Baruch Dayan ha-Emet: A D’var Torah For a Shabbat Seeking Shalom

By Evan Goldstein January 9, 2015

As I write this Friday night, several things are true. A prolonged manhunt continues in France, pursuing suspects involved with an attack on a kosher supermarket. The Grand Synagogue of Paris is closed on Shabbat for the first time since World War II, a harrowing start to 2015 following a year of resurgent, ugly anti-Semitism….

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On Scruffy Beards and Their Spiritual Significance

By Lex Rofes April 15, 2013

My face itches a whole bunch right now, and it will continue to itch for almost two more weeks. While that may not generally be news worthy of discussion in a blog post for The Conspiracy, in this case it is. My face itches because I haven’t shaved in twenty days, and I haven’t shaved…

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Too Much Jewish Love for “Young People”?

By Lex Rofes November 16, 2012

Sitting in the opening plenary of the 2012 Jewish Federations of North America’s General Assembly, I was struck by one thing. American Jews are really into college students. Speaker after speaker emphasized the vision they have for the future of American Judaism, and time and time again they spoke of the importance of our “leaders…

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