Tikvah: The Distaff Side
In a manner reminiscent of the way a woman takes over all the space in the closet once a guy gets married, the women have taken over the TikvahYeshiva website. Which is a good...
What a Jewish Mother Whose Son Is Held Captive Thinks About
One excerpt from a letter to rabbis of the RCA from Mrs. Rachelli Sprecher Frankel, mother of Israeli hostage Naftali Frankel: We trust the Rabbis will talk about Eyal, Gil-ad & Naftali in their...
A Beautiful Response To Some Odious Suggestions
In the pain we all share in the uncertainty over the Shvuyei Tzion, some have been moved to publish suggestions that are silly, obnoxious, and reprehensible. Unless, of course, they were made by genuine...
How Prayer Can #BringBackOurBoys
Two recent articles have sought to demean the concept of tefilla at times of crisis like the present one. A response to the critics that I wrote for the Forward can be read here.
A Prediction Fulfilled — Sadly
Exactly one year ago, in a piece entitled “Yair Lapid Sets Back the Clock,” I predicted that Yair Lapid and his Yesh Atid party would reverse a decade-long trend toward greater chareidi integration in...
A (for now) Final Post About Jewish Authority
I received much feedback concerning a piece I posted here several weeks ago (here) and a follow-up on my personal website (here), about second-guessing or disparaging the decisions of Jewish religious leaders. A pertinent...
The Agudah Dinner – The More Important Issue
Great attention has been paid to the recent Agudah Dinner, an unusual circumstance arising from the publicity given to the speech of the Novominsker Rebbe and the failure – if that is an appropriate...
Guess Who Came to Dinner?
Did a Frothing Press Help Serve the Truth? According to those in the know, Mayor Bill de Blasio was to have delivered his greetings and departed with his press entourage before the Novominsker Rebbe,...
Of Peoples… and People
Commuting to and from Manhattan daily on the Staten Island Ferry brings me into the vicinity of many a tourist. The boat sometimes resembles a United Nations General Assembly debate, without the translators. When...
An Evil Report
My D’var Torah this week made a rare crossover into current events, in a way that I thought appropriate for Cross-Currents. In this week’s reading we learn about the spies sent to look at...