Still, Small, Defiant Lights
I’m always struck by the contrast this time of year between, on the one hand, the garish multicolored and blinking lights that scream for attention from so many American homes and, on the other,...
Not All Discrimination is Hatred-Fueled
Finally! Something my cherished chaver Rabbi Yitzchak Adlerstein and I can agreeably disagree about. Though, alas, I don’t think the disagreement is as weighty as he thinks. Rather than recap our respective positions, they...
Airbnb is Anti-Semitic
I rarely disagree with my good friend Rabbi Avi Shafran, even privately. Public disagreement between us is rarer then good single malt being left unfinished at a high-end kiddush. Friends, it must be time...
No, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Did Not Sin Against The Memory Of The Holocaust
We do no favors to the memory of the Holocaust when, for political purposes, we unfairly accuse people of dishonoring it. Whatever one may think of incoming Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, she did not compare...
Crazy Attention
“The sheerest form of corporate anti-Semitism in recent memory” is how popular political commentator Ben Shapiro characterized the recent decision of Airbnb, the San Francisco-based company that matches travelers with private home lodging around...
Maybe There’s a Reason the Rabbi Did Not Make the Rabbinate’s List
The Rabbanut just released its list of approved batei din in the Diaspora for geirus. The list has some quite obsolete data and some other perhaps unexpected inclusions, but its issuance is an overall...
Looking Over Our Right Shoulders
Newly elected member of the House of Representatives Ilhan Omar, a Democrat from Minnesota, recently admitted that she supports BDS, the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against Israel. Back in August, though, when asked...
Returning Home to Auschwitz
If anyone can add more prose or more tears to the story of Auschwitz, it isn’t me. I’m on my way back from a few days in the Killing Fields, thanks to one of...
What Do They Study At Yeshivas?
By Elon Gilad Roughly one in six Israeli Jewish men aged 20-24 is a full-time student at a Jewish academy or yeshiva. In fact, more Israeli men are studying in yeshivas and kollels (Jewish...
Ample Room for Optimism
If only people today knew what a telegram was, the old joke about the typical Jewish one reading “Start worrying. Details to follow” would be apropos, at least to the pessimists among us, in...