|
 THE NEW YORK TIMES, October 2008
Kosher Wars
By Samantha M. Shapiro
One sunny day in late August, Andy Kastner made the short drive from his apartment in Riverdale, in the Bronx, to Yonkers First Live Poultry Market, a narrow cinder-block shop that sells live chickens, pigeons, quail and rabbits stacked in ancient-looking metal cages. At Yonkers First, workers usually slaughter and butcher the animals for customers, but Kastner was there because he wanted to kill his own chickens.
THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN, September 2008
Rabbi Joins University As Spiritual Guide
By Kelly Lack Rabbi David Wolkenfeld and his wife Sara, who will spend this year at the University as part of the Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus (JLIC), aim to support Jewish learning on a non-denominational campus through weekly courses and informal interaction with students.
JTA, July 2008
U.S. Jews mourn soldiers, pledge to fight for Shalit's return
By Ben Harris At the Yeshivat Chovevei Torah Rabbinical School here, Rabbi Dov Linzer decided Wednesday that it would be inappropriate to start the day like any other given the news that the two Israeli soldiers abducted by Hezbollah in July 2006 were returned to Israel deceased. THE JEWISH WEEK, May 2008
Creative Thinkers Get Big Bucks
By Gary Rosenblatt
Continuing a trend among philanthropies to highlight and support the creative work of individual thinkers and activists, the Avi Chai Foundation this week announced the first winners of its new Fellows program.
THE JEWISH WEEK, May 2008
New Jewish Genuises To Be Tapped Combining the mystique of the MacArthur Foundation “genius” grants and the impetus to spur out-of-the-box Jewish creativity, the Avi Chai Foundation is poised to announce the first winners of its new Avi Chai Fellowships on Tuesday.
WASHINGTON JEWISH WEEK, May 2008
Rewarding Jewish Genius, Rabbi Garners Prestigious Fellowship
By Richard Greenberg
Rabbi Dov Linzer has made a name for himself by professionalizing the training of Orthodox rabbis, producing clergy who are known for being progressive, nondogmatic and extraordinarily sensitive to the needs of their congregants. THE JEWISH WEEK, December 2007
Opening Up Orthodox Judaism
By Steve Lipman
In a small classroom across Broadway from Columbia University, Moshe is having a meltdown one recent afternoon. Moshe, in his late 20s, is reluctantly unburdening with his rabbi about his drinking problem. Depressed, almost suicidal, unhappy with his family life, Moshe talks in shrugs and sullen grunts. The rabbi, leaning forward in his chair, listens sympathetically. After a while, he convinces Moshe to make an appointment the next day with a mental health professional. "It’s not going to help,’ Moshe declares. "Rabbi, life’s not getting any better." To view 2 responses to this article, click below:
http://www.thejewishweek.com/viewArticle/c53_a1429/Editorial__Opinion/Letter.html
http://www.thejewishweek.com/viewArticle/c53_a1430/Editorial__Opinion/Letter.html THE JEWISH PRESS, Januray 2008
Challenge of Modern Orthodoxy
By Rabbi Barry Gelman Over the last 50 years American Orthodoxy has managed to create a national community that is successful in the realm of imparting knowledge, Jewish commitment and continuity. Over the past years Orthodox rabbis convinced entire communities to change their eating habits by refraining from “eating out” and to raise a generation of Jewishly literate and deeply committed youth by sending their children, at great personal expense, to Jewish day schools... PORTLAND PRESS HERALD, Decemeber 2007
There Should Be Plenty of Holiday Greetings To Go Around This Month
By Rabbi Akiva Herzfeld
Happy Hanukkah! Merry Christmas! A joyous Kwanzaa! And a festive shopping and holiday season to all! It's that time of year again when we try to think of the appropriate words to say to people when greeting them and saying farewell. Is it best to say, "Merry Christmas" to everyone since the vast majority of the people in this nation celebrate Christmas? Or is it better to go with "Happy Holidays"?
OURADIO.ORG - December 2007
How Come Hashem Doesn't Let Tzaddikim Live Peacefully?
