Modern Orthodox Judaism

Up until this course, I never really realized how culture has an extreme impact on how people function in their daily lives. Moreover, I was blind to the fact that culture can be the reason why people may act in certain ways. I’ve said this time and time again that growing up in the south was an learning experience that helped me become the person I am and have the [perspective that many have not had to experience. Because of my experiences I think that I can provide a perspective that some…

According to Rabbi Boras, Judaism is “the personal struggle to manifest oneself in the face of god while keeping one’s feet planted on the ground”. Similarly, Ehud Baron described religion in general as “an effort to connect what the universe is like to how people should live.” In fact Israel- which represents a culture, a faith, a place and the responsibility of the people- means to struggle with god. Jewish scholarship, history and practice define a particularly optimistic but always…

Singer’s, The Slave, is arguably one of the most captivating love stories between a Jew and a Christian, that takes place in early modern Poland. The Slave demonstrates how Polish nobility exploited their power over the peasants and how faithful Jews were even though they were being pursued for their faith. The relationships between different social class in early modern Poland were quite chaotic. Peasants had little to no how they could live their lives for they were under the control of their…

Political party polarization is a topic of great interest to political scientists. There is a myriad of research on the subject that explores both its generalities and specifics, from explanations of how a party system can become polarized to attempts to quantify levels of polarization in particular nations. In his article “The Quality and the Quantity of Party Systems,” Russell J. Dalton defines the phenomenon as reflecting “the degree of ideological differentiation among political parties in a…

Written by Chaim Potok, The Chosen takes place during significant moments in world history. The Chosen begins at the end of World War II in Williamsburg where it was heavily populated by Jews in 1940s. Throughout the book, The Chosen includes various actions in 1940s related to political situations in the world at that time. Those events are not mere backdrops but contribute significantly to plot and content. Among them, there are five significant historical events that influence on Malter’s and…

Judaism has evolved over time to become a large group of people who are connected by identifying as Jewish, but have very different ideas on what it means to be Jewish. Jews have been molded by their experiences and adapted to survive and overcome them one by one. Some cling to their faith stating that religion is what embodies Jews, while others claim being a Jew is not about religion, but rather heritage and culture. This is what Yossi Halevi believed, that being a Jew was not about…

4. A thematic dialogue between several early Modern Jewish literature prose is this discussion of exile. This is perhaps unsurprising, given exile of the Jewish people is often a narrative framework for the Jewish way of life. The roots of this theme can be traced in to one of the inaugural Jewish literary prose authors, Medele Mocher Sforim, who writes in Shem and Japeth on the Train, “life in exile-this precious gift from God’s store- belongs only to Jews-His chosen people” (Sforim 35). In…

youtube videos was made to expand his experience to others who are foreign to the following religions: Judaism, Islam, and Hinduism. Zac’s purpose is for the viever to gain further understanding like he did. I learned key concepts in each faith and pieces that caught my attention that helped in understanding their beliefs and way of life. The video gave me an insight to key informations about Judaism. First, I learned about the Mezuzah. It is a scribe where part of the Torah is handwritten. It…

religious texts, that man abuses the power to make their own decisions and falls away from their gods in order to do what is superficially beneficial to themselves. From Eve being influenced by Lucifer and eating the apple of her own free will, to more modern examples of free will being used to feed man’s greed, all religions discuss the duality of free will, both the freedom it brings, but also the ways that having free will causes man to stray from their respected religious path. In The…

Brief Background Jonathan Lopatin is a former Partner and Managing Director of the Goldman Sachs Group, who retired in 2000, following Goldman’s IPO the previous year. “Jon” had been with Goldman for sixteen years and was a manager of its foreign exchange sales and trading business. He was a colleague, (and friend) of Eric Dobkin. He is also a Jewish scholar having graduated with an MA in Talmud at the Jewish Theological Seminary in 2009, an activist who has served on many Jewish…