Losing the Secular Public
No Torah Jew finds it difficult to justify Israeli government expenditures on Torah education. For us, it is clear that without the citadels of Torah that all the efforts of the IDF to protect...
Haredim and Homophobia
Haredim think that the media shows a persistent and blatant bias in its coverage of the community. They are right. For proof one need look no further than the coverage of the grisly July...
For Your Name, Which Was Desecrated
The final stanza of Eli Zion, the last kinnah recited in many shuls on Tisha B’Av, reads, “. . . for Your Name, which was desecrated by the mouth of those who arose to...
Random Thoughts on the Latest Scandal
Whenever some scandal breaks involving Orthodox Jews, as happened with a vengeance last Erev Shabbos, I’m reminded of a story about Rabbi Yaakov Kaminetsky. When Reb Yaakov was Rosh Yeshiva in Torah Vodaath, a...
Justice Sotomayor and the Jews
Reports have it that a popular inscription of late on coffee mugs and t-shirts is “wise Latina woman.” The reference, of course, is to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s contention in a 2001...
Decompressing on the Way Back From Israel
Two years away from Israel is far too long, but it allows you to see the changes that you might miss if they happened under your nose. My daughter provided the excuse (a new...
Gaily Fighting Religion
It is an interesting coincidence that two new volleys in the gay war on traditional religion were both fired last week, on two continents. While “GBLT” advocates in Israel were busy cynically misusing a...
The Blame Game
Even without the recent spate of well-warranted negative media attention towards Orthodox Jews, the cynical misuse of a recent murder in Tel Aviv for further Charedi-bashing is little surprise. It is, nonetheless, worthy of...
A Woman of Valour: Lifsha Feldman, zt”l
A great woman passed away suddenly last week in Jerusalem. Lifsha Feldman was only 45, but she had in the last decade of her life deeply touched the lives of hundreds of Jewish children...