Divining Ms. Kagan
Imagining that one can divine how a new Supreme Court justice will rule on the sort of fundamental issues often brought before the High Court – particularly when the justice has never before served...
Smelly Justice
In this week’s Torah reading, Parshas Shoftim in Deuteronomy, Israel is commanded to have judges and officers, those who maintain both justice and order. A judge in particular is required to be entirely unbiased,...
Can’t Get No Traction
In my last post, I quoted the late director of the American Reform movement in Israel, David Forman, as stating that Reform’s “inroads into Israeli society have been marginal at best.” Back in 2005,...
The Bedouin and the Haredi
My day job brings me into frequent contact with members of other faiths, as I try to build bridges and alliances on behalf of Jewish interests. One of the first things I learned was...
Abuse of Power
Seldom if ever has so much misinformation and ill will been sown by people ostensibly concerned with truth and Jewish unity.
A Visitation
By Shimon Stern News item from the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism: [Women of the Wall activist Anat] Hoffman points to a photograph on the wall of her office of Rosa Parks being...
A Modern Orthodox Rabbi Reacts to Kabbalas Shabbos at HIR
By Dov Fischer NEWS ITEM: In a special news report published online by the NEW YORK JEWISH WEEK, a woman was designated by Rabbi Avraham Weiss to lead Kabbalat Shabbat services on Friday night,...
When Political Correctness Trumps Religion
Despite the encouragement of the Jerusalem Post’s editorialists, and despite several signatures from friends and colleagues in Jewish outreach, I believe that last week’s “Statement of Principles” regarding those “in our community who have...
Conversions of Convenience, or Conversions of Commitment?
Lost in all the incendiary rhetoric are some basic facts about the conversion procedures of most US Reform and Conservative rabbis.
We Are All Children of the Same Man
by Dovid Landesman This evening I had an experience that reinforced my sense of the singular quality of the Jewish community living in Eretz Yisrael. There is a unique familial relationship that this land...