If you prick us, do we not bleed?
Some pupils at the Yesodey Hatorah girls’ high school not too far from where I live have attracted UK and international news coverage (see, for example, here, here, here and here) over their refusal...
What Counts (And What Doesn’t) In A Candidate
Barack Obama is black. Hillary Clinton is a woman. John McCain has hair and is clean shaven. So who’s a balding, bearded Jew like me supposed to support? If the question strikes you as...
A Hint of Jewish Unity
My brief stopover in Toronto last week happened to coincide with a solidarity rally for Sderot called by the Toronto Jewish Federation. As an Israeli citizen and a resident of Israel for almost three...
Lipa – Response to Readers
I asked a local posek who is highly regarded in the chareidi world and he told me that if everything is prohibited and there are no kosher outlets for our youth, then we are...
Lipa, Lead Belly, and Adar
Huddie William Ledbetter, popularly known as folk and blues sensation Lead Belly, was and remains an important influence on contemporary music. His repertoire was diverse. The five hundred songs he composed can’t be pigeonholed...
Cross-Currents Road Trip
At least for one of us. Me. For those on the East Coast who wonder how Torah can survive on the Left Coast, you are invited to find out. I will be at Cong....
Who Needs Charedi Columnists?
Reb Chaim Brisker and the Chofetz Chaim were once discussing the wisdom of having a Torah newspaper. Reb Chaim Brisker asked the Chofetz Chaim who would write for the newspaper. “You won’t write because...
Brazen New World
Asked by The New York Times in 2005 what today-taken-for-granted idea or value he thinks may disappear in the next 35 years, Professor Peter Singer, the Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University’s Center for...
Lori, You Don’t Have To Settle
You cannot help but feel bad for Lori Gottlieb, and good for the mindset about marriage with which we provide our kids. NPR correspondent and author Gottlieb was not looking for sympathy, but to...
What Remains
Vindication is nice, but there’s sometimes bitter mixed in with the sweet. Back in October of last year, a headline in the New York Jewish Week read: “No Religious Haven From Abuse.” The subheader...