About This Blog/About Me (Sticky Post)

About This Blog
This blog is dedicated to posting and promoting essays I wrote for classes, journals, and other forums. I also hope to cover various events (including this year’s Association for Jewish Studies Annual Conference) with my video camera and post them here. As is common for a college student, I have experimented with my writing over the past several years, so some essays may not be written as well as others. Moreover, I may have changed positions since writing some of the older essays (particularly those written before 2008). To navigate this blog, please use the sidebar to your right. ---------->

Comments Policy
Feel free to comment here, on Scribd, or email me at baruch.pelta@gmail.com. If you wrote a public response to a work of mine somewhere and you would like me to respond, please email me with a link, but note that I can only respond to one critique per person per work. I will respond per my discretion.

About Me
-Academic
I studied rabbinic texts at Yeshivat Ohr David and the Intermediate program at Yeshivat Ohr Somayach (Joseph and Faye Tanenbaum College of Judaic Studies), before going on to earn an undergraduate degree in Judaic Studies from Touro College South in 2010, where I had the pleasure to study under Dean Henry Abramson, Professor Ira Bedzow, and Professor Larry Domnitch. I have penned essays and book reviews for several journals.
-Religious
I am an ex-baal teshuva (in the most colloquial sense of that term). I decided to slowly but surely begin my journey towards Orthodoxy in 2004; I began to consistently keep Shabbos in 2005. During my time in yeshiva, I was increasingly acculturated into the haredi community, but in 2008, a reconsideration of my worldview led me to identify with Modern Orthodoxy. In 2010, I decided that I no longer believed in God and Judaism.

-Internet
From 2007-2008, I ran a blog discussing Jewish history and thought. For most of that time, it was a pleasure to engage in the conversations which I instigated. However, a bit before I entered Touro College South, I began to feel that my consistent side-blogging was becoming a burden and distraction; I thus closed down my old blog. Garnel Ironheart was kind enough to invite me to put occasional guest posts on his blog, so when I did feel wont to blog thereafter, I had an outlet. In 2009, I began to consistently post links on Facebook to interesting material on the web and have short conversations with friends about the articles and videos I posted links to. I found that arrangement undemanding and continue it today.
-Interests
I am primarily interested in the development of Orthodox Judaism in America. I am generally interested in (but not necessarily expert in) History, Religion, Sociology, Literature, Science, Media, Constitutional Law, and Politics. Outside of academia, my hobbies (which I find myself having little time for these days) include anime and chess. I enjoy music from all genres, sans heavy metal.