Recently, Mishpacha asked, Is the Door Closing on Kiruv? As the national director of AJOP, the Association of Jewish Outreach Programs, I can tell you that the question—Is the Door Closing on Kiruv?—is a good one, yet it totally misses the point. The Door That Became a Homepage
As a 9th grade student in Washington Heights, NY, I had the zechus of visiting the home of Rav Shimon Schwab, zatzal, Rav of Khal Adas Jeshurun, each week together with my classmates. The rav would share divrei Torah that would conclude with some relevant message for his teenage audience. I enjoyed and grew from each of these special
This week’s parasha presents a strong contrast in priorities, as expressed by Yaakov and Esav in their historic standoff. The conflict that is subtly expressed at the parasha’s onset presents a fundamental attitudinal difference which underscores the personal weltanschauung of these two men. Yaakov arrived in Eretz Yisrael after two decades of tireless service in the house of Lavan. It was there that
My youngest child has begun second grade (where did the time go?), and while that may not seem like the most momentous change that is happening in my house this school year - our oldest has headed to high school, after all - in some ways this is a game-changing moment that is about to take place. Why? What earth-shattering learning happens in second grade that is more important than that which is learned in 6th or
“O God! Nations have come into Your heritage; they have defiled Your Holy Temple; They have given the … the flesh of Your pious ones to the beasts of the earth. They have spilled their blood like water around Jerusalem…” (Tehillim 79) It was 5:30 AM and my bedroom was still pitch black. I gently picked up my phone to look at the time and I am
BS"D Dear Friends, The tragic events which have befallen us these past months have made it clear that Klal Yisrael is at a crucial crossroads. Everyone feels it! There is such an outpouring of chessed, emotion and desire to change. Rav Gedalia Shorr (אור גדליהו) writes on Chanuka that throughout our גלות there were many potential 
