▪ Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, founder of Shas and Sephardi sage, dies at 93
▪ Avi Woolf, frequent commenter, writes about his experience as R. Ovadiah’s neighbor: Rav Ovadia ztz”l: A Child’s Memory
▪ N.J. Gov. Christie advocates for school choice at OU event
▪ Women of Wall agrees to pray in egalitarian space, with conditions
▪ Dr. Marvin Schick raises serious questions about the Pew survey: Serious Questions About the Pew Report on American Jew
▪ Dr. Alan Brill has more to say on the Pew survey: Reflections on the Pew Survey
▪ A report on the growth of women’s hakafos with sifrei Torah: A Tale of Two Simhat Torahs
▪ The return of conversos: When in Rome, do as Jews do
▪ Interesting to see how other religions struggle with the same issues we have: A New Role for Women in Southern Baptist Agency
Regarding Dr. Shick’s article, there may have been challenges in the Pew survey (as an actuary I know a bit about statistics and surveys) but not much more than face anyone surveying in today’s day and age.
The orthodox community has to my knowledge not been one that seeks actual objective data on its population but rather uses anecdotal information. I hope that the belief in daat torah (vs. data torah?) is well founded for making decisions based on anecdotal data, because bderech hateva (in the natural world) studies have shown that leadership’s beliefs concerning their subordinates is often well off target.
If Dr. Brill is correct that the margin of error for Orthodox responses is +/- 12.4%, then the results of the survey have to be taken with a grain of salt.
Certainly true, but I’ve noticed some commenters who use the salt only for results they don’t like while taking the ones they do at face value. Given the lack of any orthodox polling, one assumes that there is insufficient interest in statistically significant results within the community to make it a priority.