Linda Weiser Friedman

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• PhD
• Professor (Full) at Baruch College

Young people today want to work at a meaningful job and make a difference in the world. Information technology (IT) is an effective enabler for all sorts of business strategies, so it comes as no surprise that IT is useful for implementing a firm's corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative as well. The computer professional of the twenty-fir...

Irony is a literary device that illustrates a difference or contrast between reality and what seems to be true. It can be used to create humor and suspense or teach important moral truths. Irony serves all of these functions in the Torah. This paper illustrates the lessons the Torah imparts about life and how full of irony it is. Examples from the...

There has been much scholarship regarding Jewish humor and where it might come from. Of course, Jews are not all the same. There are, or have been, Jews in most countries of the world, so there is no single shared Jewish culture or even history-at least over the last 2,000 years. If there is something Jews all over the world do share, it is probabl...

This study explores the profound descent of Balaam, a figure potentially unrivaled in prophetic ability. It reveals how two critical flaws-hubris and avarice-led to his undoing. Balaam persisted in his misguided path despite divine intervention aimed at course correction, including the humbling experience of his donkey surpassing him in spiritual s...

In this paper, the authors explore poignant passages from the Hebrew Bible, providing readers with glimpses of powerful spiritual and ethical ideas expressed through concise language. Often, the true character of the speaker is revealed in just a few simple words. Despite their ancient origins, these messages remain relevant, resonating and inspiri...

Social justice attempts to make the world a better place, a place where everyone counts, where we treat everyone equitably, and all people have the same opportunity to achieve success. By its very definition, then, social justice humor is political in nature. Like many powerful tools, humor can be used for both good and evil. It can perpetuate ster...

In this book, contributors from diverse fields of research and disciplinary backgrounds, specializing in communication, rhetoric, discourse analysis, social and political psychology, political science, history, and philosophy, bring multinational, multidisciplinary diversity, and a range of theoretical/conceptual approaches and research methods, t...

The ability to work in teams is crucial in the Information Age. Respect for inclusion and diversity is essential because the workforce consists of ethnically and culturally diverse individuals. However, there are far too many kinds of biases, and all are vile and immoral. Those who avoid maligning one ethnic group but mock the elderly, obese, disab...

Self-mockery is a common form of humor among Jews, who have faced oppression for thousands of years. It can serve various functions, such as showing superiority in wit, dealing with hardship, creating solidarity, and advancing social justice. This paper explores the topic of self-deprecating humor mainly from a Jewish perspective and demonstrates i...

Many people in education, from students to elected officials, see a college degree as a way to gain the skills needed for a successful career. To develop these skills, students must choose suitable courses. This paper first identifies the essential skills for professional and personal success. Then we advise students to avoid classes and majors tha...

Most Americans believe that higher education is heading in the wrong direction. In Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, the eponymous heroine’s tumble into a rabbit hole immerses her in a bizarre, surreal, disorienting universe. Has higher education fallen down the rabbit hole? This paper will examine the many ways that academe has bec...

The ancient sages used Talmudic stories to teach us about ethics and morality. These stories may deal with God, Elijah the Prophet, Biblical figures such as Abraham and Moses, Satan, animals, and nature. This paper examines numerous Talmudic narratives involving God to see what lessons can be learned from them. The stories are organized using four...

(Editorial, call for submissions) Every human will interact with artificial intelligence (AI) in the visible future, directly or indirectly, some for creating products and services, some for research, some for government, some for education, and many for consumption. It is globally acknowledged that the vast majority of people are not sufficiently...

Many scholars have noted that there has been a leadership crisis in both the political and business worlds. It may not be a coincidence that leaders have tended to be males. Throughout recorded history women have participated in important leadership roles-even during antiquity. This paper examines four female leaders in the Bible who display charac...

Most Americans believe that higher education is heading in the wrong direction. In Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, the eponymous heroine's tumble into a rabbit hole immerses her in a bizarre, surreal, disorienting universe. Has higher education fallen down the rabbit hole? This paper will examine the many ways that academe has bec...

This is for people who want to teach themselves simple regression and how to use MS Excel to construct scatter plots and perform a regression analysis.

