Torah Personalities

Natalie Zemon Davis, a Jewish historian known for shining a light on the lives of marginalized people in the early modern period, passed away in October. Ronnie Perelis commemorates Dr. Zemon Davis by reflecting on the experience of teaching her revolutionary work to his students at Stern College for Women.

In commemoration of Rav Amital's tenth Yahrzeit, Joe Wolfson, JLIC Rabbi at NYU, shares how the legacy of Rav Amital inspired his community's humanitarian efforts during the Covid19 pandemic.

At the Orthodox Union in 1997, Rabbi Sacks first developed the theme that there are 2 Torot: Torat Kohanim and Torat Nevi'im. Nathan Diament shares from that talk, interwoven with personal reflections on Rabbi Sacks' optimism and his insightful use of Jewish jokes.

Oran Zweiter Rabbi Isaac Aboab da Fonseca, the first ordained rabbi to travel to the Americas, arrived in Recife, Brazil in 1642. The writings of...

In commemoration of the shloshim of Rabbi Simcha Krauss z"l, Dan Margulies offers a moving reflection of his teacher.

Ariel Rackovsky reflects on the unique perspective and variegated legacy of Rabbi Ozer Glickman.

Sefaria has recently published a new bilingual digital edition of Talmud Yerushalmi. Taking stock of this development, Zachary Rothblatt offers an erudite synthesis of the history of Yerushalmi.

Marc Eichenbaum explores the idea of guilt and shame cultures in the thought of Rabbi Jonathan Sacks z"tl, which provides a novel interpretation of Torah and a powerful lesson for contemporary society.

Tzvi Sinensky As chronicled in Robert Putnam’s 2000 classic book, Bowling Alone, loneliness is one of the vexing challenges of modern life. The advent of the...

Those of us who feel deeply connected and indebted to Hasidism should ask ourselves a difficult and perhaps painful question: Is Netivot Shalom the sefer that we want to represent us to the rest of Am Yisrael?