Learning from our Past, Building our Future
How Jewish History teaches us to create a positive community for tomorrow Part I by Leslie Ginsparg Klein There is a story told about a Bais Yaakov girl in Poland in the 1930s. She...
Out of Borough Experience
Back in the fall, a candidate for the New York State Assembly made construction of major new housing in Borough Park the centerpiece of his campaign. A New York City councilman heartily endorsed that...
We’re Not Kidnappers
A piece I wrote for a Forward blog, in reaction to a mother’s lament over her newly-Orthodox daughter’s described rejection of her parents can be read here.
R Dovid Winiarz z’l
by Meir Goldberg After the holocaust, the broken survivors of the Nazi concentration camps were gathered and provided for in DP (Displaced Persons) camps. The Klausenberger Rebbe Zt’l acted as both a father and...
Growing Older, in Verse
By Yossi Huttler [Editor’s Note: By now, Rabbi Yossi Huttler has become the resident poet of Cross-Currents. Readers under 40 may not know what a poem is; those over 40 may find that it...
Cross-Currents Enters World Politics
Which is the last thing I wanted or expected. I have avoided commenting on purely political issues, whether domestic or global. I’ve tried to be true to Cross-Current’s original self-imposed mandate of focusing on...
Exodus Exegesis
Some interesting thoughts about Yetzias Mitzrayim that have been bouncing around in my head for a number of years can be read here.
Private Matters
It comes as something of a revelation to many to confront the Rambam’s treatment of kiddush Hashem, or “sanctification of Hashem’s name” for the first time. One definition of the concept in Hilchos Yesodei...
On Never Having to Mention Islam
The Obama administration responded characteristically to the savage terrorist attack by gunmen shouting “Al-lahu Akbar” and “We have avenged the prophet” on the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo. Press secretary Josh Earnest made the...
We Owe an Answer
President Reuven Rivlin made an important speech opening a conference on chareidi employment sponsored by the Joint Distribution Committee two weeks ago. He began by pointing out that the 20% of the school children...