There is a new "lecture" up on our course website. It is a problem review session including several worked out problems in statistical inference. You can find this new lecture - in both MS Powerpoint and YouTube video formats –by going to this link: https://sites.google.com/site/proffriedmanstat/home/handouts#reviewsessions Topics covered: Confid...

This is an Open Educational Resource (OER) intended as a textbook replacement for faculty and/or students interested in the variety of topics related to Jewish humor. Readings are listed by topic on the Contents page of this site. Some readings are also appropriate for courses in Judaic Studies or general humor. Topics covered include theories of h...

While humor can perpetuate and preserve stereotypes, it also can redress a wide variety of prejudices and preconceptions. This paper offers several examples of positive humor. Humor can serve as a teaching tool to reduce stress and make people receptive to serious subjects that range from statistical analysis to social justice. It can also tie peop...

There have been complaints that higher education is drowning in bullshit. Much of this is due to the various a-holes one encounters in academe. No other word can adequately describe the extremely nasty, abrasive individuals one is likely to encounter in academe who consider themselves superior to others and feel that the rules of civility do not ap...

Some humor, while making us laugh, contains shadows of hostility toward those who cause strife-the racists, the bigots, the unaware and uneducated. Believe it or not, humor does have the ability to educate, to counter stereotypes and, if all else fails, to get even. Although humor can perpetuate and preserve stereotypes, it can also redress a wide...

No word can adequately describe the extremely nasty, abrasive individuals one is likely to encounter in academe who consider themselves superior to others and feel that the rules of civility do not apply to them. These arrogant, self-important tormentors tend to emphasize other's shortcomings and faults. The best term to describe them is "a-hole."...

A schism that dates back to the 18th century divides what is commonly known as ultra-Orthodox Judaism-the Chasidim and the Misnagdim. Chasidic Jews (the term means "the pious one") base their practices on the teachings of the Baal Shem Tov, a mystic who lived in Eastern Europe in the early 1700s, serve God with joy. They believe that even the simpl...

Want to learn how to use MS Excel to solve simple statistics problems? This will be of great value if you take an Intro to Stats course. Those of you who simply want to become more proficient in MS Excel will also benefit. We've got what you need! Here are some video lectures to study.

Is humor an affront to God or a divine gift to humanity? Two Talmudic sages were known as jesters: Bar Kappara and Rabbi Yirmiyah. They both tried to get their teachers-who felt that one should be morose until Messianic times-to laugh. This debate over whether one should serve God with joy or be morose is still going on. The chassidic view, based o...

This paper attempts to demonstrate the many insights into successful and unsuccessful leadership that may be derived from the life of King Solomon, who, according to Scripture, was the wisest man who ever lived. Solomon may have been very wise, but made some very serious blunders that ultimately led to the breakup of his empire after the ascendency...

Some humor, while making us laugh, contains shadows of hostility toward those who cause strife – the racists, the bigots, the unaware and uneducated. Believe it or not, humor does have the ability to educate, to counter stereotypes and, if all else fails, to get even. Although humor can perpetuate and preserve stereotypes, it can also redress a wid...

The knowledge economy and the digital age have changed the nature of work and management. More people than ever before need to master critical and ethical thinking skills. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how scenarios may be used as a vehicle for enhancing students' critical and ethical thinking skills and to take a critical thinking ap...

Jewish humor is generally considered to be self-deprecating rather than mocking. This paper studies one Jewish humor trope in which disparagement is used-that of the pious fool. The Talmud presents the chasid shoteh (pious fool) as one who could destroy the world; his piety is a danger to society. Indeed, the Talmud warns us not to live in the vici...

This paper examines mistakes in leadership that were made by Moses, arguably one of the most outstanding leaders of all time. The Bible considers him to be the greatest prophet and a man of boundless humility; secular and contemporary moral leaders seek to be compared to the iconic lawgiver. However, Moses was, to some degree, a failed leader. Mose...

Want to prep for the Intro to Stats course? We've got what you need! Here are some lectures to study before you start the course itself. Here you can review and familiarize yourself with the following topics:  Summation notation  Weighted average  Expected Value  Fractions, proportions, percentages  Factorials  Solving for X  Analyzing a st...

