Of Peoples… and People
Commuting to and from Manhattan daily on the Staten Island Ferry brings me into the vicinity of many a tourist. The boat sometimes resembles a United Nations General Assembly debate, without the translators. When...
Author: Avi Shafran
Dangerous and Defective Products
It isn’t every year that news reports about Agudath Israel of America’s annual dinner make the pages of media like the Forward or The New York Times. This, however, was one such year. The...
Letter in June 5 Wall St. Journal
Shmuly Yanklowitz (“Why This Rabbi Is Swearing Off Kosher Meat,” Houses of Worship, May 30) is entitled to swear off meat if he chooses, but not to pass off his reasons for doing so...
Freedom, Love and Blintzes
A piece I wrote for the Forward about Shavuos is here . Chag same’ach! http://forward.com/articles/198768/shavuot-is-holiday-that-speaks-of-love-and-freedom/?
Children’s Programming
“Nahoul” is a giant bee, or, better, a man in a furry bee costume. He is one of the intended-to-be-lovable characters on “Pioneers of Tomorrow,” a children’s television program produced in Gaza. In a...
Retroactive Prophecy Redux
As I expected, my critique of some recent writing of Rabbi Berel Wein has generated many comments and communications, yeas and nays. A follow-up explanation can be read here.
Retroactive Prophecy
There exists a mentality, even among some who should know better, like the respected popular historian Rabbi Berel Wein, that any one of us can, and even should, second-guess the attitudes and decisions of...
A Place Called Doubt
The term “botched execution,” much in the news of late because of the case of convicted murderer Clayton Darrell Lockett, might seem to imply that the condemned prisoner has remained alive. Mr. Lockett, however,...
Bias Vs. Backbone
A sports team owner’s base racism was all the talk of the world town last week. But a more subtle – and thus more dangerous – prejudice has been on public display, too, of...
Jungle Jurisprudence
Tommy, a resident of Gloversville, New York, filed a lawsuit in a New York state court last year against Patrick and Diane Lavery for what he claims was his unlawful detention in a “small,...
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