First On The Court
Born in 1856, in Louisville, Kentucky, Louis Dembitz Brandeis was the child of European immigrants who maintained a minimal Jewish identity. However, his maternal uncle, Lewis Dembitz,…
Yom Kippur 5781-2020
“The Thrill of Coming Home” (updated and revised from Yom Kippur 5761-2000) by, Rabbi Ephraim Z. Buchwald There are certain times in the Jewish calendar that are regarded as propitious…
Give A Little A Lot
Making the decision about to whom and how much tzedakah (charity) one should distribute can be extremely difficult. The pressure of this decision is made even greater by both a constant…
Baba Sali – Praying Father
Although it is not uncommon for Jewish sages to be known by a pseudonym, such names are most often either abbreviations of their full names (e.g. RaMBaM, an acronym for Rabbi Moses ben…
Rabbi Israel Salanter and the Mussar Movement
The Mussar movement, the formal study and program of ethical improvement, was developed in the mid-nineteenth century by Rabbi Israel Salanter (1810-1883). Rabbi Israel’s family name was…
Irish Jews
The exile of the Jewish people has taken them to every corner of the earth. Jews have lived in and built communities in Europe, China, India, Central Asia, Africa, South America, North…
Belarus, China, Jerusalem and Brooklyn: The Odyssey of the World’s Largest Yeshiva
For 125 years, from 1814 until 1939, the Mir Yeshiva served as a beacon of elite Torah study on the European continent. Situated in the small town of Mir in Belarus, the yeshiva was…
Name Change
It is not a coincidence that cultures around the world share a belief in the power of given names. In Judaism, it is believed that parents are granted a flash of ruach hakodesh, Divine…
Rabbi Israel Salanter and the Mussar Movement
The Mussar movement, the formal study and program of ethical improvement, was developed in the mid-nineteenth century by Rabbi Israel Salanter (1810-1883). Rabbi Israel’s family name was…
First On The Court
Born in 1856, in Louisville, Kentucky, Louis Dembitz Brandeis was the child of European immigrants who maintained a minimal Jewish identity. However, his maternal uncle, Lewis Dembitz,…