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"Miral" is a film that has garnered an inordinate amount of media attention. In interviews, the director, Julian Schnabel, defends his right to tell the Palestinian "narrative" for what he claims is the first time. He seems not to know that many others before him have specialized in this particular line of work.

The subject of Judge Richard Goldstone came up quite frequently during my recent lecture tour in South Africa - at a dinner in Johannesburg at the home of Chabad head Rabbi David Masinter, where acquaintances of the judge were in attendance; at Sea Point Synagogue, South Africa's largest, where I lectured and whose rabbi, Dovid Weinberg, had officiated at Goldstone's grandson's bar mitzvah; at my speech for Chabad of Cape Town and later in Pretoria.

Sarah Palin is a magnet for criticism and sometimes she deserves it. But not always. Her statements while in Israel last week and about her visit afterward generated the usual scorn that anything she says produces.

An article by Dvora Waysman in the March 18 issue of The Jewish Press referred to the home of the first chief rabbi of...

In a span of several weeks, a motley group of celebrities ranging from the composer of "Zorba the Greek" to a British fashion designer to an American television actor - as well as the Australian founder of WikiLeaks - have all manifested Judeophobia. What is this global celebrity outburst targeting Jews all about?

Something different is happening in Israel. It's been going on for a few years already. Now it's just about everywhere: The presence of Dati Leumi kiruv movements. Israelis are used to seeing Chabad of course, and some attend lectures by Arachim and Aish HaTorah. But this is new. For the first time, you can find Jewish outreach stands manned by individuals wearing kippot serugot at shopping malls, bus stations and major intersections throughout the country.

As an Orthodox rabbi living and working on Manhattan's Upper West Side, I'm thrilled to see so many single men and women actively involved in Torah and mitzvot. This is also the case in Queens, Brooklyn, Long Island, and wherever else singles are found. Whereas in the not so distant past the observance level of many Orthodox singles dropped the longer they remained single, today there are more scrupulously observant single men and women than ever before.

My childhood was full of magical, well-known tales about characters like Tevye the Milkman, as well as tales of love and joy and everyday life in the shtetls of Poland, told with warmth and wit by my grandparents.

The hearings convened by Representative Pete King, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, to examine the recruitment of American Muslims as jihadist terrorists revealed all the pathologies of multicultural grievance politics that for decades now have compromised our response to Islamic jihad.

As revolution sweeps across the Middle East at a dizzying pace, cries for freedom, equality and an improved standard of living ring out, touching millions around the world and bringing hope to millions more. Finally, their voices are being heard. Progress is being made.

We may not want to accept it, but abuse occurs everywhere, even in our own communities. The effects of abuse are devastating and long lasting - not only on those individuals who are abused but on their families as well. Even one act of abuse against a person, regardless of age, can have a significantly negative impact that may last a lifetime.

We just celebrated Purim, which has always stood out in my mind as unique among the Jewish holidays. Unique for the giddy exuberance it brings, the gastronomic indulgence, the focus on unity and community, the retelling of arguably the most dramatic tale of Divine salvation in Jewish history - but most of all for the strong, spirited heroine at its center.

Someone asked me what we should have in mind on Purim. I would answer with one word: Amalek. You want simcha? You want geulah? Think Amalek!

Klal Yisrael. All of Israel. One people. One community. One.

Early this past Shabbat morning we heard from military sources that a family had been brutally slaughtered in Itamar, a settlement near Shechem. Since my niece lives there with six children, we were extremely worried even though we realized there were many families that fit the description.

The atrocity in Itamar, in which two parents and three young children were brutally murdered by believers in the "religion of peace," has shocked and dismayed all civilized people. Blame is always ascribed to the perpetrators, whose inhumanity and animalistic instincts know no bounds. But it is foolhardy to ignore the effects of Prime Minister Netanyahu's policies that have facilitated both terror and the further deterioration of Israel's strategic position.

One week ago on my website I announced my intention to attend the next court appearance of a man who was arrested last year and is now standing trial on 10 felony charges of child abuse.

The world is wringing its hands over the fate of Libya. Being a helpful sort of guy, and what with Purim fast approaching, I know just the proper solution.

Weeks of turbulent Arab uprisings throughout the Middle East have dislodged dictators and inspired tens of thousands of young Muslims to dream of freedom. Swarming through streets and squares, they have demanded the end of autocratic rule.

After spending two years condemning Israeli checkpoints and roadblocks as impediments to peace, President Obama congratulated Egyptian demonstrators - reportedly members of the Muslim Brotherhood - for setting up checkpoints and conducting body searches.

It began in the United States with the Yiddish newspaper the Forward in the first half of the 20th century. The galeriye fun farshvundene mener (gallery of vanished husbands) appeared regularly, listing names and photos of men who had disappeared leaving their wives as agunot, chained to a Jewish marriage. The Jewish Press followed in the latter decades of the century, launching its own weekly seiruv list.

If Toni Morrison, the Nobel-prize winning African-American novelist, could refer to Bill Clinton, a white man, as America's first black president, then surely we can take a reverse tack: Is it possible that Barack Obama is not the first real black president after all?

The international campaign to prevent speakers from delivering pro-Israel talks at universities has been assisted by leaders of the American Civil Liberties Union - an organization that is supposed to protect freedom of speech for all. The method used to silence these speakers and preclude their audiences from hearing their message is exemplified by a now infamous event at the University of California at Irvine.

Israel's opponents increasingly contrive to hijack commemoration of the Holocaust in order to malign the Jewish state. Recently, a battle erupted at Northeastern University in Boston over the decision to invite Israeli filmmaker Yoav Shamir to screen "Defamation" at its annual Holocaust Awareness Week in March.

One snowy day back in college, I was returning from class to my dorm and began to cross a small intersection. A woman was waiting at the stop sign in a large gray vehicle. As I began to pass in front of it, she suddenly drove forward into me. I banged on the hood, she came to and stopped, and I barked some remark about using her eyes. The incident was more startling than injurious, so I moved on.

"In the name of the Lord, the God of Israel: On my right Michael, on my left Gabriel, before me Uriel, behind me...

Bear with me, if you will, for a bit of nostalgia. A few weeks ago - Jan. 19, to be precise - I celebrated the 30th anniversary of my becoming an Israeli.I thought readers might enjoy the telling of that tale.

Much has been said of the popular uprising in Egypt that led to the demise of the 30-year autocratic rule of President Hosni Mubarak. For the most part, the discourse has centered on the issue of whether or not Egypt can emerge from its uprising as the first "self-made" democracy in the Arab world. In this respect, most pundits have focused their analyses on those obstacles that might prevent Egypt's democratization, in particular, the hindering influence of the radical Islamic Muslim Brotherhood.

Even without the anticipated passage of two Iranian warships through the Suez Canal, it was a week that rattled Israelis' nerves. It began on with a stern lecture by New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman that got considerable play in the Israeli media.

For the past two years the hottest debate in the pro-Israel community has been over how to assess the Obama administration. Despite the tense relationship with the Israeli government, the fights picked over building in Jerusalem and the pressure for a settlement freeze, there has been a considerable body of opinion that still insisted Obama had basically changed nothing in the Israel-U.S. relationship.