American Orthodoxy

Steven Gotlib reviews Roberta Rosenthal Kwall’s book Remix Judaism, which has an important message about navigating Jewish practice in the modern world for non-Orthodox and Orthodox Jews alike.

Zev Eleff examines some of the toys peddled around by mitzvah merchants and other fascinating features of Ultra-Orthodox culture. 

Alan Kadish offers a vision for how Orthodox Jews should think about "chosenness."

In his first and last foray in this field, Zev Eleff tries his hand at some Modern Orthodox counter-history.  

Francis Nataf explores Malbim’s sophisticated engagement with Kantian ethics.

In response to recent articles by Ezra Schwartz and Nathaniel Helfgot on the issue of centralization, Jeffrey Fox offers a vision of collaborative, personalized pesak in the post-Covid era.

The Poland trip has become de rigueur for Modern Orthodox gap-year students. But seismic changes in contemporary Poland and shifting trends in Modern Orthodoxy mean that the content and meaning of these trips are different than they used to be. David I. Bernstein, who has been leading Poland trips since 1992, tells the story of the student Poland experience, then and now.

Zev Eleff takes us through the theology of one of American Orthodoxy much-discussed but less-analyzed rabbinic leaders, at least from this point of view.

Yaakov Jaffe argues that kids would be better served by coming to shul for the beginning of the Shabbat davening rather than the end.

Rivka Kahan weighs in on the impact of the Rav's 1977 Stern College Talmud lecture and how the Modern Orthodox community can move forward.