Jewish Traits Gone Bad
I have long suspected that the Jewish stereotypes invoked by comedians, impolite pundits, and anti-Semites contain some grain of truth. After all, even a powerfully positive middah, or personal trait, can, if mangled or...
Category: General
Missed Message
My dear and esteemed friend Jonathan Rosenblum has taken me to task in Yated Ne’eman for an Ami Magazine essay I wrote entitled “Our Not So Humble Opinions.” My thesis was that it behooves...
Too Close for Moral Comfort
Reminiscent of another time and place, a Rosh Yeshiva in Bnai Brak reportedly received a letter stating “Stop sucking our blood and living on our backs… We’ll fight you physically and you will feel our might on your bodies and against your synagogues.”
Grime and Grandeur
After a moment’s walk, though, one is transported suddenly into another world, one of astounding power and beauty.
Our Not-So-Humble Opinions
So often we seem to feel a need to embrace absolute, take-no-prisoners political opinions; to reject any possibility of ambivalence, much less any admission of ignorance.
The Past in the Present
“I [had] promised [myself] that I would go to Bialystok and something was telling me – maybe it was because I was stubborn — I said I am going to yeshiva and I’m going to go.”
Shedding Light on Anti-Semitism
What motivates the would-be Chanukah-diminishers, I suspect, is their discomfort with Chanukah’s elemental message.
A Note to Readers
Dear Cross-Currents Reader, In lieu of offering an essay this Friday, I’d like to take the opportunity now to let you know about some changes that will be taking place in the origin and...
Bias Buzzing in the Background
The Williams debacle was only a particularly clear manifestation of one of the biases that buzz incessantly in the air of NPR’s studios.
We’re All Rescued Miners
The regularity with which we are granted new life each day dulls us, regrettably, to the indescribable import of the fact.
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