Modern History

Embark on a journey of Jewish learning and discovery, exploring the depth of our Modern History resources, where tagged items including audio, programs, and podcast episodes await your exploration.

Adventures in American Judaism: Mitzvah Merchants and the Creation of a Jewish Children's Culture

Rabbi Dr. Zev Eleff

From Brachos Bees, to Gedolim Cards, the Yeshiva World has borrowed from a uniquely American-style of education to support its own children's religious growth and appreciation for religion.
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Adventures in American Judaism: Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik and the Unorthodox Optics of Women's Talmud Study

Rabbi Dr. Zev Eleff

In 1977, Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik delivered the inaugural Talmud shiur at Stern College for Women. His work before and after to spearhead a democratization of Torah learning placed the Rav in a minority group. His careful arguments to support…
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Adventures in American Judaism: Agunot and American Jewish Policy Making

Rabbi Dr. Zev Eleff

The "chained wife" and "recalcitrant husband" is perhaps the most discussed and thorniest matter of Halakah in the American Jewish public square. The decades-long work to "solve" the issue is an important history of religious self-reflection and…
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Adventures in American Judaism: Basketball Politics, Yarmulke Wars, and the Dynamics of Halakhic Change

Rabbi Dr. Zev Eleff

In the early-1980s, two Jewish day schools in Chicago took a high school basketball league to court for the right to play basketball while adorning kippot. The testimony and judgment suggests a lot about the American Jewish expectations of external…
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Adventures in American Judaism: Behind the Laughter: American Judaism and its Purim Shpiels

Rabbi Dr. Zev Eleff

How did the Purim Shpiel migrate to the United States? And how did it become a fitting annual activity for otherwise-straight-laced yeshiva students? The story is a good (and funny) one. 
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Adventures in American Judaism: The Great Nineteenth Century Purim Ball Revival

Rabbi Dr. Zev Eleff

In the 1860s, a group of young Jews helped bring about a Jewish religious revival, first in New York, and then across North America, through a little known and little appreciated Jewish holiday: Purim.
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Orthodox Conversion to Judaism in American Responsa Literature: Class 4

Rabbi Adam Mintz

We will explore how American Orthodox rabbis of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries have navigated the difficult but fascinating topic of conversion to Judaism in America.
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Orthodox Conversion to Judaism in American Responsa Literature: Class 1

Rabbi Adam Mintz

We will explore how American Orthodox rabbis of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries have navigated the difficult but fascinating topic of conversion to Judaism in America.
Class

Orthodox Conversion to Judaism in American Responsa Literature: Class 2

Rabbi Adam Mintz

We will explore how American Orthodox rabbis of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries have navigated the difficult but fascinating topic of conversion to Judaism in America. This week's topic: Intermarriage and Conversion in America in the…
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Orthodox Conversion to Judaism in American Responsa Literature: Class 3

Rabbi Adam Mintz

We will explore how American Orthodox rabbis of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries have navigated the difficult but fascinating topic of conversion to Judaism in America.
Class