Rabbi Elliot Kaplowitz, YCT '06 and Co-Director, Jewish Learning Initiative Brandeis University, was featured on the OU Radio website. THE TIMES-PICAYUNE, September 2007
Orthodox Mission
To the list of those young newcomers attracted to post-Katrina New Orleans precisely because of its challenges, add the names Uri and Dahlia Topolosky. Topolosky, 29, is the new rabbi of Congregation Beth Israel, freshly arrived from the Bronx with his 30-year-old wife, Dahlia, and two young sons. His task: to revitalize the wounded Orthodox congregation whose Canal Boulevard synagogue flooded several blocks from the 17th Street Canal....
DEEP SOUTH JEWISH VOICE, July 2007
Beth Israel Hires Uri Topolosky as New Rabbi Nearly two years after flooding related to Hurricane Katrina devastated its Lakeview property, Congregation Beth Israel announced plans to hire Uri Topolosky, 28, as their new rabbi, effective August 1.....
THE BLUEPRINT, July 2007
2007 Yeshivat Chovevei Torah Rabbis Armed with gifts of brand new shofars as they spread throughout America and beyond, this year’s Yeshivat Chovevei Torah graduates are as diverse as they are unusual. The enthusiastic new rabbis began the semikha ceremony June 10, 2007, by singing and dancing their way into the auditorium in celebration...
WASHINGTON JEWISH WEEK, June 2007
A New Start in New Orleans
Rabbi Uri Topolosky set eyes on New Orleans for the first time in his life as the airliner he was aboard approached for a landing in February. Although the flood waters from Hurricane Katrina had long since subsided, the landscape was still dominated by intimidatingly vast stretches of blue the Mississippi River, the Gulf of Mexico, Lake Pontchartrain and the Bayou..... THE JEWISH WEEK, April 2007
Back to Bucharest Like most members of his generation, who grew up in communist Eastern Europe during the last years of communism, Sorin Rosen had no Jewish education or upbringing. “Nothing at all,” he says.
Like many Jews from former Iron Curtain countries who belatedly discovered their Jewish roots, Rosen became interested as a teen in learning what he had not as a child. After visiting some distant relatives in Israel, he became active in several Jewish organizations in Bucharest, his Romanian hometown... NY SUN, March 2007
A School for Open Orthodoxy The Yeshivat Chovevei Torah Rabbinical School fund-raiser held at Pier 60 on March 6 celebrated the school's philosophy of openness. "We're building a power source for K'lal Yisrael, to build an orthodoxy that is fearless, one that is not afraid of the secular culture, one that is not afraid to relate to the non-Jewish world," the chairman of the board of the school, Howard Jonas, who founded the IDT Corporation, said..
SH'MA, January 2007
Training Rabbis To Lead Rabbinical student Elizabeth Richman recently interviewed Rabbi Dov Linzer, Rosh HaYeshiva and Academic Head of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah Rabbinical School, about his decision to include training in community organizing within the yeshiva's curriculum. Rabbi Linzer, a recipient of the Javits fellowship, is a doctoral candidate in Religion at Columbia University. He has published in Torah journals and lectures widely at synagogues and conferences on topics relating to halakhah, Orthodoxy, and modernity... THE COMMENTATOR (undergradute newspaper for Yeshiva College of YU), January, 2007
Who is YCT?
In the last six years, Yeshivat Chovevei Torah (YCT) has spent a great deal of money and resources on bolstering their unique rabbinic graduate-semikha program. Although YCT officials affirm that they would like their student roster to remain small - they currently have 43 students - they continue to bolster the program to attract targeted students... NEW YORK PUBLIC RADIO- Leonard Lopate show on WNYC (93.9 FM / 820 AM), December 2006
http://www.wnyc.org/shows/lopate/explain.html Rabbi Dov Linzer, YCT's Rosh HaYeshiva, was a guest on the Leonard Lopate show on WNYC. The topic of the show centered around exploring the origins and traditions of Chanukah... Click to download the source sheet as a supplement the Leonard Lopate show topic:
Hanukkah Source Sheet BALTIMORE JEWISH TIMES.com, December 2006
Orthodoxy Struggles with Frum or Frummer The growth of a more tradition-bound Orthodoxy within American Judaism is part of the global re-embrace of traditionalist religion, a phenomenon with great political repercussions in Islam and Christianity...