One educator claims that the education system is useless for most students since it does not provide skills or make learning enjoyable. This may be one reason a researcher asserts that half of the 4,000 colleges and universities in the United States will be bankrupt within the next few decades. Colleges have been focusing on meaningless metrics rat...

This paper examines anti-Semitic humor, which, like most bigoted humor, is not very witty and often relies on ridiculous stereotypes. This is not unexpected from people whose family tree does not fork. Those who tell bigoted jokes should, at the very least, attempt to ensure that their humor is funny and contains a kernel of truth. A primer, contai...

The world today is experiencing a leadership crisis. We live in an information/knowledge economy defined by accelerating change, flux, globalization, instability, and the need to adapt quickly. One thing is evident: The leadership style that worked in the industrial economy will not work today where integrity, diversity, and creativity are crucial...

This is an Open Educational Resource. The Bible has had a profound effect on a countless number of people. To the believer, it is the word of God and provides a blueprint for how individuals should lead their lives. Even non-believers recognize the Bible as an important work of literature and a valuable tool for teaching timeless lessons to humanki...

This paper attempts to demonstrate the many insights about successful and unsuccessful leadership that may be derived from the life of King Solomon, who, according to Scripture, was the wisest man who ever lived. Solomon may have been very wise but made some very serious blunders as a leader that led to the breakup of his empire after his son took...

Practice Midterm for a statistics course [Solutions are at the end]. This practice midterm exam covers descriptive statistics, probability, contingency tables, binomial distribution, and the normal distribution.

Practice sets are provided to teach students how to solve problems involving correlation and simple regression. Students who want to teach themselves statistics should first go to: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/311707080_A_Free_Course_in_Statistics--_Teach_Yourself_Introductory_Statistics

The authors present statistics calculators -- http://in-silico.net/tools, http://www.socscistatistics.com/tests/, and https://www.easycalculation.com/statistics/population-confidence-interval.php -- available on the internet that can be used in an introductory statistics course to solve problems involving hypothesis testing and constructing confide...

In this paper it is argued that two kinds of capitalism are engaged in a great struggle in the United States. Both approaches are derived from the opinions of Adam Smith, the father of capitalism, who posited in The Wealth of Nations that universal self-interest and the “invisible hand” of the marketplace allocate scarce resources more efficiently...

This free statistics course includes a free online textbook, MS PowerPoint lectures, tables, formula sheets,lessons on how to use MS Excel to solve statistics problems, and numerous homework problems.

This course module is for statistics instructors who want to teach students about the different approaches to setting up hypotheses, H0 and H1 . Hypothesis tests might be conducted in order to substantiate a claim a company wants to make or might be used to refute a claim that a competitor is making about its product. When it comes to substantiatin...

Universities and colleges that will thrive in the highly competitive knowledge/creative economy will need to make major changes to how their institutions work. Most college administrators have their heads in the sand – very reminiscent of what was going on in the newspaper industry several years ago – and believe that their mantra should be busines...

The knowledge economy and the digital age have changed the nature of work and management. More people than ever before need to master critical thinking skills. This paper proposes a set of 15 scenarios and where they may be used in the context of a one-semester course in statistics. Scenarios are chosen for their relevance, are from the fields of m...

There are several major problems facing higher education today. These include skyrocketing tuition, administrative bloat, need to improve the quality of education, and the necessity of moving away from old-fashioned lecture approach and using technology to make education more relevant. This paper describes a new way of teaching a course which we sh...

Organizations that thrive in the highly competitive knowledge economy will need to employ the most creative people. A good idea could easily generate billions in profits for a company; being slow to adapt to changing conditions can destroy a firm. Innovative, engaged people are invaluable to an organization but have options and can easily find anot...

This paper examines major problems that are associated with the healthcare system in the United States. Problems discussed include the rising cost of healthcare in America, high cost of drugs, variation in hospital costs, the proliferation of new prescription drugs that provide little or no improvement over existing drugs, the negative effects of p...

