An Inversion of Morality
From day one of its existence, the sole raison d’etre of the Hamas quasi-state in Gaza has been to kill Jews, the more the merrier. Since taking over the Gaza Strip in 2007, Hamas...
What Max Did For Us
by Asher Brander As of last Friday, no soldiers had fallen. Now we have 32 korbanos. Hashem Yerachem In a trip that started out for us with chasunos, we and the whole country are...
How Not To Deal With Allegations of Impropriety
by Shaya Karlinsky We have been witness to an increasing number of depressing revelations about Rabbis acting inappropriately towards women they have been counseling or educating. I have no intention of discussing any specific...
Agudath Israel Statement on Recent Global Anti-Semitism
As Israel applies itself to the task of rooting out terrorists in Gaza, and destroying their tunnels and rocket launchers, there have been, as always when Israel acts to defend herself, condemnations of her...
“Of Public Record” – 2
A second offering of interesting quotes from recent days’ media reports can be seen here. For future such postings, occasionally check out rabbiavishafran.com
A New Look at Tehillim 140
Contributed by Doron Beckerman Psalm 140 May Have Never Been More Apt למנצח מזמור לדוד: (1) To the conductor. A song of David. חלצני ה’ מאדם רע מאיש חמסים תנצרני: (2) Extricate me, O...
Rosenblum’s Rule Revisited
Long-time readers are by now familiar with Rosenblum’s Rule: Where Torah Jews are in the majority their attention to issues of Kiddush Hashem declines; when they are in the minority, especially a small minority...
Fresh Air Amid The Reek
Even more remarkable than the article itself was where it appeared. Written by Elissa Strauss, an essayist and a “co-artistic director” of a “non-religious Jewish house of study for culture-makers at the 14th Street...
Knesset Speaker to the US: Do More to Prevent Civilian Casualties in Iraq
It didn’t really happen this way. But perhaps it should. A reader who must remain anonymous for professional reasons contributed this analysis: Yesterday, US State department spokesperson, Jan Psaki expressed concern over the high...
COJs, not OTDs, may be our bigger problem
An article I wrote about “Cultural Orthodox Jews” in the Forward can be read here.