An Impossible Pretzel
Some people, it seems, like some dogs with teeth planted firmly in mailmen’s legs, just can’t let go. Take Peter Beinart. I have no problem with the columnist and former The New Republic editor’s...
A Sad Day for American Jewish Media
When it is the editor of The Forward who expresses her "dread, despair and embarrassment" that Israel avoided extermination in 1967, we can express our disappointment, but few of us are surprised.
Homicide Prevention
Observant Jews might be lulled into thinking that the issue of physician-assisted suicide doesn’t affect us personally. After all, while there are certainly cases where treatments may rightfully be declined by patients or,...
The RBS Kerfuffle: Tempest in the Wrong Cholent Pot?
As two sides go at each other about the regularity of attacks on women in Ramat Beit Shemesh, both may be letting another culprits off the hook. No one has invoked Malmo. Or Umea....
Response and Rejoinder
The article I wrote recently for the Forward about haredim in Israel, linked here on Cross-Currents on April 15, was responded to in that medium by an activist in Israel. Her rejoinder is here. I...
Fear Itself
A navi I’m not, but, still, it was good timing. Several weeks back, at the height of the fears fomented by bomb threats against U.S. Jewish institutions, I wrote an article for an Israeli...
Why CNN’s “Believer” is Unbelievable
Reza Aslan, the host of the modestly named “Believer With Reza Aslan” on CNN, has rendered his verdict: “Ultra-Orthodox” Jews in Israel are to the Jewish State what the mullahs were to Iran in...
Passover: A Message of Personal Responsibility
(This article was just published on American Thinker and was written for a general audience.) Last week, the American College of Physicians (ACP) issued recommendations to address the tragic uptick in drug abuse. Included in...
The Riddle of the Fours
Four questions. Four sons. Four expressions of geulah. Four cups of wine. Dam (=44) was placed, in Mitzrayim, on the doorway (deles, “door,” being the technical spelling of what we call the letter daled,...
Black Hats Don’t Always Mean Bad Guys
In an enlightening example of how the rush to publish “juicy” stories without doing the requisite research can lead media to propagate falsehoods, a New Jersey radio station, NJ 1015, broke a story recently...