|
WINTER 2011/5772 - Volume 72, No. 2
FEATURES
Journalist Michael Freund converses with Israel’s former chief rabbi about the Israeli scene, anti-Semitism, and the recent translation into English of his remarkable memoir Out of the Depths: The Story of a Child of Buchenwald Who Returned Home at Last.
In the not too distant past, three frum children—ages nine, twelve, and fifteen—shuffled into the Masbia kosher soup kitchen in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn. Despite the warm ambiance and restaurant feel, the children sat huddled over the table, clearly uncomfortable. They quickly gulped down their food, not bothering with small talk.
Losing a job is never a pleasant or easy or pleasant experience. A job plays a variety of different roles in our lives. Some of those roles are healthy; others are not.
Starting in late 2007, the United States, together with much of the world, suffered a steep recession. While the economy began to recover in 2009, growth has not translated into new jobs. Two years into the recovery, unemployment in the US is still over 9 percent.
In one of Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan’s books on Jewish meditation, he asks where meditation is mentioned in the Torah. He goes on to say that some things were so obvious to our ancestors, they did not have to be stated outright. The concepts were known to all.
Losing the ability to support one’s family is one of the greatest stresses one can experience. However, one who lost his job must be careful to avoid complicating matters by succumbing to despair or feelings of unworthiness.
When Laizer Solash, from Far Rockaway, New York, lost his job three years ago, he was ready to do just about anything to support his wife and four children. Never in a million years could he have imagined that he’d be making his dough by baking it. Now he’s putting bread on everyone’s table!
Few personal letters still arrive by “snail-mail,” but the pile of catalogs, announcements and requests for donations seems to be growing. Who is sending those solicitation envelopes, and how should you respond?
|
 NEW! Virtual Magazine
Read through the articles as if you were reading the actual magazine.
View magazine »
|
On the long flight to California, my husband shares with me a Business Week article on the dismal economy. Our discussion drifts to its effect on the middle class and specifically on our children.
JOHANNESBURG — Shortly before I began a visit to South Africa late last year, my first time in the once-reviled nation that had emerged from the darkness of apartheid sixteen years earlier, I noticed an interesting online article datelined Johannesburg. A new eruv was being built, and there was opposition from some Johannesburg residents.
My grandfather was famous. At some point in my life, I figured that out. Rabbi Ahron Soloveichik was the youngest son of Rabbi Moshe Soloveichik, an esteemed rabbi in a long dynasty of Jewish scholars. But I never saw him that way.
On Sunday evening, January 29th, 2012, NCSY’s Ben Zakkai Honor Society will be honoring the legacy of Rabbi Ahron and Rebbetzin Ella Soloveichik. Why, you may rightly ask, should Ben Zakkai be the venue for the Orthodox Union to celebrate this remarkable couple’s extraordinary contributions?
In the aftermath of the Shoah, hundreds of thousands of Holocaust survivors were stuck in DP (displaced persons) camps in Europe with no place to go. The doors of many countries remained shut to all but a small number of Jews, just as they were before and during World War II. Palestine was still under British control, and the White Paper of 1939, which restricted Jewish immigration, remained in effect.
While a good percentage of Orthodox high school graduates flock to the Holy Land each fall, there are tens of thousands more who don’t even care to go.
Masa Israel Journey is helping to change that.
|
PDF
