An Evening Of Faith And Promise

Posted on: January 24th, 2007

Reading Rabbi Saul Berman’s moving front-page essay (“Martin Luther King and the Exodus Narrative”) in last week’s Jewish Press struck an emotional chord. Particularly since earlier in the week I’d attended an “Evening of Solidarity in Tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,” which took place at the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale in association with Reverend Roger Hambrick and the Green Pastures Baptist Church.

Beyond Bias: Media-Fabricated News

Posted on: January 17th, 2007

A recent Gallop Poll found that 56% of Americans think the media’s coverage of events in Iraq is inaccurate, nearly two-thirds of those believing that the media portray the situation as worse than it is. A biased, always bad-news-baring mainstream media trying to discredit our war effort is a disgrace. But worse is the blatant manufacturing of news through editorials disguised as reports.

Holocaust Mentality

Posted on: January 17th, 2007

The war started last July with Hizbullah’s cross-border attack on an Israeli patrol and the kidnapping of three Israeli soldiers. The daring move, across the internationally recognized, UN-ratified border with Lebanon, gave rise to an immediate sense of purpose to most Israelis in uniform, both regular army personnel and your average citizen-soldier like me.

Newsflash: The Security Fence Works

Posted on: January 17th, 2007

For years, Israel’s critics have excoriated the Jewish state’s plans to build a temporary barrier on its border with the West Bank. It was counterproductive, they would say. It would not protect Israelis, and it would cause undue hardship for Palestinians. Last week, the critics were proven wrong.

America’s Mideast Involvement Long Preceded ‘Israel Lobby’

Posted on: January 17th, 2007

In 1844, a biblical scholar and professor of Hebrew at New York University published a pamphlet urging the establishment of a Jewish state in the place then known as Palestine. The name of this early Zionist who argued for the recreation of Jewish sovereignty over the land of Israel: George Bush.

Lost In Translation

Posted on: January 17th, 2007

Jews throughout the world recently celebrated the festival of Chanukah. Each year we are told Chanukah represents the quintessential Jewish value of absolute religious freedom: the right to worship anyone or anything – or to worship nothing – according to one’s own personal inclination. This is a strange interpretation of a festival celebrating the victory of religious fundamentalists over modernizers and whose story begins with Matityahu’s beheading of a fellow Jew who was exercising his “fundamental right” to worship as he pleased by sacrificing a pig.

How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Yarmulke

Posted on: January 17th, 2007

We recently marked the secular new year, and while there’s nothing inherently Jewish about it, perhaps one of the practices associated with January 1 can help ameliorate a shortcoming not at all uncommon among Jews in the workforce.

The Cosmic Significance Of Saddam’s Execution

Posted on: January 10th, 2007

Superficially, Jewish history is a maze of uncorrelated events with the Jewish people zigzagging throughout the globe and interacting with different nations and cultures in widely diverse conditions.

Put Ahmadinejad Where He Belongs

Posted on: January 10th, 2007

On April 27, 1987, as director of the Office of Special Investigations (OSI) in the Justice Department, I notified the INS that Austrian President Kurt Waldheim was to be placed on the “Watchlist” of persons barred from entering the United States.

How The Holocaust Influenced One Man’s Struggle For Soviet Jewry

Posted on: January 10th, 2007

The recent reunion, in Washington, D.C., of activists from the Soviet Jewry protest movement was an opportunity to see old friends and reminisce about a bygone era. But for Philadelphia attorney Joe Smukler, it was also a time to reflect on the lessons to be learned from their unique, history-changing experiences.

The Rise And Fall Of A Dictator

Posted on: January 10th, 2007

Saddam Hussein grew up barefoot in a mud hut in the town of Takrit, north of Baghdad on the Tigris River. He never met his father. His mother, Subha Tulfah, was deeply disturbed, suicidal and homicidal. She repeatedly tried to kill the child in her womb. According to one, probably apocryphal, account, she jumped in front of a bus and screamed: “I am giving birth to the devil!” Some witnesses recalled the pregnant woman banging a door against her extended belly.

My Brother After All

Posted on: January 3rd, 2007

Ten years ago I was newly married, newly immigrated to Israel, and newly enrolled as a Masters student at an Israeli University. In most of my classes I was the only Orthodox student, and at least once a semester every pro-fessor could be counted on to make a derogatory comment or two about Jews like me. We were hypocritical, primi-tive, etc.

The Agony Of Agunot

Posted on: December 27th, 2006

“Kotzo Shel Yod” (“The Point on Top of the Yod”), the 1887 poem by Judah Leib Gordon, includes a de-scription of the cruel harassment by rabbis of an un-fortunate agunah (literally, a “chained woman,” whose husband deserts her or disappears without divorcing her, thus preventing her from remarrying).

From Prison To Palace: Bush’s Joseph

Posted on: December 27th, 2006

Did you hear the one about Nelson Mandela, the pope, Mother Teresa and the Jew? Turns out they are the only non-Americans ever to have received both the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congres-sional Medal of Honor. The Jew? None other than our own icon of freedom, Natan Sharansky, the former refusenik and prisoner of conscience who earlier this month received his Medal of Freedom at the White House.

Seizing The Initiative From Our Leaders

Posted on: December 27th, 2006

The domestic and international debate about the Palestinians has become thoroughly detached from reality. On the one hand there are the friendlies. These include the Olmert government, the Israeli media, the Bush administration and some European governments. The friendlies say that the “moderate” Palestinian Authority Chairman and Fatah terror organization commander Mahmoud Abbas is the key to peace. Everything must be done they say, to strengthen Abbas against the Hamas terror organization, which they oppose.

Christian Zionists Key To Continued U.S. Support For Israel

Posted on: December 27th, 2006

They number in the millions and wield increasing power and influence across the United States. From year to year their voice grows stronger and more resolute, as their role in shaping policy, and the future of American society continues to expand.

Solving ‘Orthodox Infertility’

Posted on: December 27th, 2006

A proposal for changing the laws of taharat hamishpachah (family purity) was recently raised in the Israeli newspaper HaTzofeh, based on the observation that adherence to these laws may be responsible for many couples experiencing difficulty conceiving. Healthcare professionals have named this phenomenon “Orthodox Infertility.”

Not An Anti-Semite, Just A Well-Intentioned Imbecile

Posted on: December 27th, 2006

I grew up during the 1970's, universally acknowledged as a truly horrendous decade.

The Menorah That Lit Up My Life

Posted on: December 20th, 2006

Two years ago I was in Baltimore on business and happened to pass by the public menorah in front of Johns Hopkins University just as the first light was being lit.

Philistines With Yarmulkes

Posted on: December 20th, 2006

Many in the Jewish community have been comparing NK cult members to the kapos who collaborated with the concentration camp officers and other Nazis during World War II.