Rabbi Nathaniel Helfgot, Chair of the Departments of Halakha and Jewish Thought at YCT, was interviewed by the President of the OU for his on-line radio program regarding Modern Orthodoxy and YCT. It is now posted this week on the OU website and can be downloaded here: Drawing Lines
In celebration of Chanukah, Steve Savitsky speaks with Dr. Lawrence H. Schiffman about the Greeks, Hellenization and the upcoming holiday, and with Rabbi Nati Helfgot about Modern Orthodoxy... CANADIAN JEWISH NEWS, October 2006
A Modern Orthodox Manifesto A few weeks ago, The CJN ran an informative two-part series that addressed the tensions between modern Orthodox and non-modern Orthodox Jews in Toronto. Since one of the articles quoted me, a number of Torontonians have recently asked me whether there really is such a thing as modern Orthodoxy in Toronto, and, if so, where is it? Some wondered if modern Orthodoxy is an oxymoron, like “kosher pig” or “postal service.”.... JEWISH STANDARD, May 2006
Rabbi With New Jersey Ties Tapped For Key Post Rabbi Yamin Levy, who launched his rabbinic career in New Jersey, has been tapped for a key position at Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, a Manhattan-based training ground for Modern Orthodox rabbis. On June 1, Levy will become vice president of yeshiva affairs at YCT, which was founded by Rabbi Avi Weiss in 1999 in order to train rabbis for what Weiss calls a “more open and inclusive Modern Orthodoxy.”... FORWARD, March 2006
Cardinals Study With Orthodox Students
When second-year rabbinical student Will Friedman sat down to review a passage of Talmud on Monday, he was greeted by a study partner who wore a scholar's intent expression and V-neck sweater — along with a clerical collar... BLUE PRINT, November 2005
Social Action Begins At Yeshiva
Entering its seventh year, Yeshivat Chovevei Torah is still committed to two of its core values: social action and student empowerment. In the past, YCT's rabbinical students have worked on many different social action projects, ranging from organizing an interdenominational rally protesting genocide in Sudan to collecting chametz (unleavened bread) before Passover, where it was later distributed to homeless shelters....
JEWISH WORLD, September 2005
A New Generation of Rabbis Finds Inspiration at YCT For Yonatan Cohen, deciding he wanted to become a rabbi was the easy part. Cohen, a 25-year-old Israeli native who grew up in Montreal, figured that out by the time he was 15...
THE GAZETTE, September 2005
Young Rabbi Breaks the Mold Adam Scheier has been described as a "rabbi for the 21st century," and he is ready to take on his greatest challenge as a religious leader... JEWISH STATE, July 2005
Conference on Tanakh Is Smorsgasboard of Learning “Who gets up this early on a Sunday morning?” joked a conference participant as he signed up for a day of learning at the third annual “Yemei Iyun on Tanakh and Jewish Thought,” sponsored by Yeshivat Chovevei Torah (YCT) Rabbinical School of New York. The answer: Adults who are passionate about Torah...
