Women and the Splitting of Modern Orthodoxy: Confronting the Underlying Issues by Gidon Rothstein

My friend and colleague R. Nati Helfgot’s recent discussion of women’s leadership in communal settings is marked by his usual and admirable judiciousness, his concern to be respectful to all sides in a debate, and his hope to move our community forward as productively and peacefully as possible.  With all the respect and admiration I [...]

Polemics and the Orthodox Prohibition Against Microphones on Shabbat by Shlomo Brody

What does Rabbi Yisrael Rozen, the engineer who runs the Tzomet Institute and who frequently speaks on behalf of religious Zionist causes, have in common with the Satmar Rebbe?   They both care tremendously about halakha They both believe that Orthodox opposition to microphones stemmed primarily from polemical considerations against the Reform movement. The Satmar Rebbe’s [...]

Of Politeness and the Drawing of Lines

by Gidon Rothstein  Although this is not a venue for making political comments about issues of our day, the recent Chanukah holiday set me on a trajectory of thought that led me to questions I think are productive for all of us to ask, and I therefore wish to share them with you. To begin [...]