Did The Rambam Really Say That? – An Interview With Professor Daniel Rynhold

Professor Daniel Rynhold may teach modern Jewish philosophy, but his recently published book is titled, An Introduction to Medieval Jewish Philosophy.

The Obama Plan: Raising “Palestine” Upon The Corpse Of Israel (Part I)

However unwittingly, President Obama is now setting the stage for Israel's dismemberment. Almost certainly, his fixed and unwavering commitment to a Palestinian state stems from the purest and most sensible of motives. Surely this principled commitment is drawn from some deeply personal and historic sense of justice and fairness, and not from any sort of insidious anti-Israel bias. The problem, however, is that this seemingly well-intentioned presidential interest in fair play is starkly at odds with an asymmetrically brutal geopolitical reality in the Middle East.

A Teachable Moment

Israel is, again, locked on the horns of a dilemma. Having been indicted by the "world community" (in the guise of the Goldstone report) for alleged war crimes in its conduct of last winter's Operation Cast Lead in Gaza, it faces unenviable and unacceptable choices.

Creating ‘Synergy’ Between Israel And The U.S.

An Interview with Jeff Daube, the ZOA's Man In Israel

Isaac, The Faithful Follower

In this week’s parshah our father Abraham leaves this world. His son Isaac is left to carry on his legacy. But who really is Yitzchok Avinu? Do you feel you know him? What is the meaning of his life?

What A Difference 66 Years Can Make

A friend of mine likes to say the High Holiday season is for pulpit rabbis what the tax season is for accountants. Well, my “tax season” was a bit busier than usual this year. Just days before Rosh Hashanah, I was privileged to be part of the Orthodox Union’s Leadership Mission to Washington, which took place September 14-15.

His Gift Will Last Long After Others Have Faded

In the fall of 1993, I had the wonderful experience of interviewing Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach. Both a controversial personality and a dynamic presence, Reb Shlomo never lost his unqualified love for his fellow Jew, though he was well aware the feeling was not always reciprocal.

Criminal Negligence At Fort Hood

Anger – no, fury – was my first reaction to news of the rampage at Fort Hood last week. Thirteen dead and thirty wounded is tragic enough. But how could the alleged murderer, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, have gone undetected on an American military base for so long?

The Man Who Won’t Let Nazis Die In Peace: An Interview With Efraim Zuroff

Nazi hunting. Sounds like a glamorous job, but judging from Operation Last Chance, a new book by Nazi hunter Efraim Zuroff, catching Nazis is more grit than glamour.

Vouchers, Gay Marriage And Black-Jewish Relations: An Interview With New York Governor David Paterson

David Paterson is the fourth African American and only the second legally blind governor in U.S. history. The son of former New York Secretary of State Basil Paterson, he spent 20 years in New York's state senate before being chosen as Eliot Spitzer's running mate for the 2006 New York gubernatorial election. He became governor on March 17, 2008 after Spitzer resigned.

Remembering Rabbi Pesach Oratz

Klal Yisrael lost a premier mechanech this past erev Rosh Hashanahwith the sudden passing of Rabbi Pesach Oratz, z"l. Rabbi Oratz's career in Jewish education spanned close to six decades, over which time he taught tens of thousands of students. One of the things that made Rabbi Oratz unique was the range of topics and of students that he taught.

Local Boy To National Stardom?

One of Steven Ari-Z Leiner's fondest childhood memories, he says while taking a break from campaigning, is when on his 13th birthday the late Bobover Rebbe helped him put on his tefillin. The Bobover Rebbe, Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, and Maimonides are some of his heroes. Some of his secular role models include John F. Kennedy, Mayor Bloomberg, Warren Buffet, and Paul Krugman, he adds.

How Shall Israel Decide? Mr. Netanyahu’s Remaining Choices On Iran

Iran continues to play a cat and mouse game with the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and with the United States. Early in October, when another secret site for enriching uranium was discovered, Tehran "magnanimously" agreed to certain future international inspections. To be sure, the actual promise of any such inspections, which was quickly and naively praised by both IAEA head Dr. Mohamed El-Baradei and U.S. President Barack Obama, will be effectively meaningless.

Last to First: Israel’s Economic Miracle

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.

Inspiration In Arms

The narrow streets were dark and filled with sounds. Figures moved behind blackened windows in the overbearing buildings. Finger on the trigger, senses focused on my surroundings, I ensured my fellow Jews the right to pray at the grave of one of our revered figures.

Once Again, Dual Loyalty Canard Front And Center

The espionage charges leveled against American scientist Stewart David Nozette raise more questions than they answer – and those questions should deeply trouble, if not outrage, the American Jewish community.

