No Regrets
My employer, Agudath Israel of America, as a non-profit organization, is not permitted to endorse any candidate for public office. I, however, write this column each week as an individual, not as an organizational...
Author: Avi Shafran
Visitation Rites
The saintly aura that has enveloped Ronald Reagan in the minds of many who consider themselves social conservatives and independent thinkers – and I count myself among them; and I voted for Reagan in...
No, Rabbi Yoffie, That’s Not What I Wrote
I have apparently upset Reform rabbi Eric H. Yoffie, the former president of his movement. In Haaretz, he takes me to task for claiming, in an earlier op-ed in that paper, that Orthodox rabbis...
Ferry Tale
Sitting among other commuters in the cavernous terminal, waiting for the next ferry from Staten Island to Manhattan, I sensed some commotion in my periphery. Looking up from my reading, I saw a 40-ish...
How Dare Reform Rabbis Speak on Behalf of Diaspora Jewry?
He may not have meant it as a threat, but Reform Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, certainly sounded like he was delivering an ultimatum when he warned that if...
Hubris Heights
Three years ago, geneticists Drs. Stephen Friend, Eric Schadt and Jason Bobe set out to search international databases for people who were over 30 and healthy but who carried mutations that typically cause childhood...
Liberation Theology
In the summer of 1776, Benjamin Franklin proposed that the Great Seal of the United States should depict Moshe Rabbeinu at the Yam Suf, his staff lifted high and the Mitzriyim drowning in the...
Routing Rote
“Please don’t bring your toys into my kitchen, young lady!” the busy mother warned her loaded-up little daughter. The child’s response: “Well, it’s MY kitchen too!” Her parents had a good laugh over that...
And the Winner Is…
“Americans love a winner and will not tolerate a loser,” the famous, and famously blunt, General George S. Patton declared in a 1944 speech. “When you were kids,” he explained, “you all admired the...
Hear Me Out
You probably know that when a person loses some hearing, it can never be recovered. But did you know that 10 million Americans suffer noise-induced hearing loss? Or that exposure to some common sounds,...
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