Understanding the “Other”
It’s a story I tell a lot, since, well, its point comes up a lot. Blessedly, my audience, at least judging from its response, hadn’t heard it before. The psychiatrist asks the new patient...
Category: News
Outside/Inside
A discomfiting feeling crept over me as I watched the fellow remove his head. Well, not his head – though that would have been discomfiting too, even more so. This was just a costume...
Target (Mal)Practice
Some unwarranted criticism that was lobbed last week at several Orthodox writers greatly disturbed this one. The target of one volley – though the shots widely missed their mark – was Rabbi Jonathan Rosenblum,...
Savage Ignorance
It’s difficult to know whether shock-jock Michael Savage is in fact the actual person whose Bronx-accented ranting emanates daily from radios across the country, or whether that voice belongs to an adopted persona, a...
Obama Comes Clean
Back in 2009, I was troubled by the reaction of many of my friends to President Obama’s speech in Cairo to the Muslim world. I had shared the same concerns they had about Mr....
Monkeys, Marriage and Morality
Amid the ongoing avalanche of political conversions, punditry and testimonials on behalf of redefining marriage was a recent op-ed piece in The New York Times by a professor of biology, David George Haskell. The...
Can We Do Anything to Lessen the Hatred?
Already five years ago, a prominent American rosh yeshiva told me that we might be approaching the end of a miraculous period in which the secular Israeli government became the prime supporter of Torah...
Lies, Statistics and News Reports
It’s rare for light to be cast on the origins of a rumor. But a recent revelation about a charge made against Chuck Hagel before his confirmation as Secretary of Defense does that –...
Abusive Journalism
A number of years ago, a neighbor of mine, a business professional, shared a secret and a request. He told me that he had been found guilty of a crime – a dishonest financial...
An End to the Occupation
Like the repeatedly pummeled victim of depraved bullies who decides it might just be best to stay away from the schoolyard during recess, Israel recently opted to not show up to be judged by...
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