Observation ·
Podcast: Eli Steinberg on the Warriors of Torah
By Eli Steinberg, Tikvah Podcast at MosaicWhat were 27,000 ḥaredi men doing in a sports arena in Philadelphia last week, and what does it reveal about their world?

Observation ·
What were 27,000 ḥaredi men doing in a sports arena in Philadelphia last week, and what does it reveal about their world?

Observation ·
Ultra-Orthodox Jews no longer vote in blocs and are now enthusiastic participants in national ideological movements. They may rue the change.

Observation ·
If outsiders listen to leaders of the community rather than reformers on the margins, they'll be more likely to come to agreement. Just look to Israel, where a new precedent was set.

Observation ·
Everyone from Netflix to the Forward is fascinated by the ḥaredi matchmaking system because it rejects liberal norms. Here's what they're missing.

Observation ·
How did a small Transylvanian movement become the most powerful player in worldwide ultra-Orthodoxy?

Observation ·
A new hasidic art gallery grows in Brooklyn and is already bucking stereotypes. Can it survive, and what does it suggest about contemporary Orthodox life?

Response ·
Missed the live event? Catch the recording here of Eli Spitzer speaking live on the rising influence of haredi Judaism with a journalist, a researcher, and a haredi rabbi.

Monthly Essay ·
The balance of power in the Jewish world is shifting to the ultra-Orthodox. Can conflict with the current establishment be avoided?

Observation ·
Incentivizing better Orthodox schooling is less legally fraught, more politically appealing, and more likely to succeed in practice than forced regulation.

Observation ·
Those who defend ḥasidic yeshivas against increasing state regulation have conjured up an unrecognizable fairy-tale world. But the arguments of the state's defenders are even worse.

Response ·
Why American Ḥaredim have responded so differently from other Jews to the pandemic.

Observation ·
Only by giving up some individual freedom and banding together can parents gain the power to reject the harmful influence of Silicon Valley on young minds.

Observation ·
When the established rabbis go silent, others, including civic-minded philanthropists and charismatic outsiders with inflammatory social-media presences, fill the void.

Response ·
Israel's confusing plethora of small parties actually keeps Ḥaredim and Israeli Arabs, in particular, from becoming too alienated.

Observation ·
A new book explains, and over-explains, why ultra-Orthodox authorities resort to Photoshop.

Response ·
For many members of Israel’s haredi community, loyalty is signaled by rendering oneself useless in the outside world.

Response ·
They're not anti-Zionist. They're not right-wing extremists. They're not even against birth control.

Response ·
How might haredi men be persuaded to depart from their yeshivas and start working? The brilliant writings of an idiosyncratic rabbi can help lead the way.

Monthly Essay ·
How a misunderstood minority can help spur the Jewish state’s economy and repair its tattered social fabric.

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