The Forward Backs Off
… and should be commended for it. Readers may recall that several months ago, I lampooned The Forward for categorizing support for Sholom Rubashkin as having “exposed the vastly different worldviews that can exist...
Author: Yaakov Menken
College Students Not Learning Much
This is the headline on CBSNews.com, describing a study published in a new book “Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses.” Given that students are going to courses and acquiring lots of new information,...
The Monolithic Orthodox?
Just a brief note on the week that was. First, I took on Rabbi HM, but perhaps that’s because he’s more Centrist/Modern. Then, Rabbi Adlerstein took on Rabbi SB, but perhaps that’s because he’s...
Judge Everyone Favorably, Reprise
Does everyone favor their own, except the Jews? It is we who have a Mitzvah to love our fellows like ourselves, and to judge every other Jew favorably, as we would like ourselves to...
A Cautionary Tale
The headline says it all: “Court orders Orthodox woman to be cremated after three-month battle.” Ethel Baar, who died on September 11, began following Orthodox Judaism late in life, and her great-nephew James Pollak...
Teaching Emunah to Our Children
I was honored with a last-minute invitation to participate in Ami Magazine‘s Premier issue, which appeared yesterday. I responded with the following essay. In general, I like what the editors did — this original...
“Diplomacy in Action,” or Anti-Semitic Tripe?
“Israeli law also restricted the ability of Israeli Jews to reach places of worship in areas under Palestinian control.” This was perhaps the biggest howler of the U.S. State Department’s annual exercise in Israel-bashing,...
Taking a Shyne to Judaism
The Jerusalem Post (from which this title was lifted) and the NY Times both published stories this week about the hip-hop artist “Shyne,” born Jamal Michael Barrow, and who now goes by the name...
Younger Jewish leaders not so worried about intermarriage
This headline is taken from the JTA, discussing the latest research paper from the Avi Chai Foundation: Jewish leaders younger than 40 aren’t as bent out of shape about intermarriage as their older colleagues....
The Importance of Voting
As Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zwiebel put it in an email: The simple reality is that government officials look at which groups vote, and take their positions on the major issues of the day accordingly....
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