links roundup « Rejewvenate!

Refreshing the Blogroll

July 26, 2009 at 11:44 am | In links roundup | 3 Comments

I confess, I rarely visit blog websites. I follow over 200 blogs on various subjects, and the only way I can keep up is by using an RSS reaser (Google Reader is my favorite). Practically, what that means is that I don’t really pay that much attention to the various blogrolls, links, and ads on anyone’s site, or even on my own. But after reviewing my blogroll this morning, I realized that it was time to spruce things up a bit. Time to get rid of some old, defunct blogs, and time to give credit to new friends whose ideas have influenced my own, and whose hard work in keeping us all updated I have benefited from.

Here then is the blogroll draft class of 2009, in no particular order:

Boundless Drama of Creation – Written by Seth Cohen, an active member of the Atlanta Jewish community. Seth writes mostly from a Federation perspective, and has held various positions with the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta.
Conversations in Klal – ProfK, a Yeshivish Orthodox wife and mother from Staten Island, but soon to be moving “out of town,” writes about absurdities and extremism in her community.
Cross-Currents – This venerable blog features Avi Shafran, mouthpiece of Agudath Israel and other right-wing Orthodox voices including Yitzchok Adlerstein, Toby Katz, and Yaakov Menken. A good place for understanding Yeshivish and American Hareidi Jewish opinion, but a terrible palce for conversation, as the comments are heavily censored.
Orthonomics - SephardiLady, a sharp-tongued Suze Orman for parents of large Orthodox families, shows no mercy when slaying the scared cows of Orthodox entitlement such as summer camps and Pesach vacation, and displays deftness with a calculator as well as tremendous compassion and generosity when doling out financial wisdom and providing resouces for managing the fiscal health of an Orthodox household.
The Fundermentalist – JTA writer Jacob Berkman keeps tabs on all the happenings in the world of Jewish philanthropy in this popular new(ish) feature. A must-read in the Madoff era.
Three Jews, Four Opinions – Originally a group blog featuring two law professors and a lawyer representing the Reform, Conservative, and post-denominational communities, the blog is now largely written by Bruce, the Conservative lawyer. The blgo mostly discusses Jewish legal theory, the Documentary Hypothesis, and Jewish sociology.
Wolfish Musings – BrooklynWolf’s eclectic blog touches on various aspects of moderate Orthodox Jewish life, and includes an ongoing feature on photography.
Moishe House Blog – Moishe House is an international network of young Jewish adults who live together in ‘Moishe Houses’ around the world and create educational and social programs for their communities. This blog, written by members, chronicles their successes and failures, as well as their wisdom and insights into Jewish community.
On the Fringe – Al Tzitzit – Shira Salamone writes about her experiences moving from a left-wing egalitarian Conservative to a right-wing traditional Conservative synagogue. Having recently lost her mother A”H, she has explored issues relating to women’s prayer, kaddish, and so on, while continuing to comment on broader political and religious issues.
Shalom Hartman Institute Blog – Mostly a video blog, the SHI blog features astoundingly good lectures by leading intellectuals at their Jerusalem-based thinktank, including David and Donniel Hartman, Moshe Halbertal and Israel Knohl. Also on tap are presentations by their excpetional women scholars like Melilah Hellner-Eshed and Rachel Shabbat Bet-Halachmi, and featured talks from their various summer study institutes for rabbis and lay leaders. SHI is a pluralistic research and leadership institute that grapples with Judaism, Zionism, the Diaspora, and Modernity.
Torat Ezra – DYS is a traditionally observant blogger who write about politics and Kosher, and who has taken up mobile blogging of late. DYS also contributes to DovBear.
eJewish Philanthropy – Since 2007, this Jerusalem-based blog has been providing news, resources, and insight into the world of Jewish Philanthropy, with an eye towards highlighting best practices, web strategies, and innovation from the younger set of Jewish activists.
GenYGive – Written by Miriam Kagan, this philanthropy blog focuses on Generation Y/Millennials, and on progressive approaches to doing good.
Reb Blog – The personal blog of Rabbi Daniel Brenner, Executive Director of Birthright Israel NEXT, and also my boss!
Kosher Blog – The name says it all. This blog, run by Jonathan Abbett in Brookline, Steven Weinberger in Brooklyn, and Marc Melzer in Manhattan, keeps me up to date on new kosher eateries as well as new kosher outrages.
(Edited to add one more) Garnel Ironheart – A provocative blogger who writes a self-described “new approach to Modern Orthodoxy,” Ironheart has come under criticism for advocating a more Hareidi approach under the guise of Modern Orthodoxy. I remain puzzled as to whether he is or is no Rabbi Dr. Michael Scweitzer, author of The Unending War trilogy from which the name Garnel Ironheart is taken, but I enjoy his posts and his comments on this blog.

