According to NPR, at least 78 people have been killed in a terrorist attack in Mumbai, and 200 more are injured. Right now, communication in the area is flooded, and the Internet is being used as the most reliable way of contacting people. One of the targeted locations, Leopold Cafe, is adjacent to the Chabad [...]

Since Birthright gave me free food over Shabbat, the least I can do is report about them when they are in the news. It seems as though standards to get on Birthright are a little tougher these days. It used to just be that you had to be Jewish and had never been on an [...]

People may be enjoying turkey, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes, and pumpkin pie this weekend, but how about some humus atuf— chickpeas roasted in lamb fat and embellished with chopped lemon, ground pistachios, and mint. Or maybe your more of a naranjina person, savoring the dish of two meat balls coated in egg yolk, half-submerged in [...]

There are extensive rules for giving a eulogy, and we touch on them in our article on eulogies, though it’s not a comprehensive look at halakhot having to do with a hesped, or a eulogy. I looked through those halakhot before I wrote what I said at my mother’s funeral, and was interested to find [...]

Guest blogger Simcha Weinstein is the rabbi of the Pratt Institute. His latest book, Shtick Shift: Jewish Humor in the 21st Century, was just released by Barricade Books. His website is www.rabbisimcha.com. Maybe I’m just a “fundamentalist� rabbi who’s lost his sense of fun, but when it comes to giving thanks, I don’t “get� it. [...]

I’m a big fan of religious controversy.  I like it when people stand up and say things that make any religious community uncomfortable–even when I’m the one being made uncomfortable, I think it’s for the best.  That said, I don’t see the point of this Swedish ad which features two priests getting married to each [...]

Here’s a nice little story in which religious people of different persuasions stick it to the man. No, even that part isn’t antagonistic — although, come to think of it, “freedom of religion” doesn’t always have to mean “freedom from religion.” Let me explain: Dinar Enggar Puspita, a 17-year-old Muslim girl from Indonesia who’s spending [...]

The Yeshiva University Observer — actually the official newspaper of Stern College, the women’s school — is a great snapshot into the normally closeted world of Orthodox college students. Because YU is a school that caters to the Orthodox community — but, within Orthodoxy, it’s nonspecific — YU tends to attract a broad cross-section of [...]

Dr. Eliezer Schnall is an assistant professor of clinical psychology at Yeshiva College of Yeshiva University in New York, and a recent study of his has people talking because it found that weekly attendance of religious services reduces risk of death by 20%. Researchers evaluated the religious practices of more than 90,000 post-menopausal women, looking [...]

Residents of Ashkelon recently found a bottle with a message inside–a love letter, written in Arabic, probably sent from Gaza. Ashkelon residents find bottle containing love letter written by Palestinian man to his lover Shmulik Hadad Israelis are used to rockets being launched from Gaza at southern communities, but Ashkelon residents were in for a [...]