Dear Aviva, I’ve been friends with someone for the past 20 years. We grew up near each other and were in school together from elementary all the way to college. Now that we both have our own families, I am realizing more and more that she is (and has always been) a very jealous and negative person. She never seems to actually care about me or what I’m going through. I don’t even know why she’s kept up the connection this long. If I first met her at this point in my life, I probably would avoid her. Am I stuck with her just because there is a history? And is there any good way to cut ties without enraging her? more

The most precious and costly commodity in Manhattan is space. Because of this spatial deficiency, even some of the city’s finest restaurants are no more than glorified nooks. The expense is simply too great for most establishments to maintain, especially in certain neighborhoods where the cost of space borders on excessive. So when I say to you that Milk Street Cafe, the new kosher restaurant located at 40 Wall Street, takes up no less then 23,000 square feet, it should tell you in no uncertain terms how seriously owner Marc Epstein takes the business of building a successful restaurant. more

The festival of Sukkot was around the corner, and I realized I had no way to get a set of four species (arbah minim) in time for the festival. We were actually in Lebanon at the time, and as the only kippah-wearing soldier on the base, I knew I was on my own, and the thought of having no set of ‘arbah minim’ was really depressing. more

This coming July 29, the 27th day of Tammuz, will mark the first yahrtzeit of one of the most brave, dynamic and prominent spiritual and moral leaders in our time, Rabbi Yehuda Amital, of blessed memory. more

The 2012 Election is still sixteen months away, but the discussions about whether President Obama will be able to retain the same large portion of the Jewish vote as he did in 2008 remains an obsession with the mainstream media. more

The liberals call them conservatives And the hard liners call them leftists The free thinkers call them close-minded And the open-minded call them Reconstructionists The traditionalists … more

It seems as if the straw has broken the camel’s back. According to multiple sources, Democrats of the Jewish faith are waking up to the fact that Barack Obama is not a friend of Israel. And many of them are considering holding back their campaign donations and their votes back from the President’s re-election campaign. Giving further credence to the reports, the re-election campaign is taking additional steps to “spin” the administration’s Israel story to make it seem more favorable to the Jewish State. more

I remember it like it was yesterday. While millions of Americans celebrated their nation’s independence, we were all glued to our radios and television sets waiting for news of the fate of the Israeli hostages hijacked on an Air France jet and being held captive in Uganda. more

Rebbe Menachem Mendel Shneerson zt"l was a prominent chasidic rebbe who led the Chabad movement. In order to spread his message of Jewish outreach, he sent out Chabad emissaries all over the world to inspire Jewish communities of all sizes. On July 5, the Rebbe’s Gimmel Tammuz yahrtzeit, when I walked through a line separating male and females all leading towards an extravagant grave, conflict arose more

Dear Aviva, My wife and I just moved to a wonderful Jewish community. We are very happy with our new home and our new friends. However, we generally feel like we are the most right wing of our group and it bothers us. We can’t be 100% sure of some of our friends’ kashrus, a lot of my friends don’t go to minyan (and when they do, they shmooze throughout!) and a lot of them are more caught up in drinking than giving divrei torah at the Shabbos table. I know I must sound very judgmental, since we are all on different levels of hashkafah (philosophy) and we do like our friends; we just feel like they are not a good influence on our family. What to do? -Frummy Friend more