New Issue of Jewish Action
Long before I helped begin Cross-Currents, the place my keyboard’s output called home was Jewish Action, the quarterly of the Orthodox Union. To the credit of the OU, its leadership encouraged the production of...
Category: Judaism
The Greatest Beracha in Life
Can a quadriplegic dance? Can a thin, raspy, artificially high-pitched voice make sonorous music? I would not have believed these to be true had I not seen them myself at the Kids of Courage...
Losing the Secular Public
No Torah Jew finds it difficult to justify Israeli government expenditures on Torah education. For us, it is clear that without the citadels of Torah that all the efforts of the IDF to protect...
Haredim and Homophobia
Haredim think that the media shows a persistent and blatant bias in its coverage of the community. They are right. For proof one need look no further than the coverage of the grisly July...
For Your Name, Which Was Desecrated
The final stanza of Eli Zion, the last kinnah recited in many shuls on Tisha B’Av, reads, “. . . for Your Name, which was desecrated by the mouth of those who arose to...
Random Thoughts on the Latest Scandal
Whenever some scandal breaks involving Orthodox Jews, as happened with a vengeance last Erev Shabbos, I’m reminded of a story about Rabbi Yaakov Kaminetsky. When Reb Yaakov was Rosh Yeshiva in Torah Vodaath, a...
Justice Sotomayor and the Jews
Reports have it that a popular inscription of late on coffee mugs and t-shirts is “wise Latina woman.” The reference, of course, is to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s contention in a 2001...
Decompressing on the Way Back From Israel
Two years away from Israel is far too long, but it allows you to see the changes that you might miss if they happened under your nose. My daughter provided the excuse (a new...
Gaily Fighting Religion
It is an interesting coincidence that two new volleys in the gay war on traditional religion were both fired last week, on two continents. While “GBLT” advocates in Israel were busy cynically misusing a...
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