menu_open
Elchanan Poupko

Elchanan Poupko

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

We use cookies to provide some features and experiences in QOSHE

More information  .  Close

Netflix’s Jewish Matchmaking Is a Wakeup Call

Netflix’s Jewish Matchmaking series highlights a topic long ignored by too many: the life of people who are not married in the general Jewish but...

25.05.2023 30

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Elchanan Poupko

The Greatest Threat to Jewish Observance 

We live in an age of plenty, Yeshivot, and Torah learning like the Jewish people have never seen before. And yet, while few will admit it, the...

23.05.2023 10

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Elchanan Poupko

Remember: Jerusalem Day Did Not Use to Exist

I remember vividly walking down the streets of Jerusalem with my grandfather Rabbi Baruch Poupko and being amused at his amazement. He was born in...

19.05.2023 30

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Elchanan Poupko

Letter to Antisemitic Lithuanian MP Žemaitaitis

Dear MP Žemaitaitis I recently met an older Jew in the synagogue who was originally from Poland. He was lovely, kind, and gracious. Despite what he...

11.05.2023 50

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Elchanan Poupko

Ignore Israel’s next chief rabbi at your own risk

If you have not been enjoying the public humiliation Israel and the Jewish people have been enjoying on the international stage since the various...

05.05.2023 40

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Elchanan Poupko

A Letter to Israel’s Demographically Intoxicated 

With the cool breeze of Jerusalem on our faces, sitting and talking with a supporter of Israel’s far-right politician Itamar Ben Gvir, we cut...

24.04.2023 20

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Elchanan Poupko

Meir Kahane’s deadly bankruptcy 

If there’s anything the events of the past few months teach us, it is that the greatest threat to Israel’s survival is not Palestinian nationalism...

10.04.2023 20

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Elchanan Poupko

Isaac Bashevis and Shai Agnon, national writers

Stories are the heart and soul of who were are as a people. From the stories of Creation, Noah, and the flood, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca,...

26.03.2023 6

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Elchanan Poupko

Rosalyn Sussman Yalow: An Orthodox Legend

As an Orthodox American Jew, the story of Rosalyn Sussman Yalow is the most relatable of all Jewish Nobel Laureates. She, too, was an American...

05.03.2023 10

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Elchanan Poupko

Lise Meitner: The Jew Robbed of Her Nobel

When we speak of Jews who are Nobel laureates, we need to begin with talking about people like Elise Meitner – someone who did not receive a Nobel...

02.03.2023 9

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Elchanan Poupko

Religious Zionism’s Darkest Hour

Bad things happen when good people remain silent.  Recent judicial reforms and legislative blitzes in Israel are no longer a partisan dispute and a...

27.02.2023 20

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Elchanan Poupko

Rita Levi Montalcini: Pride of Italian Jewry

Nobel Laureate and Neurobiologist Rita Levi-Montalcini is not only an inspiration for Jewish generations for her advances in science, politics, and...

24.02.2023 20

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Elchanan Poupko

Elie Wiesel: God’s Loving Witness

Writing about Elie Wiesel is not only to speak about Elie, but it is also to write about the horrors of the Holocaust, how to remember, how to speak...

23.02.2023 10

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Elchanan Poupko

Yitro: One Nation, One Heart

When Israel’s legendary Prime Minister Menachem Begin passed away in 1992, Israelis were shocked to find out Begin did not want to be buried in Mt....

22.02.2023 20

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Elchanan Poupko

Menachem Begin’s Jewish Life and Legacy

“Peace is the beauty of life. It is sunshine. It is the smile of a child, the love of a mother, the joy of a father, the togetherness of a family....

17.02.2023 40

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Elchanan Poupko

Yitro: Judaism’s Three Branches of Government

There is a joke about a Jew in Soviet Russia who came to request a visa to move to Israel. Sitting in front of three KGB agents, he was asked: “Mr....

13.02.2023 10

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Elchanan Poupko

Shabbat Shira, Tu Bishvat and the Power of Music

One Shabbat, walking outside the small town of Zlatopol, Ukraine, a town that no longer exists, Rabbi Nachman of Breslev told the person with him to...

06.02.2023 10

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Elchanan Poupko

Why Jews Excel in Psychology

It has been noted that about 40% of Nobel laurels in economics are Jewish. What is fascinating about the case of Professor Daniel Kahneman’s winning...

16.01.2023 10

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Elchanan Poupko

Can You Take a COVID Test on Shabbat?

While many lives have been saved, and many deaths have been prevented by reducing the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic, the virus is still among us...

13.01.2023 40

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Elchanan Poupko

Einstein’s Judaism Matters More Than His Faith

Einstein was by far the greatest scientist of the 21st century and history as a whole. Space travel, GPS, laser beams, nuclear energy, supercomputers,...

09.01.2023 10

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Elchanan Poupko

Why So Many Jews Win The Nobel Prize

Since the Nobel prize’s inception, the presence of Jews among its leading recipients has been nothing short of an extraordinary miracle. The only...

03.01.2023 10

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Elchanan Poupko

Vayishlach: The Massacre Echoing Through Centuries

Is what is legal always right, and is what is right always legal? When do practicality and survival override concerns of morality and justice, and...

18.12.2022 10

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Elchanan Poupko

Vayetzei: Jacob, The Blessing of Restlessness

“Jacob left Be’er Sheva, and headed to Charan.” The famous commentary of the Beit Halevi, Rabbi Joseph Ber Soloveitchik from Brisk, addressing...

12.12.2022 10

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Elchanan Poupko

New York Times: Between Bennett and Beinart

While the politics of Naftali Bennett and Peter Beinart are very different, they met midway this week in the New York Times. Bennett, a...

05.12.2022 10

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Elchanan Poupko

Toldot: Thanksgiving between Lincoln and Isaac

On Thanksgiving morning, my Canadian wife and I, an Israeli, woke up and decided we would find an outdoor activity for the kids and us just to learn a...

27.11.2022 10

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Elchanan Poupko

Chayei Sarah: Remembering Rabbi Sacks

The following stories, to me, capture the essence of Rabbi Sacks. Rabbi Sacks was asked to meet the Pope, but the only time a meeting was possible was...

22.11.2022 10

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Elchanan Poupko

c6241cb78d9b40499a94de3dcf84ab2f