Talk to the Snakes
In a 1938 essay, Mohandas (“Mahatma”) Gandhi, the spiritual and political leader of the Indian independence movement, counseled Jews in Nazi Germany to neither flee nor resist but rather offer themselves up to be...
Of Tu BiShevat And Esrogim
In many circles, it is common to daven on Tu BiShevat for a beautiful esrog to use during the coming Sukkos. There is even a special tefillah composed just for this purpose. The New...
Silver Lining of the LA Scandal Cloud
It is still very much the elephant in the room. We can pretend that it didn’t happen, but it won’t go away that quickly. News sources are still writing new pieces, and the prosecutor...
Disenfranchised
From the Jewish Council for Public Affairs: January 19th is one of the most important contests in the Democratic and Republican quests for their parties’ nomination for the presidency. It is also Shabbat. This...
Prisoner of ‘the fanaticism of reason’
After the failed Camp David summit of 2000, George Will pronounced then prime minister Ehud Barak “perhaps the most calamitous leader any democracy has ever had” for the way he had succeeded in “delegitimizing...
Lions in Winter
Winter might conjure pleasant memories of playing in the snow, but it is hardly a season most of us would consider symbolic of childhood. We more naturally associate the “winter of life” with a...
No Free Speech at the UN
Apparently this was the first time the Council president, Ambassador Luis Alfonso de Alba of Mexico, ever rejected a speech as “inadmissible.” So after you watch, you can have a look at the various...
Not the Doctor’s Decision — Updated
This week Jerusalem Post health reporter Judy Siegel reported that Samuel Golubchuk, the 84-year-old frum Jew from Winnepeg, whose doctors seek to remove him from his ventilator and feeding tube, had awakened. Mr. Golubchuk...
State of the Jewish Union
The following is an unretouched verbal snapshot of an international NGO gathering in Europe: An Israeli is at the podium. He is young, bright, Western trained, and served a prior Israeli administration as an...
Modern Orthodox or Chassidic?
Last week, I was asked to make a shidduch (dating) enquiry, something that occurs on a very regular basis. For the uninitiated, a shidduch enquiry happens after someone I advise has been proposed a...