This past week Matisyahu returned to the headlines because of his performance in Spain being cancelled for not bowing to pressure from the BDS movement. And I got angry. I watched as many who had[…]
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Month: August 2015
“Whether it’s from mere discomfort around women or buried chauvinism, the reality is that most men relate best to male leaders”
For better or for worse, men like their boy’s clubs. They’re attracted to environments and experiences that are inherently male. Put a woman at the helm of a synagogue and you’ll probably see what I’ve[…]
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“…nonarousing emotions like contentment are negatively associated with sharing selfies or other content”
Much of the research on selfies reveals that (surprise!) people who take a lot of them tend to have narcissistic, psychopathic and Machiavellian personality traits — which may explain why they are oblivious when they[…]
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“In the same way you do not have to be a professional driver to drive, you no longer have to be a professional publisher to publish”
…individual weblogs are not merely alternate sites of publishing; they are alternatives to publishing itself, in the sense of publishers as a minority and professional class. In the same way you do not have to[…]
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“Professional self-conception and self-defense, so valuable in ordinary times, become a disadvantage in revolutionary ones…”
Professional self-conception and self-defense, so valuable in ordinary times, become a disadvantage in revolutionary ones, because professionals are always concerned with threats to the profession. In most cases, those threats are also threats to society;[…]
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“When we make an inventory of the topics addressed in Rabbinic stories, we see that the Rabbis discussed a large number of events connected with the Jewish past during the ancient period”
When we make an inventory of the topics addressed in Rabbinic stories, we see that the Rabbis discussed a large number of events connected with the Jewish past during the ancient period. They knew about[…]
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“In any profession, … members have a tendency to equate provisional solutions to particular problems with deep truths about the world”
In any profession, particularly one that has existed long enough that no one can remember a time when it didn’t exist, members have a tendency to equate provisional solutions to particular problems with deep truths[…]
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“The Jewish community of the land of Israel no longer had a recognized social elite or “establishment,” and the Jews of the diaspora no longer had a center that bound them together. This was the vacuum the rabbis tried to fill”
In 70 C.E., the temple was destroyed, the high priesthood and the sanhedrin ceased to exist, and the priests lost not only their jobs, but also the institutional base of their power. The Jewish community[…]
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“Members of the Marvel security team on the set spoke of ‘bloggers’ the way Dick Cheney once invoked a ‘global terror network'”
Members of the Marvel security team on the set spoke of ‘‘bloggers’’ the way Dick Cheney once invoked a ‘‘global terror network’’ — in order to suggest a cabalistic threat, to make a rhetorical point[…]
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“The Web didn’t introduce a new competitor into the old ecosystem…. The Web created a new ecosystem”
The newspaper used to be a pretty good answer to that question, but like all such answers, it was dependent on what other solutions were available. Television and radio obviously changed the landscape in which[…]
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