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...
Category: News
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...
Black Hats Don’t Always Mean Bad Guys
In an enlightening example of how the rush to publish “juicy” stories without doing the requisite research can lead media to propagate falsehoods, a New Jersey radio station, NJ 1015, broke a story recently...
Why I’m Not Bullish on Fearless Girl
For two decades, I’ve passed “Charging Bull,” the iconic bronze statue that stands near Wall Street, twice every workday when I walk from the Staten Island Ferry to my office in Manhattan. Now I...
Callousness or Conscientiousness?
The most incriminatory and unarguable allegation leveled by some Senate Judiciary Committee panelists against Supreme Court nominee Judge Neil Gorsuch was, apparently, that he isn’t Merrick Garland. Guilty as charged. Mr. Garland, of course,...
Unfair Play
In the current polarized political atmosphere, where “team” mentality – “our guys are great, yours are bums” – seems to be the default state of mind, and where objective, thoughtful fairness is the rarest...
Bursting Our Bubbles
Ever heard of Chartbeat? Assuming you answered no, well, neither had I, at least not until last week, when it was reported that the web analytics company released a new analysis of the reader...
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