Front Page

Over the past four years, other free nations have risen in the broader Middle East. Across that region, the political dialogue has been transformed - and politicians, scholars, students, and men and women from every walk of life are talking about freedom, equal rights, and accountable institutions of government.

There is constant talk of a tuition crisis, of the growing number of yeshiva and day school parents – and potential parents – who say that full tuition or anything close to it is beyond their financial reach.

Many defenders of Modern Orthodoxy decry the apparent rejection of a college education in favor of yeshiva.

For Jews in the United States, the 1950s were years of opportunity and challenge.

For breaking his oath of allegiance, Tzidkiyahu was forced to witness the death of his sons before he himself was blinded and exiled to Babylon.

During the Holocaust, one group of killers stood out as more vicious, murderous, and bloodthirsty than all others.

In attempting to account for these developments I have reached a set of conclusions about why events are unfolding as they are.

Formal recognition of a student group does not equate to endorsement of that group’s message, wrote the judge.

One night, a man was shot as he tried to break into the settlement from a nearby Arab city. His family did not say, "We are so sorry that our son tried to break into your community and commit violence." Quite the opposite. There was a prolonged, noisy demonstration in his city against the Israel Defense Forces.

It is late at night. There are four of us on the hospital ward. Two are young men, a religious Ethiopian Jew and a young Arab computer "techie" who spends his days working on his laptop. I am one of the two elders in the room. The other is an Arab from a village in the Galilee. The two younger men complain about the horrific snoring coming from us geezers, but they're not sure who is the worst offender. The nurses offer them sympathy and sleeping pills, to no avail.

Levine offered the Columbia to Lindbergh for $15,000, but insisted that, as a non-negotiable condition of the sale, he retain the right to designate the crew for what would surely be a historic flight.

It’s important to acknowledge this right from the beginning: I love Batman. In fact, no one loves him more than I do. He and I have a history that goes back over four decades.

The first component began taking shape more than sixty-eight years ago when, as was my custom, I joined my father at Shabbat morning services in his synagogue on New York’s Lower East Side.

There are accounts of battles, rebellions, and collective failures of nerve, and a strange story about a pagan prophet and a talking donkey.

In his visit to Lebanon earlier this year, Noam Chomsky justified Hizbullah's military arsenal as a "deterrent to potential aggression."

Partition arbitrarily deprived the Jews of their internationally sanctioned legal rights to all of Palestine, including what is now the kingdom of Jordan. Nevertheless, Israel accepted it.

While I like to flatter myself in thinking that this article was written in response to mine, it more likely took months of painstaking research and had nothing to do with me.

The desire to keep my grandmother's memory and voice alive inspired me to write an article about her for The Jewish Press.

In a macabre sort of way, this photo is an old friend. Having seen it so many times before, I am "comfortable" with the imagery.

In fact, all the Yomim Tovim that fall on the fifteenth of the month represent instances of t’chias hamaisim.

Shavuos. How unremarkable a name for a Yom Tov that celebrates the very foundation of our existence. Actually, Shavuos is one of five names designated for this holiday, the others being Atzeres, Yom HaBikurim, Chag HaKatzir and Z’man Mattan Toraseinu.

One day in the summer of 1981, when I was still living in Brooklyn, I received a call from Dassie Marcus, a fervent supporter of Israel, the settlement movement, and Gush Emunim.

An educator must not be satisfied until that soul he refuses to handle, love, nourish and develop is registered in another school, one more caring and embracing.

The systematic amalgamation of anti-Semitism, theories of the superiority of the German people, and the geopolitical movement to acquire Lebensraum was a product of the intellectual environment of Ludwig Maximilian University in the 1920's.

That beautiful smile, warm and sincere, which proceeded from a transcendent mastery of pain and loss, both personal and that of his people, first beamed at the beginning of the 20th century.

This is not to say the Palestinians are blameless or justified in the ongoing conflict – far from it – but we are the ones with the power and our government has managed to destroy any hope on either side for a solution.

Jews thank Hashem at every step. We thank Him for our most basic physical existence. We thank Hashem for every step, for every breath, for every aspect of our elevation from the dust.

It has become vogue in many circles to represent Middle East savagery as part of some sort of "war of civilizations."

A fisherman living near the banks of a river was making his way home one evening, exhausted from his long labors. As he trudged along the path, he dreamed of what his life might be like if he were suddenly rich. Just then, his foot brushed against a leather pouch. He picked it up only to discover it filled with small stones. Falling back into his reverie, he absent-mindedly began throwing the pebbles into the water.

With Israel surrounded, as ever, by implacable enemies and forced to endure withering assaults of negative international opinion, we can take needed comfort and learn an important lesson from the Torah context of some key phrases in the Yom Kippur liturgy we recited just days ago.