BLUE PRINT, June 2004
A Few Good Men - page 1 With a whole slew of new rabbis coming out of four years of intense training, Yeshivat Chovevei Torah’s class of 2004 is hitting Jewish institutions with a bang. Well, sort of. With its first graduating class of nine, YCT’s new rabbis are poised to fill positions from pulpit rabbis listening to congregants’ concerns to educational leaders dealing with the younger generation. Aside from their fresh status as YCT’s first graduates, what’s most unique about these nine men is their approach to Judaism... A Few Good Men - page 2 ...standard in Orthodox yeshivas, but also teaches Tanakh and Jewish philosophy and places a strong emphasis on pastoral counseling, which is taught by leading psychiatric professionals. The pastoral program includes formal classroom instruction, role-playing, clinical experience and mentored internships around the country—a rigorous curriculum that the school insists is unparalleled... NEW JERSEY JEWISH NEWS, June 2004
Open Orthodox Yeshiva To Ordain First Class of Rabbis For Yaakov Simon, originally of Highland Park, Manhattan’s Yeshivat Chovevei Torah suits the way he has reconciled his
Orthodox religious outlook with the lessons learned from his “liberal assimilated New York-ish family.” For Jon Duker — who lived in Elizabeth during his studies and interned in Elizabeth and Highland Park — the fledgling Orthodox yeshiva offers a broad-based curriculum and a rosh yeshiva, head of school, whom he describes as “phenomenal.” ...
NEW YORK TIMES, April 2004
A Challenge to an Orthodox Bastion A grand experiment in Orthodox Judaism sits nestled in four classrooms of an Upper West Side Jewish high school. It is Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, a small rabbinical school poised to challenge the might of Yeshiva University, a bastion of Jewish Orthodoxy and the nation's main supplier of modern Orthodox rabbis... JEWISH STANDARD, December 2003
Shabbaton To Study Chanukah-Jewish Standard Chanukah, the holiday of rebellion and miracles, not explicitly mentioned in the Bible and only briefly noted in the Talmud, will be the subject of a Shabbaton sponsored by Davar, an Orthodox thinktank in this township... JEWISH JOURNAL of Greater Los Angeles, March 2003
Uniting Among the Rabbis of Tomorrow Pigs and roosters, oxen and bulls, horses and dogs (and more dogs),a skunk and perhaps a possum — someone says a monkey — and children everywhere, and all the noises which thereunto pertain, plus a sun that is as glaring and hot as the Negev sun. This is Ciudad Romero in El Salvador... SH'MA, 2003
Creating Open Orthodoxy Orthodox Judaism is currently at a crossroads. In the post-Holocaust generation, Orthodoxy has shown new life, attracting and maintaining adherents and instilling in its adherents an increasing commitment to scrupulous observance and regular Torah study... JEWISH STANDARD, 2002
Mental Health Day for the Orthodox Orthodox Jews experience psychological distress with an intensity different from that of other Jews? Does depression hit harder, last longer, or cause less pain if you commune with God three times a day, every day? Why have a conference that focuses on the mental health issues of Orthodox Jews? Are laws of “lashon hara” (prohibited speech such as gossip, slander) violated when family members are discussed in therapy? ...
THE COMMENTATOR, December 2002
Students Choose Between RIETS and Chovevei Torah
Founded in 1999, Yeshivat Chovevei Torah (YCT) has rooted itself as the institution of choice for the “left-wing” Orthodox and has been actively recruiting on the Wilf Campus. Presenting alternatives to Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS) in both curriculum and in ideology, the self-described “Open Orthodox Rabbinical School” has quietly begun to lure students from RIETS and has provoked questioning from others who remain about their own school’s direction... JEWISH JOURNAL of Greater Los Angeles, December 2002
New Face of Study Rabbi Avi Weiss left Yeshiva University (YU) in New York three years ago to found a new rabbinic school for one simple reason: "We were not graduating enough Yosefs," said Weiss, a political activist and progressive Orthodox Jewish leader...
JEWISH WEEK, July 2002
Breaking the Taboo
On a cold April night two years ago, Alan Dutka stood on the roof of his Teaneck, N.J., apartment building and jumped.The suicide of this bright, devout former Yeshiva University student who for eight years had suffered from schizophrenia belied the belief that religious Jews don’t suffer from psychiatric illness, that it is a scourge of "the outside world.".... JEWISH WEEK, August 2001
Taking A Left Turn One day last semester, in a book-lined basement study hall of a synagogue on the Upper West Side, Jeff Fox was studying Baba Metzia, the talmudic tractate about the laws of lost objects. During the class, the teacher, an Orthodox rabbi, cited, among other commentaries, Talmud Arukh, a book by a Conservative scholar...
|
