Responding to “Gay” Parades
As a basketball player, I was always something of a streak shooter, and I’m afraid that the same will be true of my contributions to this site. Every time I finally summon up the...
Self-criticism
A few weeks ago, Marvin Schick threw out for discussion an incident in Ramat Beit Shemesh where a group of residents of Ramat Beit Shemesh “B” were alleged to have pelted a group of...
Disengagement: Non-Political Responses
Cross-Currents is trying hard to stay out of the political arena. Not that its contributors think that “politics” is outside the arena of Torah commentary. My guess is that every contributor to this blog...
Radio Shack and the Jewish Problem
A few additional points following up on my last post: 1) Ms. Horowitz’ statement is by no means unique in today’s Jewish world. Come and hear, as they say, what Stephen Fried writes in...
Who Are We Reaching Out To?
To an extent kiruv (Jewish outreach) requires a suspension of reality. This is not necessarily a bad thing because from a religious Jewish standpoint, the reality of American life is harsh. The many good...
Exclusivity, Russian Antisemitism, and the New Hatred To Come
Dostoevsky used to say that Russians imbibe anti-Semitism with their mothers’ milk. Despite the terrible things it portends for our brethren in the FSU, I was somewhat underwhelmed by the news that the RussiState...
Faith Isn’t What?!
Following is a letter of mine appearing in this week’s Forward (although not online) responding to an opinion piece there some weeks back by social psychologist Bethamie Horowitz. Some of the data contained in...
Shafran on Grossman
Several weeks ago, I wrote that the Conservative Movement’s Rabbi Susan Grossman had mischaracterized Judaism’s understanding of when life begins, and the Jewish position on abortion, in an opinion piece in the Baltimore Jewish...
Protocols of the Elders of Anti-Semitism
Only anti-Semites believe that Jews control the world. Yet anti-Semitism itself has choked and strangled the progress of nations. Writing in the June issue of Commentary, Paul Johnson calls anti-Semitism an irrational disease that...
On Dialogue
On a northbound train today, the passenger who sat down next to me turned out to be a Reconstructionist Rabbi, a senior staff member of the Jewish Reconstructionist Federation. We shared the opportunity to...