More Gadolim on Rav Hirsch

"The Chasam Sofer's lifespan extended from the Sha'agas Aryeh and the Noda B'Yehudah, whom he knew in his youth, to Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch, whose Horeb he admired." (Chasam Sofer, Commentary on the Torah, Artscroll, p. xvi)

"Rav Yisroel (Salanter) had a great longing to become acquainted with Rabbi Hirsch and to learn his views on the means needed to consolidate traditional Jewry in Russia. He had great respect for the regenerator of German Jewry, and no one else was more deeply convinced of the desperate need of Russian Jewry for such a personality." Rabbi Naftoli Hertz Ehrmann, who arranged a meeting between these two giants in 1876 in Berlin. (2 Giants Speak, p. 6)

Rav Baruch Ber Leibowitz had such awe for R' Yisroel Salanter, who he knew from Kovno, that he would tremble whenever his name was mentioned. (from Artscroll bio on Rav Baruch Ber).

A tour of majestic Frankfurt, Germany

A tour of majestic Frankfurt, Germany

R' Chaim Kanievsky on keep minhag ashkenaz in Eretz Yisroel

R' Chaim Kanievsky on saying the prayer for rain and dew in Eretz Yisroel: "Each according to the custom of his forefathers."

תשובת מרן שר התורה הגרח"ק שליט"א על אמירת מוריד הטל ושמירת שאר מנהגי אשכנז בארץ ישראל, מפי נאמן ביתו הגדול הרה"ג ר' גדליהו הוניגסברג, הבוקר כ"ז בסיון תשע"ח:

"כל אחד לפי מנהג אבותיו"

Where Synagogues Once Stood by photographer and filmmaker Judah S. Harris

"One Tisha B'Av afternoon in the late-80s, photographer and filmmaker Judah S. Harris took a walk in Harlem in search of some of the synagogues that once existed  in this former Jewish neighborhood.

"Written a decade ago (2006), his essay "Where Synagogues Once Stood" documents his exploration of the places where synagogues once stood, both in New York City and also in Jerusalem, where the grandest of synagogues once welcomed an entire people.
                                                                                
""Visiting the places where synagogues once stood, where Jewish communities once thrived... can be one way of internalizing the meaning of Tisha B'Av, especially if the structures — their exterior architecture and Hebrew inscriptions — still remain visible but the life within them does not.""

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Wisdom from the Gentiles: Steinbeck

“I believe that there is one story in the world, and only one. . . . Humans are caught—in their lives, in their thoughts, in their hungers and ambitions, in their avarice and cruelty, and in their kindness and generosity too—in a net of good and evil. . . . There is no other story. A man, after he has brushed off the dust and chips of his life, will have left only the hard, clean questions: Was it good or was it evil? Have I done well—or ill?”
― John Steinbeck, East of Eden