Author Archive

When I was a toddler, even before my mother started curling my little payess around her finger and brushing it with a bit of sugar-water, she taught me the English alphabet (after I had mastered the Alef Beis, of course). By the time I was enrolled in pre-school I knew that c-a-t spells cat....
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He reminded me of myself, back when I’d never been inside a bar, hardly even to a restaurant. It was a spontaneous meetup. He’d been a fan for years, and we corresponded on and off. My identity was…

“Hey, H.! Remember the Tenth of Teves?” N. called to me jovially. He was unpacking a crate of Tuv Ta’am products, babaganoushes, tomato dips, tuna and potato salads, and large containers of sour pickles. “You’re not fasting, are you?” he…

At first glance it might seem like the Shabbos table of any Chasidic home. The candles are lit. At the edge of the table lies a colored parsha page from a pre-school child and a list of farher questions for the seven-year-old. The smell of steaming cholent wafts in from the kitchen. But some...
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A heretic with a shtreimel? You better believe it. And he’s on board to contribute commentary and insight in his own masterful way. Known as one of the pioneers of the Chasidic blogosphere with his wildly popular blog
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The BBC has discovered that some Chasidim (and members of other ultra-Orthodox groups) have been leaving the community to join the secular world. And they, like so many others, choose to focus on the difficulties and challenges one…

We expect to have a number of well-known Chasidic bloggers and commentors contribute regularly to this blog. The first that has joined is the erstwhile Pen Tivokesh, blogger extraordinaire, author of the very fine blog Penned In – Writing…

The bubble, as was wont, has burst. Chasidim are leaving, slowly, individually, but with surefooted and resolute steps. And a new community is being created in the process.
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