The Threesome Chain
Over the past few weeks, I have been sending out short thoughts on the upcoming parsha to my list of subscribers, who receive links to my Ami Magazine column and other things that might...
When Global Religion Declines, We Celebrate the King
“First, know evil.”[1] Rabbenu Bachya argues that good is easily compromised by forces that tarnish and degrade it. Unless a person learns about them, his goodness he develops will be endangered. Better to first...
Saints, Real and Imagined: The Vatican of the Holocaust, and the Rev. Dr. William Harter
A young man was mindful of the advice he received about jump-starting conversation with a date. He had already struck out with the first two suggestions: asking about family, or about food. (No, she...
Memo to: the National Football League
There are reports that, if and when football season opens, you will be instituting, at the beginning of every game, the singing of the Black national anthem following the Star-Spangled Banner. Since there is...
A Note from Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zwiebel
A Note About an Unfortunate Article August 28, 2020 By: Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zwiebel A number of people have called my attention to an anti-Agudath Israel screed that was recently published as an op-ed...
On the value and futility of protest: Two scandals which rocked secular Israel—how did it happen?
By Dovid Kornreich I want to discuss two recent scandals in Israel which at first, seem entirely unrelated. One is the heart-rending day care scandal reported last month, where a number of female staff...
Not from the Philadelphia I Know
by Rabbi Michael J. Broyde [Editor’s Note: I did sign the Declaration. My expectations were a good deal less ambitious, so I was more inclined to look away from any flaws or overreach. The...
What Must A Community Know?
Every now and then, I am bowled over by some piece of Torah that I read. Even if I wrote the words myself. Such was the case after I finished writing my weekly parshah...
The UAE Peace Accord: Lessons for the Orthodox
Is there an Orthodox angle to the historic normalizing of relations between the UAE and Israel? Several, actually. It will take quite some time before all the details emerge as to how the agreement...
The Biblical Museum of Natural History: Bigger, Better, and Not To Be Missed
The picture says it all. Last time I was at the Biblical Museum of Natural History, the take-away photo was of a bunch of my family members all holding a single, huge python. This...