So Intermarriage is a Bad Thing, After All
An alert reader tipped me off last week to this piece from the JTA: “Latest salvo in intermarriage debate suggests a split in Jewish community.” Steven M. Cohen, a prominent Jewish sociologist, has fired...
Category: General
Where is the video of the bus incident?
When I first read about the lady on the #2 bus, I was inclined to cheer her on. From the sound of it, the behavior of the men was appalling, and she got some...
Burning Issue — The Revised Version
At Agudath Israel of America, before taking a political or social stance, launching a new effort or offering educational material, we look to our rabbinic leadership for guidance. Although we obviously do not bother...
DUI and the Toxicity of Ordinariness
Many of us in Los Angeles were not prepared for the frank language we heard in shul on Shabbos. Moreover, it didn’t come from some visitors, but from the rov. Aleinu is an Orthodox...
Why I Am A Boring Guest
by Rabbi Harvey Belovski What do the following four women have in common? · Andrea: management consultant, graduate of a seminary in Israel, summa cum laude graduate in business management, volunteer for a Jewish...
Is Everything a Jewish Issue?
The NY Jewish Week includes an article called “Mending G-d’s Garment.” The subtitle? “Synagogues attempt to save the earth, one compact fluorescent Ner Tamid at a time.” As you might expect, it’s about synagogues...
A Heretic in the Church – I
So I noticed a news item in the latest Forward reporting that the important-sounding Jewish People Policy Planning Institute, whose job it is, apparently, to plan policy for all the Jews, has relented to...
Free Will and its Deniers
The belief in man’s elevation over the animals is under assault in the West. Denial of free will – and with it the possibility of morality – is central to that attack. If man...
The Herd Mentality
by Rabbi Harvey Belovski The astonishing capacity of Judaism to welcome disagreement, tolerate and even validate a range of views (albeit within the system) on almost every issue is, in my opinion, one of...
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