will experience some form of abuse. The American public is just beginning to understand that this abuse can happen at the hands of women as well [...]

Urban Outfitters: An Affront to Sensitivity

Pop-hipster store Urban Outfitters has recently come under fire for selling a shirt that many have found to reek of holocaust imagery. The short-sleeved men’s t-shirt is mustard yellow, with a blue six-pointed star over the breast pocket. The image called to mind when looking at the shirt are the yellow “Jude” stars Jews were [...]

Considering the Holocaust, Will Israel Have the Balls to Recognize the Armenian Genocide?

Last May, Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin pledged he’d recognize the Armenian Genocide in the Knesset. Rivlin’s a moderate in the Likud Party, but he’s been a hawk on the issue. For five years, the Knesset has been debating commemorating the Ottoman Empire’s crimes. In 2011, they finally made the discussions public. So why is it so [...]

Female Sexuality: Willingly Suppressed in the Orthodox World?

02 April 2012

Author’s Note: This article contains a discussion about female sexuality. People who are sensitive towards such topics are forewarned. To read a response to this article, please see http://thebeaconmag.com/2012/04/letters-to-the-editor/female-sexuality-a-wifes-letter-to-the-editor/. [This link was incorrect before but has since been updated.] I consider myself a pretty open-minded person. My friends and acquaintances know this about me and [...]

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Kony 2013 and the Spirit of Internationalism

02 April 2012

Cynicism has gotten to be quite popular. I like to be cynical when I see people making strong statements without adequate backing for them. Everyone likes to be cynical about their least liked politician’s motives when he or she advances a policy. Certainly, the author of “Kony 2012: A Heartwarming Tale of Cynicism” likes to [...]

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An Ante-Bellum Sermon

02 April 2012

In honor of Passover, the sesquicentennial of the American Civil War, and the ongoing struggle for liberation of oppressed people around the world. “They can forge your chains and shackles from the mountains to the sea, but the Lord will send some Moses, for to set His children free…” We is gathahed hyeah, my [...]

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“How Can I Keep From Singing?”

02 April 2012

Song, Salvation and the Price of Freedom My life flows on in endless song; Above earth’s lamentation, I hear the sweet, tho’ far-off hymn That hails a new creation; Thro’ all the tumult and the strife I hear the music ringing; It finds an echo in my soul— How can I keep from singing? [...]

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Solving the Shidduch Crisis Without Nose Jobs

02 April 2012

The reactions have poured in, fast and furious—emphasis on furious. Noted author and trailblazer Yitta Halberstam recently wrote what might be the most universally offensive article about shidduchim that the world has ever seen. Ms. Halberstam, best known for co-authoring the popular “Small Miracles” book series, was also featured in an article in the NY [...]

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The Humanistic Haggadah and Warm Fuzzy Feelings

02 April 2012

When trawling through the Internet recently, I came across a Haggadah aimed at Humanistic Jews (available here). Humanistic Judaism is a form of Judaism that emphasizes the cultural aspects of traditional Judaism, while adapting them to fit a secular humanist worldview. I’ve been interested in the movement ever since I heard about it, because I [...]

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French Murders Send Shockwaves through Israel

02 April 2012

Israeli papers are treating the attack in France as if it happened in Tel Aviv or Ashdod. The pictures of the victims are spread across the newspapers like the Fogel family’s were after last year’s massacre in the West Bank. The attack has hit a raw nerve in Israel in much the same way, and [...]

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Posted in Columns, The Light and the Darkness0 Comments

Defining “Jewish Music”

02 April 2012

My idea for this article came about around a month ago, after having a certain conversation with a friend of mine over lunch. Both being music (particularly prog rock) aficionados, we began discussing the idea of Jewish Music in the realm of Judaism. He then relays a story to me about something that happened at [...]

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To The Slaughter, And Other Myths

02 April 2012

As a child of survivors of the Nazi death camps who have published extensive articles and editorials regarding the Holocaust, I am deeply disturbed and sense the deep pangs of anguish of those who still cannot comprehend or appreciate the true acts of heroism took place during those years. As a practicing rabbi who refuses [...]

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Sex Ed in Orthodox High Schools

02 April 2012

Yesterday, I sat in on a sex education course at an Orthodox high school. The class was for seniors, the first one they had been offered on the subject; they were understandably full of questions. I realized, based upon the nature of their questions, how vital this course is. If you search on the Web [...]

