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"This guy knows all the gossip, the ins and outs, the lashon hara of the Orthodox world. He’s an [expert] in... all the inner workings of the Orthodox world." (Rabbi Aaron Rakeffet-Rothkoff) LATEST POSTS:
- Dennis Prager v Cedars-Sinai Lawsuit
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- Jordan Bardella: The Manufacture of Normality
- Everyone Became Television: Bourdieu’s Warning and the 2026 Iran War
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- Bernard Haykel: A Life Between the Text and the Gun
- Walker Connor (1926-2017)
- Benedict Anderson and the Nation as Imagination
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- Dominic Cummings: A Biography
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- * The Enlightenment Wasn’t Enlightened (6-23-26)
* Mr. Burge Draws The Line (6-23-26)
* 'Improving on Democracy' (6-17-26)
* People Leak To People Who Are Fun (6-11-26)
* Why Does Australia Produce So Many Great Journalists? (6-11-26)
* Steve Wynn and the Press: Power, Litigation, and the Contest Over Las Vegas (6-3-26)
* Sheldon Adelson and the Journalists (6-3-26)
* The Vigilant Animal: Thinkers Who Reject the Myth of Human Gullibility (6-2-26)
* The Cost of Refusing the Misunderstanding Myth (6-2-26)
* Show Me How It Travels (6-2-26)
* The Norm Explainers (6-2-26)
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* What would it look like if the Washington Post put its reader first? (6-1-26)
* What would it look like if the Financial Times put its reader first? (6-1-26)
* What It Would Mean for the Los Angeles Times to Put the Reader First? (6-1-26)
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* The Emotional Palettes Of San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco & Sacramento (5-27-26)
* The Administrative Capital: Sacramento Legal Culture (5-27-26)
* San Diego - The Quiet Republic (5-27-26)
* The Quiet Bar: San Diego Legal Culture (5-27-26)
* SF v LA Legal Culture (5-27-26)
* Why Talent Travels Poorly Between San Francisco and Los Angeles (5-27-26)
* San Francisco and Los Angeles as Rival Models of Urban Access (5-27-26)
* Social Cliques in New York, 2026 (5-25-26)
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Tag Archives: gil student
Conservative Movement Joins Fight Against Kapparot
From the Jerusalem Post: The Masorti (Conservative) Movement will join forces with the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals – Tel Aviv to fight against the Jewish custom known as kapparot that involves slaughtering chickens as a way … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Judaism, Judaism
Tagged gil student, jerusalem post, native english speaker, prevention of cruelty to animals, rabbi yosef karo, slaughtering chickens
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The Jewish Press Interviews Rabbi Gil Student
From Hirhurim: The Jewish Press has an interview with me this week (link). Here’s an excerpt and you can read the whole thing at the source: In the world of Orthodox blogs, few are as popular as Hirhurim.blogspot.com, run by … Continue reading
Posted in Hirhurim
Tagged controversial discussions, gil student, jerusalem post, jewish philosophy, jewish press, mail lists
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Is Judaism Right-Wing Or Left-Wing?
It is neither. Judaism was thousands of years old before the modern political terms of Right and Left developed any meaning. In the New York Times Sunday Book Review, Leon Wieseltier disects Norman Podhoretz’s new book, "Why Are Jews Liberal?" … Continue reading
Posted in Politics
Tagged Facebook, gil student, leon wieseltier, new york times sunday book review, norman podhoretz, oslo accords, religious connotations, rsquo
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Artificial Insemination Forbidden For Single Women
Jerusalem Orthodox Rabbi Shlomo Aviner writes: Q: If it permissible for a single woman, who is reaching the age of forty, sees that she does not have a reasonable chance of getting married and desperately wants a baby, to be … Continue reading
Posted in Torah
Tagged artificial insemination, Facebook, gil student, illicit relationship, kiddushin, master of the universe, orthodox rabbi, rabbi shlomo aviner
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Hebrew Illiteracy In Jewish Life
Rabbi Gil Student writes: You might recall an opinion piece last February by Dr. Shawn Zelig Aster about the problems he found teaching Bible in Yeshiva University of some students having difficulty reading and understanding Hebrew (link). R. Shalom Z. … Continue reading
Posted in Hebrew, Hirhurim
Tagged fond recollections, gil student, hebrew instruction, hebrew literacy, religious inspiration, religious observance
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Orthodox Bible Study
Rabbi Gil Student writes: Rabbi Hayyim Angel, an extremely popular Bible professor and the rabbi of a large and storied synagogue in Manhattan. He recently published his second book — Revealed Texts, Hidden Meanings: Finding the Religious Significance in Tanakh … Continue reading
Posted in Bible, Orthodoxy
Tagged creative thinkers, gil student, nechama leibowitz, orthodox jew, orthodox jews, traditional attitudes
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Lithuanian Jews Didn’t Wear Their Tzitzit Out
Rabbi Gil Student posts: The Jewish Press had a review a few weeks ago of Minhagei Lita: Customs of Lithuanian Jewry by R. Menachem Mendel Poliakoff. In the book, the author discusses the customs he observed in Lithuania in the … Continue reading
Posted in Hirhurim
Tagged chafetz chaim, gil student, lithuanian jews, magen avraham, menachem mendel, poliakoff
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Choosing Public School Over Homelessness
Mayer Fertig writes: After years of talk about a tuition crisis, many families that scrimped and sacrificed to send children to yeshiva in the past have hit a financial wall. “Many children will end up in public school as a … Continue reading
Posted in Yeshiva
Tagged babysitter, Chabad, failure rate, gil student, homelessness, jewish education, old cars, orthodox jewish community, sending your kids, student posts
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The Responsa Of Louis Ginzberg
Rabbi Gil Student writes: R. Mintz discusses a number of responsa of this leader of the Conservative movement in the early twentieth century and acknowledged talmudic expert. R. Mintz advances the theory that Prof. Ginzberg was trying to balance the … Continue reading
Posted in Hirhurim
Tagged chasam sofer, gil student, louis ginzberg, opera singer, orach chaim, responsa
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