As modern-day musical shluchim from sunny California, Shmuli and Bentzi Marcus of 8th Day didn’t originally aim to carve out a contemporary niche within the heimish music world. True to their Chabad upbringing, their English-language rock style with its soul-speak lyrics was meant to target secular Jewish teenagers. That their music has captured a mainstream following might tell us something about ourselves — how we all want to connect with their message, their depth, and their indomitable spirit.
It might be little more than a stick and a wire, but getting an eiruv off the ground can be tricky as a tightrope walk.
Trying to apply some hard facts to the so-called “shidduch crisis,” one researcher proposed a scientific study of frum singles’ dating patterns and attitudes. The resulting data from almost 800 singles — men and women, yeshivish and modern — serve as a rich mine of facts about frum dating and the world of shidduchim today.
Is there any oma — or bubby, savta, or grandma — who doesn’t like to serve the children chocolate? For Erna Koppenheim a”h of Manchester, chocolate was more than a way to sweeten the family’s visits. Chocolate was part of her legacy, an instrument she used to support her family alone in a foreign land and ensure her son could learn Torah undisturbed
We got raised eyebrows as we boarded a plane to Iraq, yet Kurdistan proved to be a welcoming, friendly place where our yarmulkes elicited comments such as “We love Jews.”
It’s a bit of a riddle, a phenomenon that’s gone against the trend. How is it that the challenge of assimilation didn’t touch Gateshead?