That’ll do it! Here ends the guided tour of my new blogroll. Now go out and make some new friends.

A Great Debate

June 21, 2007 at 11:49 am | In beliefs, jewish denominations, links roundup | Leave a Comment

I recently discovered a wonderful, ongoing debate about Judaism and the Jewish future between Jack Wertheimer, Provost of JTS and its Chief Academic Officer (who knew such a thing existed?) and Joey Kurtzman, senior editor at Jewcy.com. Wertheimer is the older, more traditional Jew; Kurtzman the younger, atheist, cosmopolitan Jew. Check it out – it’s excellent, challenging, and engaging (though in my opinion, Kurtzman is a bit out of his intellectual league).

The debate is part of an ongoing series of debates at Jewcy called Dialogue, which I highly recommend.

Links Roundup

March 13, 2007 at 11:14 am | In beliefs, dating and marriage, holidays, jewish denominations, links roundup, orthodox, other faiths, pesach | Leave a Comment

Some interesting links I’ve stumbled across recently:

Should you set up a not-so-observant-but-Orthodox guy with a really frum Conservative girl? As much as I enjoyed the question, I think the best part was the disconnect between admitting that the Conservative girl was more religious than the Orthodox guy and this paragraph:

That there are so many Conservative Jews who are serious about their observance should be seen as a challenge to us. It is all too easy to say that our Kiruv efforts should be geared to those whose knowledge of Torah Judaism is negligible. That’s what the NCSYs and Aish HaTorahs do. But what about this young woman and others like her? Can we afford to just leave them alone? Should we perhaps be interacting more with them? Can we entice them away from the heresy that is the Conservative movement into the Emes of an Orthodox one? Is there Kiruv for them? And how would we do it? Is there anyone or any group doing it?

I fully agree that the existence of frum Conservatives challenges Orthodox assumptions and positions. But what’s funny is that Harry Marlyes (the author) completely misses that the person needing kiruv is not the frum Conservative, but the disaffected Orthodox!

[From Emes V'emunah]

Best Fatwah Ever!

Reconstructive hymen surgery for women who lost their virginity before marriage is halal (religiously permissible), said to Aly Gomaa, the Grand Mufti of Egypt.

Gomaa, the highest authority with the power to issue a fatwa (religious edict), appeared the popular terrestrial Channel Two’s talk show El Beit Beitek, where he condoned the controversial fatwa, released by Soad Saleh, the ex-dean of the faculty of Islamic studies at Al-Azhar University and noted scholar.

Shiekh Khaled El Gindy, an Al-Azhar scholar and member of the Higher Council of Islamic Studies told The Daily Star Egypt that he agrees with the new fatwa.

“Islam never differentiates between men and women, so it is not rational for us to think that God has placed a sign to indicate the virginity of women without having a similar sign to indicate the virginity of men,” El Gindy said.

“Any man who is concerned about his prospective wife’s hymen should first provide a proof that he himself is virgin,” he added.

[From the Daily Star Egypt]

The Rebbe’s partying with Elvis, but 770 lives on – check out this exhibit of various 770-clones around the world. There was an exhibit of many of these photos at the Jewish Museum a year or two ago, but it’s gone now. [Hat tip - Kottke.org]

Supposedly, there’s a native Jew who is blogging from Mogadishu, Somalia. I hate to sound cynical, but I have my doubts as to whether it’s the real deal or not. In some places the writing sounds juvenile, while in others it is strangely fluent. Dunno. I leave it to you to to judge.

—

A question to ponder: The Torah tells us, and the Haggadah repeats for us, that the Jews made matzah on their way out of Egypt because they had no time to allow their bread to rise:


ט וַיֹּאפוּ אֶת-הַבָּצֵק אֲשֶׁר הוֹצִיאוּ מִמִּצְרַיִם, עֻגֹת מַצּוֹת–כִּי לֹא חָמֵץ: כִּי-גֹרְשׁוּ מִמִּצְרַיִם, וְלֹא יָכְלוּ לְהִתְמַהְמֵהַּ, וְגַם-צֵדָה, לֹא-עָשׂוּ לָהֶם.	39 And they baked unleavened cakes of the dough which they brought forth out of Egypt, for it was not leavened; because they were thrust out of Egypt, and could not tarry, neither had they prepared for themselves any victual.

Exod. 12:39

However, a few verses prior, in the very same chapter, God tells Moshe that the Jewish people should select a lamb for slaughter on the 10th of Nisan, and that they will eat it five days later with Matzah! If there was enough time to prepare a lamb barbecue with matzah and marror, surely there was enough time to bake some bread for the journey out of Egypt! What gives?