All Blog Posts (65)

If Gaddafi and Charlie Sheen were not enough, it now appears that disgraced Dior uber-designer John ("I love Hitler") Galliano also believed that he was a member of the Chosen People. According to the Daily Mail, which interviewed an unnamed "confidant", the designer "loved to emphasise his own supposed Jewish ancestry.  Perched in La Perle, mojito (his preferred cocktail) in hand, Galliano would tell…

Charlie Sheen called into Access Hollywood Live on Friday and revealed what he described as his Jewish heritage to hosts Billy Bush and Kit Hoover. He said:"My mom is Jewish. Here’s where it gets confusing – we don’t know who her father was. But she is, in fact, Jewish. So, I guess that would make me Jewish, and my children Jewish. And Brooke [Mueller, pictured at right], my ex-wife, is Jewish.…

Even though some of us traveled from as far as Chicago and New York, (the majority were from Atlanta); I believe we each came a long way to the Singles Shabbaton; because of the chance we took. The age range was 35 to 55. We were no spring chickens. We’d either been married and divorced – or in a few cases never married; with the concomitant recipes of exhilaration, disappointment, despair, kindnesses and perceived slights. None of us traveled light.

About 37 women and men…

Thursday is Jersday, the day new episodes of "Jersey Shore" are aired. Last week, "Danielle the Stalker," the only Jew in this slice of holy Jerseylem, made her return. Danielle, an Israeli, was expelled from the shore house in Season One, with DJ Pauly D complaining that "you stalked by life on the boardwalk!" Now, in Season Three,…

A newborn Jewish baby embodies and links past and future; earth and heaven; the living and those we love who have gone from this life. What a joyful obligation to name her accordingly!

Fortunately, we are not the first to name our Jewish child and there is plenty of wise advice, precedence and tradition to guide us…

The Kaballah says that parents are temporarily blessed with prophesy to choose the right name for their newborn babies.

The…

If you imagined the typical Jewish physique, bodybuilder is probably not what would come to mind. In pop culture, Jews are skinny and bespectacled like Woody Allen, or chubby and unshaven like Seth Rogen and Jonah Hill. Sometimes the rare tough and rugged Israeli shows up, fighting terror and…

Tazria/Metzora

In this week's parsha we deal with tzaaras (a spiritual blemish, commonly known as leprosy) which one would receive for speaking lashon hara (negatively of others).



The Torah (12;2) states that after a woman gives birth she becomes impure. However, why should that be so? Having a child is a joyous occasion--why should a woman become impure because of it?



Additionally, the Torah (13;2) relates that when a person gets…