Mortal Etiquette vs. Immortal Truth
As you may have noticed, the first day of Shavuos falls on the fourth day of the week this year. Were any Tziddukim around today, they’d be unhappy. They held that Shavuos must always...
Category: Jewish World
Rabbi Nisson Wolpin, z”l: Shloshim Recollections
It was more than 30 years ago, in Providence, Rhode Island, that I received my first letter from Rabbi Nisson Wolpin, z”l. I still have it, and keep it in a safe place. For...
POTUS and the Piñata
“Fire this ignorant teacher for inciting violence against our POTUS,” read one of the many overheated comments to l’affaire piñata (forgive the language cholent). “More indoctrination from the filthy left,” contended another commenter. On...
Am I a Lonely Woman of Faith?
The Orthodox Union issued the most pro-women, halachically permissive statement ever. The secular Jewish press created their own narrative without looking at the context and the trajectory of the living and breathing Orthodox community. This is lazy journalism.
Open Season on the Orthodox
The description of the scene fairly leapt off the page: Shabbos at the Kosel, people davening, a paraplegic in a motorized wheelchair, a group of Orthodox Jews approaching… “…like a big-league pitcher [one religious...
What Worked for Us (in Shidduchim)
“Past performance does not guarantee future results.” I don’t own stocks, but am familiar with that disclaimer, required by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for ads peddling investment opportunities. It’s cited here...
An Impossible Pretzel
Some people, it seems, like some dogs with teeth planted firmly in mailmen’s legs, just can’t let go. Take Peter Beinart. I have no problem with the columnist and former The New Republic editor’s...
Response and Rejoinder
The article I wrote recently for the Forward about haredim in Israel, linked here on Cross-Currents on April 15, was responded to in that medium by an activist in Israel. Her rejoinder is here. I...
Fear Itself
A navi I’m not, but, still, it was good timing. Several weeks back, at the height of the fears fomented by bomb threats against U.S. Jewish institutions, I wrote an article for an Israeli...
Why CNN’s “Believer” is Unbelievable
Reza Aslan, the host of the modestly named “Believer With Reza Aslan” on CNN, has rendered his verdict: “Ultra-Orthodox” Jews in Israel are to the Jewish State what the mullahs were to Iran in...
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