Every day billions of people wake up, stumble to the bathroom, try to make out the face in the mirror, force a smile, and start another day. Once they reach their workplaces - the person becomes an employee...

My journey from Reform to Orthodox Judaism has taken many unusual turns. Perhaps the most unusual is that, despite living in Jerusalem and Brooklyn, it was not until I arrived in Peoria, Illinois, that I became a baal teshuvah.

A runaway bestseller back in the seventies opened with these wise words, "Life is hard." I think we can give the Jewish singles' update on that observation. Shidduchim is harder.

Upon entering Rabbi Yerachmiel Morrison's corner office, which faces Broadway on one side and Manhattan's East River on the other, an array of pastries and chocolates greeted me.

An overwhelming majority of Orthodox college students attend secular universities around the country, yet the campus environment can pose serious challenges to these young men and women's observance and commitment.

It's Motzei Shabbat. Do you know where your teenager is? Hundreds of Israeli parents dare not entertain the question, for fear of what would quickly come to mind - drugs, alcohol, promiscuity, and worse. Thanks to the advent of the Zula, Seymour J. Abrams OU Jerusalem World Center's program for teens at risk, a growing number of these parents sleep better at night - knowing their sons and daughters have found a safe haven far from Kikar Zion's magnet to the easy fix and dark descent to the life of the streets.

There's something unusual going on at the Brooklyn College campus lately. Each day, a young rabbi sporting a beard and ready smile walks across the campus eliciting a flurry of enthusiastic waves, nods, and requests to meet him later. It wasn't always like this.