Faisal, Mohammed and Hasnain
Arriving in Toronto for a family simchah last week, my wife and I found a city – at least the parts of it not involved in personal celebrations – still reeling from a gunman’s...
The Nation-State Bill, Groucho Marx, and Justice Kavanaugh
They have it so painfully wrong. The outrage over the Nation-State bill passed by Knesset is a tempest in a cholent pot. The world community that calls it racist is wrong. The effete snobs...
A Haredi Rabbi’s Rumination on Racism
An article I wrote for Moment Magazine, about dealing with racism, can be read here.
A Clear and Present Danger
Myriad dangers confront us and our children in the wider world. There is no need to go into detail about the various threats to our health, safety and welfare “out there.” But then there...
The Writing on the Wall
So many walls these days. The Israeli security one. The one President Trump wants to build along the Mexican border. The “Wall of Steel” erected around London’s Winfield House, where the president spent a...
Muslim-Jewish Alliances
An article of mine about alliances of Muslims and Orthodox Jews, both in Israel and in the U.S. appears at Forward, and can be read here.
Open Orthodoxy Update, Parshas Devarim
Yeshivat Chovevei Torah’s enrollment continues to decline. There were 49 students during the 2014-15 academic year. This number has now dropped to 21. In addition, none of their most recent graduates (of which there...
Same Sex Marriage – A Debate For Our Times
One of the most impactful pieces I recall from the years of The Jewish Observer was a debate between two contributors. (One was Rabbi Bernard Weinberger, z”l, who was niftar just a short while...
Racism or Halakha? An Analysis of the Barkan Controversy
The Eidah would have requested the same of any employee, regardless of skin color, whose Jewish status required further investigation in the view of its rabbis. Conversely, if an Ethiopian converted with the rabbinical court of the Eidah Ha-Hareidit, the Badatz would have absolutely no hesitation whatsoever about his or her handling wine.
A Fish’s Smile
I was accosted recently on the Staten Island Ferry by a large fish. Well, not exactly. It was actually a large photograph of a fish, on a poster carrying the legend: “I’m ME, not...