The State Department’s Shameful Past

Recently, the Romanian government unveiled a long overdue memorial to the 300,000 Romanian Jews and Roma who perished in World War II at the hands of their own government and the Nazis. Unfortunately, the U.S. State Department, whose wartime diplomats doomed tens of thousands of the Romanian Jews commemorated by the memorial, has yet to acknowledge its own role in the Romanian Holocaust.

‘Crystal Night’ And Beyond

On November 9, 1938, a massive nationwide anti-Jewish pogrom took place during peacetime across the entire territory of the Third Reich. The pretext for this explosion of violence against German Jews was the shooting in Paris two days earlier of German diplomat Ernst vom Rath by Herschel Grynszpan, a 17-year-old Polish-Jewish refugee.

Supreme Court Decisions Will Be Watched In Israel

The U.S. Supreme Court now gives lawyers a head start on the preparation of briefs and fills up the court’s schedule of oral arguments as early as possible. Even before it formally convened the first Monday in October, the court announced which cases it would hear of those on which petitions for review gathered over the summer while the court was in recess.

A Belated Appreciation

As the Monitor is only too aware, having received a fair number of admonishing e-mails on the subject, this column has disappointed at least some readers with what one called its “shameful silence” on the subject of William Safire in the weeks since the former New York Times columnist passed away in late September.

Bubby and Zaidy: An “Einikel’s” Remembrance

I needed Zaidy's scissors for another chore. It's a heavy, garment scissor that Zaidy Meir used when he worked as a shnaider (tailor) in the City. When he came to America with his family in 1951, he was able to get steady work although he did not speak English. It's a heavy, garment scissor that Zaidy Meir used when he worked as a shnaider (tailor) in the City. When he came to America with his family in 1951, he was able to get steady work although he did not speak English.

Agri Star Meat-Plant Owner: ‘We Will Succeed’

In the months since Agriprocessors - formerly America's largest kosher meatpacking plant - declared bankruptcy in the wake of allegations of unethical and illegal business practices, speculation has abounded: Who will fill the gap in the kosher meat market? Will meat prices go up? Will an Orthodox Jew buy the Postville, Iowa plant?

Author Lectures On Jewish Bigamists, Murderers, And Thieves

"It's part of our history," author Ron Arons told The Jewish Press. "Just to say we have hundreds of Nobel Prize winners ignores the fact that we have problems too."

God’s Country

Approximately 1,000 years after the destruction of the Second Temple and Israel's exile from its homeland - deep in the depths of the harsh exile and 1,000 years before the beginning of the return to Zion - the great Torah commentator Rashi opens his monumental commentary on the Torah with the question of the ownership of the Land of Israel. What with all the hardships and troubles facing European Jewry at the time, with the Land of Israel but a vague and distant memory, the most pressing problem demanding Rashi's attention is what we will answer the non-Jewish world when it will claim that we are robbers in our own land - usurping its ownership from the local Canaanites.

The Fall Of Israel’s Left

The Israeli Left is in dire straits. The past several months have been some of the worst it has ever experienced.

Out With The Occupiers!

Anti-Zionists say the Jewish claim to Israel is illegitimate because, before 1948, it had been nearly 1,900 years since Jews exercised sovereignty there - and it is absurd to argue that any group still has rights to land they last governed such a long time ago.

Obama Vs. The President He Said He’d Be

During the 2008 presidential campaign Barack Obama vowed he would be a different kind of leader who would move America beyond the “smallness of our politics.” That inspired promise was not an insignificant part of why he was elected last November.

Thoughts On A Tzaddik

This week we read in the parshah about a tzaddik who changed the world forever. Yes, one man can change the world. What kind of man? A man who understands so strongly that God is real that he is not afraid of anyone or anything. He is not afraid to proclaim God’s Name and talk about His greatness. As King David says (Psalm 116), “How can I repay God for all His kindness to me? I will raise the cup of salvations and invoke the Name of God. My vows to God I will pay in the presence…of His entire people….”

Radicals In The Land Of Canaan: Zionism’s Forgotten ‘Young Hebrews’

The death of polymath Amos Kenan and recent Canaanite archeological finds at Beit Shemesh remind us once again of the obscure movement known as Canaanism, founded by a handful of right-wing Hebrew resistance fighters who decades later would become fountainheads of radical post-Zionism.

‘Reputation Always Lags Behind Reality By Several Years’: A Conversation With Touro College’s Future...

At 94, Dr. Bernard Lander, Touro College's founder and president for 39 years, is finally ready to pass on the leadership mantle.

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