Faisal, Mohammed and Hasnain
Arriving in Toronto for a family simchah last week, my wife and I found a city – at least the parts of it not involved in personal celebrations – still reeling from a gunman’s...
Category: Morality
A Haredi Rabbi’s Rumination on Racism
An article I wrote for Moment Magazine, about dealing with racism, can be read here.
The Writing on the Wall
So many walls these days. The Israeli security one. The one President Trump wants to build along the Mexican border. The “Wall of Steel” erected around London’s Winfield House, where the president spent a...
Open Orthodoxy Update, Parshas Devarim
Yeshivat Chovevei Torah’s enrollment continues to decline. There were 49 students during the 2014-15 academic year. This number has now dropped to 21. In addition, none of their most recent graduates (of which there...
Racism or Halakha? An Analysis of the Barkan Controversy
The Eidah would have requested the same of any employee, regardless of skin color, whose Jewish status required further investigation in the view of its rabbis. Conversely, if an Ethiopian converted with the rabbinical court of the Eidah Ha-Hareidit, the Badatz would have absolutely no hesitation whatsoever about his or her handling wine.
A Fish’s Smile
I was accosted recently on the Staten Island Ferry by a large fish. Well, not exactly. It was actually a large photograph of a fish, on a poster carrying the legend: “I’m ME, not...
Us, Them and the Deep State
Hamodia opted to not publish my column submission for this week, but I share it here. The two thirds of the American populace that objected to the policy of removing children from their illegal...
Agudath Israel on Immigration Family Separation Policy
Agudath Israel of America expresses its deep concern and disappointment over the recently adopted policy of separating the members of families who have entered the United States illegally. It is a practice that has...
Open Orthodoxy Update, Parshas Chukas
From gay marriage to get-free marriage, from Iftar to Gospel, the latest from the world of Open Orthodoxy, Yeshivat Chovevei Torah and Yeshivat Maharat.
Not Your Bubbe’s HUC
The first ordination banquet of the Hebrew Union College of Reform Judaism did not go smoothly. A group of invited rabbis opened their menus, realized that the first course was to be little-neck clams, and immediately left. Fast forward 125 years, and once again the abandonment of Jewish values was too profound for some of those invited to bear.
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