American Orthodoxy

Louis Jacobs, the controversial British rabbi and theologian, died 15 years ago. Steven Gotlib reviews Harry Freedman’s new book on Jacobs’ life, and considers how what happened to Jacobs should inform the way we draw the boundaries of Orthodoxy today.

Matthew Williams breaks down the trustworthiness of two recent much-discussed surveys of American Orthodox Jews.

Is the Mishnah racist? To answer the question, begs Elli Fischer, is to get a better understanding of both Judaism and Race

Rav Moshe Feinstein does not praise the United States for not having fascists and communists, but for having a system of government that is particularly resistant to what came to be known as totalitarianism.

Sarah Rindner contemplates whether Torah u-Madda as it’s sometimes interpreted can engender unreflective allegiance to trends in contemporary society that might harm our religious communities.

Todd Berman warns of antisemitism in strange places.

Chesky Kopel explores the similarities between the 2022 Beijing Olympics and the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

When we boil matters down to their essence, what is the underlying difference between a yeshivish and centrist Orthodox worldview? Tzvi Goldstein argues that it’s not Torah Umada, Zionism, or women’s roles; these are all symptomatic of a deeper debate about this world and the World to Come.

In his latest for Lehrhaus, Steven Gotlib considers Neo-Hasidism’s continued inroads into Orthodox thought and practice in his review of Contemporary Uses and Forms of Hasidut, the Orthodox Forum volume edited by Shlomo Zuckier.

Sara Tillinger Wolkenfeld offers a reflection on the role of imagination in bringing about the recent women's Siyyum ha-Shas.