The Evolution Of American Orthodoxy: An Interview with Yeshiva University Librarian Zalman Alpert

Posted on: July 11th, 2012

Books. Some people love them; others claim they can do without them. For Zalman Alpert, they are essentially his life. For the past 35 years, Alpert has served as a reference librarian at Yeshiva University (YU). Educated at Columbia University’s School of Library Services and New York University’s School of Education, where he attained a master’s degree in Modern Jewish History, Alpert is one of those individuals who knows a little (sometimes a lot) about everything. Over the years, he has contributed articles to such works as Encyclopedia of Hasidim; Jewish American History and Culture: An Encyclopedia; Encyclopedia of Jewish American Popular Culture; Midstream; and The Jewish Press.

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State Senator Storobin on Gay Marriage and Simcha Felder as an Opponent

Posted on: July 5th, 2012

The Jewish Press sat down in its Brooklyn offices with Republican State Senator David Storobin.

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Turmoil In The Land Of The Pharaohs: An Interview With Former Egyptian Radical Dr. Tawfik Hamid

Posted on: June 27th, 2012

Egypt’s future remains in flux. On Sunday, Mohammed Morsi of the radical Muslim Brotherhood movement became Egypt’s new president, narrowly defeating the secular Ahmed Shafiq by 52-48 percent. Just two weeks ago, however, Egypt’s military council issued an interim constitution stripping the president of most of his powers. A few days before that, the Supreme Constitutional Court dissolved Egypt’s parliament, controlled by radical Islamic parties, on a legal technicality.

‘The UN Is No Longer Serious’: An Interview with Congressman Bob Turner

Posted on: June 21st, 2012

New York City Rep. Bob Turner (R-Queens and Brooklyn) is a candidate for the U.S. Senate Republican nomination in the June 26 primary.

Talmudic, Tenacious, Tough-Minded: An Interview With Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz

Posted on: June 20th, 2012

Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz is quite an accomplished personality. The author of over 60 books, Rabbi Steinsaltz has also translated the entire Talmud into Hebrew, a project he started in 1965 at the age of 28 and took 45 years to complete. To date, over two million copies of the Steinsaltz Talmud – in Hebrew, English, French, and Russian – have been sold. No wonder Time magazine once dubbed him a “once-in-a-millennium scholar.”

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Rabbi Yosef Mendelevitch, Pioneering Russian Refusenik

Posted on: June 18th, 2012

On his attempt to hijack an airplane in 1970 to bring attention to the struggle of Soviet Jewry: "Sometimes it happens in your life that you simply feel it’s the right thing to do."

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‘U.S. Should Recognize Jerusalem As Israel’s Capital’: An Interview with Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries

Posted on: June 7th, 2012

New York State Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries (D-Brooklyn) is a candidate in New York’s 8th Congressional District in the June 26 Democratic primary.

‘I Will Be Reliable In Supporting Israel’: An Interview with Councilman Erik Dilan

Posted on: June 7th, 2012

New York City Councilman Erik Dilan (D-Brooklyn) is a candidate in New York’s 7th Congressional District in the June 26 Democratic primary.

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‘Respond Forcefully, Expose The Libel’: Interview w. Prof. Eunice Pollack

Posted on: June 6th, 2012

Husband and wife. Both Jewish. Both history professors. Both right wing. Both combat anti-Semitism on American college campuses. Meet Stephen H. Norwood and Eunice G. Pollack.

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Meet Religious Zionism’s New Hope

Posted on: June 5th, 2012

"We need to work on instilling a good strong Jewish-Zionist identity in all of the children in Israel and not only in the religious ones. In other words we need to stop looking inward and start focusing on all of Am Yisrael."

“Hebrew Book Week” Interview with Tzvi Fishman

Posted on: June 4th, 2012

"Rav Kook writes that it is literature which will awaken the spiritual sensitivities of mankind, when the writers of Israel undergo a process of inner purification and tshuva...When the Philip Roths and Norman Mailers stop hating themselves and their Jewish mothers, and sit for a few years in yeshiva, their books will bring mankind closer to God."

