The Sensible Jew

Hi all.
Due to offline work commitments, Yaron and I have been scarce around here, but an extremely serious matter has brought us out of hibernation.
It even prompted Yaron to write to his Federal Member of Parliament, Kelly O’Dwyer. Below is an edited version of that letter:
“As a member of the Jewish community, it was [...]

The blog, YourJC, has a post that provides one of the smartest arguments for the urgent need for diversification  of Jewish religious life in this country. Highly recommended.
Yaron and I will be back next week. Till then, we wish you Shabbat Shalom and a wonderful weekend.

Riots, Religiosity, and The Broken Bridge
My Israeli family had an unusual gift: they could always find a riot to stumble upon accidentally.
Back in 1994, when I was young and studying in Israel, my uncle and aunty* loved nothing more than to drive me back to Jerusalem after Shabbat (the Sabbath). They lived close to Tel [...]

We hope everyone has had an enjoyable long weekend and that our observant Jewish readers are surviving the dietary rigours of Pessach.
The next post will be up on Wednesday.
I will respond to themes touched on by Yaron in his post on the Rabbi Elon sex scandal. My post will  explore the secular/religious divide from a [...]

Hi everyone. As mentioned in earlier posts, the Pessach (Passover) festival begins tonight and lasts for eight days. The next post will be up on Thursday.

Alex’s Note: For those unfamiliar with the intricacies of the Jewish festival of Passsover (known in Hebrew as, Pessach), it is more than a simple commemoration of the Jews’ exodus from Egypt and liberation from slavery. The celebration lasts eight days, with the first two nights devoted to elaborate, ritualised dinners. Even devoutly irreligious Jews [...]

Rabbi Motti Elon was once Israel’s great hope for bridging the highly charged secular/religious divide.
A man of enormous charisma and limitless reserves of energy, he was Orthodoxy’s most powerful advocate among Israel’s irreligious.
He was also the head of a key yeshiva (seminary), from which have now emerged allegations of his “sexual misconduct.”
The case is steeped [...]

By Malki Rose
Over the last few days since my piece “In the Absence of Loving Kindness,” I’ve received a great number of emails from many different people, from all sectors of the community. Some disagreed intensely with my account, suggesting that what the messianists did was so clearly outside of what is permissible in Jewish [...]