This paper examines Abrahamic values that can be used to improve the world and promote ethical leadership. Abraham, a simple clan leader from Ur of the Chaldees, sowed the seeds that helped defeat paganism, planted the roots for the three major monotheistic religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam), and subsequently became “the father of a multi...

This paper examines Abrahamic values that can be used to heal the world and promote ethical leadership. Abraham, a simple clan leader from Ur of the Chaldees, sowed the seeds that helped defeat paganism, planted the roots for the three major monotheistic religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam), became “the father of a multitude of nations,” an...

This paper examines the benefits of diversity to the organization – such as innovation, growth, and creativity – as well as the challenges to diversity, including both the obvious, well-known forms of discrimination and the more subtle forms. The subtle forms of discrimination include not hiring people who are unattractive, overweight, short, have...

These are formula sheets and tables (Z, Cumulative Z, t) that will be of value to those teaching introductory statistics courses.

The authors construct a timeline of critical events leading up to today’s highly networked and interconnected world with its ubiquitous social media technologies. The current state has been influenced by advances in media, technology, military defense, and commerce. One trend that stands out in this timeline is the increasing rate of change. There...

Adam Smith demonstrated how self-interest and the “invisible hand” of the marketplace allocated scarce resources efficiently and promoted social welfare. Unfortunately, the invisible hand argument led to the belief that regulation is unnecessary and that “greed is good.” This paper uses the life of one of the greatest mass murderers of history, Kin...

The Hebrew Bible considered it very important to remember the slavery of the Israelites in Egypt — not only for those closest to the event in ancient times, but even more critically for later generations. This paper will analyze this Biblical exhortation to remember the slavery, and why remembering is so important today. Read more at http://www.be...

Anthony Burgess once said: “It's always good to remember where you come from and celebrate it. To remember where you come from is part of where you're going.” The United States must wake up and recognize that there are many urgent problems that need fixing. For one, 25% of children in the United States live in poverty – the highest among all develo...

This brain teaser is from the Babylonian Talmud (Pesachim 10b). On the night before Passover, one is obligated to clean out one’s home and rid it of all leavened products such as bread. In the following passage, Rava’s (c. 280 – 352 CE) original question is not so improbable but it leads to a string of questions, one less probable than the other. T...

Critical to success in today’s world, characterized by the knowledge economy, is the ability to communicate and collaborate across the boundaries of cultures, disciplines, and functional areas. In the knowledge economy, where people tend to work in groups, what matters most is the “c factor,” the collective intelligence of the group. A firm that co...

Humor can be a potent weapon in the battle against evil. Consider, for example, that satirizing racists, sexists, bullies, and other wicked people can sometimes be more effective than taking legal action. Today’s television writers, screenwriters,and comics often use humor as a tool to make the world a better place. So it should come as no surprise...

The government is spending a great deal of money in an effort to improve the completion rate of college students. So far, despite vast amounts of money spent, the six-year completion rate is a dismal 54%. This paper examines various solutions to this problem as well as how to reduce the great amount of waste in higher education.

This paper examines Abrahamic values that can be used to heal the world and promote ethical leadership. Abraham, a simple clan leader from Ur of the Chaldees, sowed the seeds that helped defeat paganism, planted the roots for the three major monotheistic religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam), became “the father of a multitude of nations,” an...

There is something inherently funny about mortals arguing or disagreeing with an omniscient God, but a number of Biblical and Talmudic characters do just that. And God does not always do very well in these disputes which is, in itself, extremely humorous. The fact that God is depicted in the Hebrew Bible and Rabbinic literature as someone who can b...

The prayer of Nishmat Kol Chai (the soul of every living being) is among the most eloquent prayers of gratitude. It is quite possible that the author of this amazing prayer was the Apostle Peter (Rabbi Shimon Cephas). This prayer highlights the importance of being thankful to God for everything but also stresses the importance of helping the weak a...

This paper explores the synchronicity of two mega-crises we are now facing: The BP oil spill and the repercussions of the 2008 financial meltdown. It examines some key common threads in both of these crises. The overarching message is that firms must maintain a culture of social responsibility, must behave in an ethical manner, and must do everythi...