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Confirmed: Stern Can Dance

28 March 2012

I did not intend on writing this article. But sitting on the edge of my seat for the last two hours head-bopping within an inch of my life, I was so completely overcome with Stern pride I could not help myself. In good journalist form, I whipped out my notebook and did not stop madly [...]

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Blasny, Blasny: A Sneak Peek at YCDS’s The Foreigner

23 March 2012

They wander about Yeshiva University’s Wilf campus wearing lurid orange tee shirts, brazenly advertising “Blasny, Blasny,” and selling tickets to Schottenstein Theater, where air conditioning and legroom are matters of wishful thinking. Once the audience has braved the urban beat that pervades Washington Heights, however, the viewer is instantly assaulted by the Deep South, and [...]

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Turning the Page

21 March 2012

Fixing Marriage and Custody in the Ultra-Orthodox Community A lot of people seem to agree that the Hasidic system—maybe even the Haredi system as well—of marriage and dating needs some updating. There is also a consensus that using religion as a weapon to keep people in the fold is wrong. Most people also think that [...]

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Battle of the Sexes

19 March 2012

It’s time to accept it. Men and women are just not equal. Physically, emotionally- they are different. I’m not saying there aren’t anomalies, but you can’t possibly argue that the genders belong on equal footing. I mean, listen bra burners: girls just look weird and make everyone else uncomfortable when they don’t wear bras. Like [...]

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Posted in Columns, The World Around Us0 Comments

Boys Can Wear Pink, Too: A Look into our Gendering Society

19 March 2012

“Mom, can I make Rice Krispy treats?” “No, sweetie, that’s your sister’s job. Why don’t you go play catch with your brother?” Gender polarizing statements like these, ubiquitous in American society and Orthodox Judaism, are often overlooked or, even worse, accepted as part of our intrinsic culture. But what if a boy wants to make [...]

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The Occupation We Choose To Ignore

19 March 2012

For thousands of years, my ancestors referred to an arid strip of desert land as our home. Our language bespoke the pain and joy of our national history. We practiced the religion of our ancestors, and we organized our society according to that noble tradition. That is, until the Europeans came. They took our land. [...]

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Posted in Columns, Sitra Achra0 Comments

Justice on My Plate

19 March 2012

I vividly remember learning the specific brachot (blessings) for food in my Modern Orthodox upbringing: I can still see the flashcards decorated with colorful pictures of all types of food, from shiny challot to crunchy bowls of cereal. We had to guess which bracha matched which food, and being the proud winner of the Bracha [...]

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Posted in Columns, Thoughts on the Tree of Life0 Comments

She Nailed A Stake Through His Head: A Review

19 March 2012

Judging from the editor’s introduction, She Nailed a Stake Through His Head (Dybbuk Press, 2010) is meant to reclaim the Bible from those stuffy old prudes who imagine it as a wholesome work of moral instruction and, in so doing, gloss over the violence and terror of the original stories. The anthology of nine stories [...]

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Tractate 300: Tales of a Jewish Superhero, Part IV

19 March 2012

We would like to remind our readers that “The Written Word” is a section designated for student literary expression with both fictional and nonfictional content; literary works occasionally contain material that can be perceived as offensive by some readers, so reader discretion is advised. It was then that the bikers noticed that they could no [...]

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Kashrut and Yashrut: A Halachic Issue

19 March 2012

How our food reaches us is a modern problem. In earlier generations, most people prepared their own food. Meat was fairly scarce—at least, for those who weren’t exorbitantly wealthy—and mass-produced goods did not yet exist. So the issue of having to worry about if your food was prepared in a proper and ethical manner was [...]

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Would Iran Ever Actually Use Nukes?

19 March 2012

I haven’t written much on Iran’s nuclear weapons because, in my years as a blogger, I thought whatever I wrote would just get lost in the pile of other posts on the topic. But for as long as I have been writing, the analysis hasn’t changed much. What will happen with Iran’s nuclear program is still [...]

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Posted in Columns, The Light and the Darkness0 Comments

Purim and Pesach: Should There Be a Connection?

19 March 2012

It does seem rather anachronistic that Pesach follows Purim in the Jewish calendar. The commemoration of our defeat of Persian armies around the time of the Second Temple inexplicably precedes the celebration of our Exodus from Egypt in approximately the year 1250 BCE. The Jewish calendar’s arrangement of its wide-ranging holidays provides for ample inspection [...]

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