The smashing success of Mishpacha magazine is the best indication that Rabbi Grylak has come up with the right formula for Hareidi community.

P.s. As for the Religious-Zionist community, Hareidim–and I include myself in that description–love and respect their brothers, even if they disagree with them on many fundamental issues.

Mishpacha Magazine deserves much credit, in my opinion, for satisfying as many people as possible. While in many ways it is a typical Charedi publication, it does highlight positive things among different communities in Klal Yisroel. There was a feature about a year ago about Rabbi Pinchas Stopler, formerly of the NCSY, and more recently, an interesting article before Shavuos about a gardener–if I recall correctly, he wasn’t from the Charedie community.

As Steve said above, Rabbi Grylak does indeed provides a “hard ideological edge”. However, I am impressed that in my opinion at least , he often writes in a way that is sympathetic towards the RZ community, without sacrificing the core charedie ideology.

I also like the fact that the magazine has sometimes stood up to the “hard line” approach, in the interest of a broader readership, or of broader concerns. I thought that they handled both the “Hearts of Gold” issue, and the article on the proposed parade in Jerusalem(let’s hope it is permanently cancelled) well. In the former case, Rabbi Grylak acknowledged the sincere concerns of those who felt that the series could negatively impact Kollel couples, but continued the series with a disclaimer, based on the magazine’s Rabbinic advice. In the latter case, a well-meaning letter-writer criticized the magazine for publishing a veiled and oblique article authored by Rabbi Grylak on the proposed gay parade in Yerushalayim. However, upon Rabbinic advice, the magazine did not bother responding. Apparently the necessity of publicly raising the issue, outweighs the parochial(although well-intended) concerns of this individual.

I hope that the magazine will continue to add some diversity to the Charedi media, even as they follow their Rabbinic guidance.

Mishpacha is a fascinating read. R Grylak provides the hard ideological edge which is softened by the column of R J Rosenblum. I think that Mishpacha was willing to push the edge of the envelope with its weekly serial on a young kollel couple who were not exactly a role model and its profiles of women leaders-even single women. I also like the fact that it is nowhere as anti RZ and MO as its competitors and will mention Gdolim of all sectors. I particularly liked the interview with R A Z Weiss.

Claims, IMHO, not shows.

While I admire the piece and the idea behind it (Belzer chossid joins academia and does not go native) it does not demonstrate his claims of bias, which I agree exists. He simply says that the Haredi self conception is different from the various academic analyses, which is sort of a no-brainer, but isn’t proof of bias, unless disagreement is in itself bias.

I wrote a piece about it here.