Israel’s Fair-Weather British Friends

Posted on: December 30th, 2009

For all the undoubted statesmanship implicit in Arthur Balfour's Declaration of November 1917, promising "a National Home for the Jewish People," Britain has never been much more than a fair-weather friend to Jewish national aspirations.

The Secrets In The Flames

Posted on: December 16th, 2009

On Rosh Hashanah it is a mitzvah to assume a bowed posture as we offer tearful prayer to God and beg for His mercy and forgiveness. We are hopeful that our humility and remorsefulness will earn us a favorable verdict, but should we, Heaven forbid, fall short, Hashem in His infinite kindness extends our time of teshuvah through the duration of Chanukah, when it is a mitzvah to light the Chanukah candles that give rise (literally) to the flames that shoot straight upward, in affirmation of our spiritual ascent.

On Account Of An Apple: Chanukah in Buchenwald

Posted on: December 9th, 2009

Various types of fruit cross our doorstep during the course of the Jewish year. But for me, the symbol of Judaism is the apple. Not the Rosh Hashanah apple dipped in honey but the one I learned about from my father, which began a chain of events that became a lesson of faith during the darkness of the Nazi years.

Online Kosher: A Brave New World

Posted on: December 2nd, 2009

Once upon a time, your bubbie would have cooked up her flavorful masterpieces by throwing in a pinch of this, a handful of that, recreating recipes passed down from her own bubbie, which she had learned at her mother's side.

Failed Assassins

Posted on: November 25th, 2009

Between 1920 and 1944 there were nearly fifty attempts on the life of Adolf Hitler. Many of the would-be assassins sacrificed their own lives as a result of their determination to free the world of one of history's worst monsters.

Gavriel and Rivkah Holtzberg: Two Brief And Shining Lives

Posted on: November 18th, 2009

Editor's Note: On Nov. 26, 2008 - the Hebrew date was Cheshvan 29, which this year fell on Monday, Nov. 16 - Islamic terrorists went on a savage killing spree in Mumbai, India, murdering 179 people including Chabad emissaries Rabbi Gavriel and Rivkah Holtzberg. The following tribute to the Holtzbergs was written by Rabbi Holtzberg's sister.

Why Not the Worst? Recalling the Carter Presidency

Posted on: November 11th, 2009

Next week marks the 32nd anniversary of Anwar Sadat's visit to Jerusalem, an event that set into motion a process that would result, nearly a year and a half later, in the signing of a peace treaty between Egypt and Israel.

Last to First: Israel’s Economic Miracle

Posted on: November 4th, 2009

With the history of twentieth-century science and technology largely a saga of Jewish accomplishment, in retrospect it might seem foreordained that after World War II the rising Jewish nation in the Middle East would emerge not only as a financial power but also as a scientific and technological leader.

The Man The Gulag Couldn’t Break

Posted on: October 21st, 2009

Fall arrived late this year in Budapest, where I am visiting from Israel, and it is still very warm on Yom Kippur. The largest Orthodox Yom Kippur services in the city are being held in a downtown hotel. A plaque marking what had been the offices of controversial Judenrat leader Rudolf Kastner is on a building just a few steps away.

Have You No Shame? Have You No Decency?

Posted on: September 30th, 2009

The following is the complete transcript of Prime Minister Netanyahu's address to the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday, Sept. 24.

To Each… His Own

Posted on: September 23rd, 2009

If only each of us paid heed to the words of the powerful prayer we silently read through remorseful tears, perhaps we would think twice before allowing negative emotions - such as envy - to bring us to ruin.

When Satan Came To Melitz

Posted on: September 16th, 2009

Melitz (or Mielic) was a small shtetl in Poland. The following article is based on authentic Yiddish quotes from the original Melitz archives (courtesy Yad Vashem in Jerusalem). All the names are real.

Rosh Hashanah In a Nazi Prison

Posted on: September 9th, 2009

"I was arrested by the Gestapo on the 9th of September 1939, and taken out of the house to a prison in Frankfurt a/M. There I met quite a number of people in the same situation who had been arrested in and around Frankfurt and they knew as little as I did about what was happening, except that we have been arrested by the Gestapo."

Ethnic Politics and the Bombing of Auschwitz

Posted on: September 2nd, 2009

Breckinridge Long, the State Department official in charge of refugee matters in the 1940s, did not think much of Jews. He called them "exponents of Communism and chaos."

Two-State Solution – Or Potemkin Peace?

Posted on: August 26th, 2009

The creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel would be a major step in the escalation of the Arab war against Israel even if the resumption of that war is delayed for a brief time while the world celebrates the outbreak of a Potemkin peace in the Middle East, produced by the end of Israeli "occupation" of Palestinians.

The Hidden Letters: A Cautionary Tale

Posted on: August 19th, 2009

The idyllic countryside of Sobibor bears no resemblance to the large, efficient extermination camp once located in that remote corner of eastern Poland. Among the 250,000 Jews murdered during its 18 months of operation were the members of my mother's family. I didn't learn the details of their deaths until I was an adult, but I understood at a very young age that I had no grandparents, aunts, uncles or cousins because someone called Hitler had killed them.

Not Just Another Shidduch-Dating Article

Posted on: August 12th, 2009

Sometimes it's hard to tell which is worse - the vast and growing number of frum singles, or the equally vast and growing number of newspaper articles trying to address the problem. Seriously, though, it's not even close; our unusual system of shidduch dating inflicts significant damage on some members of our community. That's why I'm taking the risk of adding this piece to the glut of shidduch-dating articles already on the market.

Low-Level Victory

Posted on: August 5th, 2009

A week from Friday will mark the third anniversary of the cease-fire that ended the Second Lebanon War. And while the fortunes of war run to infinite varieties of the unexpected, there is one thing of which we can all be certain. Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah will appear, if he hasn't already by the time this article is published, on a video screen from the secret bunker he is afraid to leave, and in between chants of "Death to America!" and "Death to Israel!" he and his supporters will again proclaim glorious victory over the infidel Jews.

Israeli Settlements: Reality Vs. Hype

Posted on: July 29th, 2009

The Obama administration's high-profile focus on Israeli settlements and demand for a total freeze of construction beyond the pre-1967 armistice line have delighted many around the world, some of whom may even believe that settlements are the major obstacle to peace. But such views, like the administration's slant on the issue, are based on false premises and oft-repeated misinformation.

Sanctification Or Desecration

Posted on: July 8th, 2009

Everyone seems to be obsessed with Jews. Although numerically we are an insignificant minority of the world's population, the media focus like lasers on everything we say and do.