Failing The Call Of The Hour: The State Department And The Holocaust

Posted on: May 31st, 2012

The Nazis perpetrated the Holocaust, but the indifference of onlookers facilitated it. One of the guiltiest parties in this regard, according to a new book by former federal prosecutor Gregory Wallance, is the U.S. State Department. In the book, America’s Soul in the Balance: The Holocaust, FDR’s State Department, and the Moral Disgrace Of An American Aristocracy, Wallance quotes Treasury Department lawyers who accused State Department officials of being “accomplices of Hitler” and “war criminals in every sense of the term.”

Lancman On Jerusalem: ‘No Other Capital City In The World Has Its Status Questioned’: An Interview with Assemblyman Rory Lancman

Posted on: May 23rd, 2012

New York State Assemblyman Rory Lancman (D-Queens) is a candidate in New York’s 6th Congressional District in the June 26 Democratic primary. Lancman, who served as an officer in New York’s 42nd infantry division and as a local community board member, recently met with The Jewish Press Editorial Board. He addressed Israel and local issues.

YU’s Halpert: Molding Men Through Coaching

Posted on: May 23rd, 2012

Yeshiva University men’s basketball coach Jonathan Halpert now has his signature on the school’s men’s basketball court. The Coach Jonathan Halpert Scholarship Fund, an endowment to be awarded annually to children of YU alumni living in Israel wishing to study at the university, now bears his name. Later this year Halpert, who earned his high […]

Ulpana Hill Residents Apprehensive But Hopeful As Deadline Approaches

Posted on: April 25th, 2012

BEIT EL, ISRAEL – “Gush Katif number two.” “Another Amona.” “It will topple the government, split the nation, and drive an irrevocable wedge between the people and the leadership.”

Beyond Church And State: School Vouchers And The Blaine Amendment

Posted on: April 18th, 2012

Like clockwork, the question of school vouchers makes a prominent appearance whenever the media focus on a statewide election in New York, particularly one in a heavily Orthodox district. The latest chime was sounded during the battle between Lew Fidler and David Storobin to fill an open state senate seat; both promised constituents that they would make the fight for vouchers and tax education credits their priority.

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‘You Don’t Read A Terrorist His Miranda Rights’: An Interview With Professor Michael Widlanski

Posted on: April 12th, 2012

Michael Widlanski grew up on the West Side of Manhattan. He went to Ramaz Yeshiva and then Columbia University, writing for both school newspapers, before landing a job at The New York Times. He also studied Arabic in college, traveling to Cairo to master the language – and learning to chant the Koran while he was at it. Partly motivating him was his desire, as a ba’al keriah, to learn how to properly pronounce the Hebrew letters ayin and chet. “The Arabs do it better,” he said. Presently, Widlanski is a professor at Bar-Ilan University after having taught Middle East politics and communications at Hebrew University for 20 years. Last month, he published his first book, Battle for Our Minds: Western Elites and the Terror Threat.

The Republican Congressman Who Discovered He’s Jewish: An Interview with Representative Lee Terry

Posted on: April 4th, 2012

When Lee Terry began serving as a Republican congressman in 1999, representing Nebraska’s second congressional district, he didn’t realize he would become one of the House of Representatives’ Jewish members. Always a friend of Israel, Terry discovered his Jewish roots some ten years ago and began a personal odyssey to reconnect with his heritage.

Tzadik Plastic Surgeon to Shadchanim: Free Nose Job for Your Clients Who Need But Can’t Afford It

Posted on: March 31st, 2012

Board-certified Miami plastic surgeon and Nose Job Specialist Michael Salzhauer surprised me. He forced me—an instinctive objector to vain mutilation for the sake of some notion of exterior beauty—to reconsider my views on this issue. And he's not cynical, that was another huge surprise. I walked away convinced he means every word he says.

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Bet Din On The Clock: Nathan Lewin Wants Jewish Courts To Run More Efficiently

Posted on: March 21st, 2012

Like other chassidic dynasties, Bobov was not immune to one day experiencing a schism. When Rabbi Naftali Zvi Halberstam, the fourth Bobover Rebbe, died in 2005, a dispute arose over who would succeed him. Some chassidim sought to appoint his younger half-brother, Rabbi Ben Zion Aryeh Leibish Halberstam, as the next rebbe; and others sought out the fourth rebbe’s sons-in-law: Rabbi Mordechai Dovid Unger as the rebbe, and Rabbi Yehoshua Rubin as the Bobov rav (serving as head of the bet din and as the posek).