Petirah of a Gracious Lady
The reaction to the petirah of Lady Amelie Jakobovits z”l shows how to be loved and admired as a person, bring great tribute to the Torah, win widespread recognition – all while maintaining uncompromising...
Notes From a Hollywood Dinner
The key to a successful fund-raiser in our community is often the choice of honorees. You look to find people connected enough that their friends will attend (and contribute) in droves. If you are...
The Mike’s Always On
The British election campaign just ended would seem an unlikely source for a Torah teaching moment, but there it was. One of the blows the Labour Party absorbed in the days preceding the election...
No Smokers for My Daughters
I always find it amusing when readers of fiction seek to engage the fictional characters – or their creator – in argument. Such was the case, in the Mishpacha Magazine serial “Whispers in the...
Insight Into a Perfidious Mind
Richard Goldstone condemned 28 black people to death while serving as a judge in apartheid South Africa, according to Yediot Achronot (as cited by the Jerusalem Post). We could have expected a denial. He...
The Goals of Kiruv – a View From the Past
What are the goals of kiruv? What kind of change should offer the mekarev some sense of accomplishment? I remember debates about this years ago at AJOP conventions, where kiruv professionals gathered for chizuk...
UK street preacher jailed for saying homosexuality is a sin
From the Daily Telegraph: Dale McAlpine was charged with causing “harassment, alarm or distress” after a homosexual police community support officer (PCSO) overheard him reciting a number of “sins” referred to in the Bible,...
The Triumphalism Meme and Its Uses
Amidst all the controversy that Rabbi Landesman’s recent post sparked, one particular statement of his failed to receive the attention it deserves. He wrote that he is “deeply concerned by the chareidi triumphalism often...
A Ray of Light in a Lion’s Den
“Boy, you’re brave,” said the first fellow to approach me at the table after the symposium. The panel discussion, on Sunday, April 25, was the second time in as many months that I had...
Thinking Jewishly
A few years back, I spent two or three hours in the Boeing Museum of Flight in Seattle. It wasn’t enough. The story told there cannot help fill one with awe. The fantasy of...