Reaching for the Truth
All of us can, at most, “Strive for Truth” [It’s a borrowed title], and so I appreciate Rabbi Shafran’s clarification of his position. And to the best of my recollection, there hasn’t been a...
I’m Afraid It Is So. Sorry.
My esteemed friend Rabbi Yaakov Menken, below offers kind words about me, for which I thank him; and takes strong issue with my defenses of President Obama’s Israel record against some of the attacks...
Say It Isn’t So, Rabbi Shafran
Rabbi Shafran is someone I have admired for decades. His witty, moving, and inspirational biography of the journey of a Jewish convert, Migrant Soul, emerged when I was still a yeshiva student, and when...
Non-Crime of Omission
I have to admit that there was one assertion in Michael Oren’s recent book, “Ally: My Journey Across the American-Israeli Divide,” that disturbed me greatly. As I wrote two weeks ago, I found his...
Let’s Not Cry Anti-Semitism
The trail of anti-Semitism is long and bloody; irrational hatred towards the Jewish people permeated Europe, Asia and North Africa back through ancient times. Nonetheless, one should not be overly hasty to fall back...
In Judaism, Love Doesn’t Always Win
In their rejoicing over the recent Supreme Court same-sex marriage decision, various Jewish groups grievously misrepresented Judaism. An essay of mine about the Jewish religious tradition’s true take on homosexuality and the formalization of...
Rabbi Weiss: Please Don’t Confuse Form with Substance
Winds of secession are in the air. Rabbi Avi Weiss and his disciple, Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld, yesterday announced their immediate resignation from the Rabbinical Council of America, and Rabbi Weiss subsequently issued a broad...
The New Jacobinism
Rabbi Eli Baruch Shulman Historians wonder about the difference in outcome between the American Revolution, which resulted in a liberal democracy, and the French Revolution, which resulted in terror and tyranny. Why was the...
SCOTUS on Same-Gender: What It Means; What It Doesn’t
1) It is not true that five members of the Supreme Court conspired to do an end-run against the will of the public and the sense of the Constitution. Well, maybe the Constitution, if...
Agudath Israel Statement on Supreme Court marriage ruling
June 26, 2015 Agudath Israel of America issued the following statement in reaction to today’s 5-4 Supreme Court ruling that states are constitutionally required to permit and recognize marriages between members of the same...