Two NYT Pieces Say It All
Two recent articles in the New York Times conveyed as informative a picture of Palestinians and Israel as might be imagined. One, on August 4, profiled the “culture of conflict” nurtured by West Bank...
If Trayvon Were Tuvia: The Orthodox (Non)response to the Zimmerman Verdict
by Chaim Saiman A Jewish boy¬— lets call him Tuvia Mendel— is walking home one night. Maybe he is a bit drunk, maybe not. Tuvia attracts the attention of a non-Jewish neighborhood watchman who...
Belief in Torah Min Ha-Shamayim: Damage Control by YCT: Subtly Defending the Indefensible
by Avrohom Gordimer FOREWORD The beliefs of a rabbi are no small issue. They can impact the validity of geirus, gittin and kiddushin performed under the rabbi’s review or that hinge upon his testimony,...
Banishing the Zealots From Our Midst
by Yakov Horowitz [Editor’s Note: Once again, Rabbi Yakov dares to publish what others won’t even say aloud. He reviews the harm caused by kane’im/zealots, and calls for help in ousting them from the...
Meet the New Chief Rabbi
by Steven Pruzansky [Editor’s note: I came across a short “insider” bio of Rabbi David Lau, who was elected earlier today as the next Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi. Rabbi Pruzansky wrote it two weeks ago,...
Is Heresy Horrible?
Heresy, to many Orthodox Jews, is what Trayvon Martin is to some black Americans: something that stirs up fears and concerns that they would rather not think about. The very mention of the word...
The Truth About Trayvon
Could there possibly be anything else to say about the George Zimmerman trial that hasn’t already been said? After all, the supporters of Mr. Zimmerman, who killed teenager Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida last...
Torah Min-Hashamayim: A Reply to Rabbi Nati Helfgot
Avrohom Gordimer Last week’s Cross-Currents article, From Openness to Heresy, which featured what were for many readers some quite alarming and startling statements by R. Zev Farber about the authorship of the Torah, has...
From Openness to Heresy
By Avrohom Gordimer Outright heresy is emanating from the heart of the YCT rabbinic world. No, this time we are not dealing with Open Orthodoxy (as YCT founder Rabbi Avi Weiss refers to his...
A Tisha B’Av Message, Penned in Pain and in Hope
We write in anguish and frustration, responding to the images that we have seen, and the words that we have heard in recent days. We have heard the Kol Yaakov (voice of Jacob) used...