A Jewish “Connection”
Most people, asked if there was any specific Jewish connection to the recent horrific murder of 20 first-graders and six staff members at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, would probably respond “Noah...
Author: Avi Shafran
A Film Informs My Sh’ma
As a single young man in 1977, I once found myself in a science museum where I viewed a just released short film that – there’s really no other way to put it –...
The Time of Your Life
Similar advertisements abound, but this one took the cake. I’ve always been simultaneously amused and saddened by pitches for “high-end timepieces,” more accurately known as overpriced wristwatches. Amused, because the most intricate Swiss movements...
To Err is Essential
Students of Daf Yomi will reach it on the seventh day of Chanukah, “it” being a particularly trenchant mishna in Mesechta Shabbos, considering that the following day, “Zos Chanukah,” is identified in the Jewish...
Agudath Israel statement on UN resolution
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 30, 2012 Statement From Agudath Israel of America on UN Resolution Concerning Palestinian Statehood The declarations of Hamas, the Palestinian government of Gaza, that Israel must be destroyed, the countless...
Hidden Light in Gaza?
Beyond all the Arab declarations of animus for Israel, beyond Hamas’ firing of rockets from hospitals and schools, beyond its cynical propagandizing of the resultant civilian casualties when those batteries are destroyed by Israeli...
Hearing the Hurricane
With the storm they call Sandy three weeks gone (though not its repercussions, unfortunately), the rear-view mirror perspective allows us to reflect anew on a Jewish truth: that “natural” disasters are meant to make...
Shameless plug
Please forgive the “commercial” nature of this posting, but I just wanted to share with Cross-Currents readers that a collection of some of my essays from the past ten years or so has just...
The Evil Eleventh
Is child abuse “more common in the Orthodox Jewish community than it is elsewhere? There are no reliable statistics … but there’s reason to believe the answer to that question might be yes.” Those...
Autonomy Über Alles
As with a number of evil ideas, physician assisted suicide can be defended without great difficulty. The magic word for making the case is “autonomy”—the right of individuals to make choices about their future...
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