Engaging the Orthodox
Rabbi David Eliezrie has an opinion piece in this week’s Forward — Bring Orthodox to Communal Table. As he points out, it’s a two-way street. The “mainstream” Jewish organizations are slow to reach out...
Maharal on the Gaza Incursion
Not exactly, but close. Readers whose every reaction to the question of striking back at the enemy is “nuke ‘em” need not read the rest. Those who seriously consider Torah guidelines on the justification...
Yisrael Valis: The Court Transcript
Unbelievable. We already know that the officer saw things that no medical examiner was able to see — e.g. not merely bite marks, but “pinch marks.” But the whole allegation that Valis confessed to...
Yisrael Valis: The Police Lied — Anyone Surprised?
This comment, from my friend Moshe, is far too important to remain in the comment thread. Those fluent in Hebrew can follow the link and read the transcript excerpts for themselves… OK: I don’t...
Katzav and Yoffie… Just What We Didn’t Need
[CORRECTION: Please see the comment from Yisrael below. President Katzav only refuses to refer to non-Orthodox clergy as Rav in Hebrew. As per my statements below, calling them Rav would be entirely inappropriate. I...
Fair Treatment of the Lakewood Internet Ban
Saturday’s Washington Post has (via the Religion News Service) an article from the NJ Star-Ledger, Edict turns many Jews in Lakewood into library regulars. A possible subtitle of the article is “blogs don’t represent...
Yisrael Valis: Two Versions of a Story
by Sarah Shapiro On April 10th, Erev Pesach, an appalling news item appeared in The Jerusalem Post: The Jerusalem District Attorney’s Office on Sunday filed an indictment against a 19-year-old father on the day...
Act of War
As if the barrage of Kassam rockets were not enough, Hamas operatives — in conjunction with other factions — conspired to dig a tunnel in order to attack soldiers at the PA-Israel border at...
Is Sociobiology Nuts?
The influence of Darwinism has long since penetrated into the popular consciousness, and spawned new pseudo-sciences, such as sociobiology and evolutionary psychology, which attempt to explain every aspect of human nature as an outgrowth...
The Vote Against Divestment: Three Reasons to Cheer
By now, most of our readers have certainly heard of the momentous victory for fairness at the Presbyterian General Assembly in Birmingham. Because I spent considerable professional time working on this issue for two...