InDepth

(A) Name the high-profile Democratic strategist and former White House deputy chief of staff who said the following about President-elect Obama’s economic team: “He’s generally surrounded himself with intelligent, mainstream advisers. Investors, workers and business owners can only hope that, over time, this new administration's economic policies bear more of their market-oriented imprint.”

Fear and trepidation were Helen Jonas's every day companions while she served as a housemaid in the villa of Amon Goeth, the notorious Nazi commander of Plaszow concentration camp near Krakow, Poland. Six decades after those horrid years, Jonas received a letter from Monika Hertwig, Goeth's daughter. She wanted to meet her.

Jewish Law is democratic in the sense that it belongs to all of the people, a principle reflected in the Talmudic position that each individual can approach G-d in prayer without priestly intercessions.

The Jewish community in Poland has been growing both in size and spirituality.

The Jewish community in Poland has been growing both in size and spirituality.

All terrorism is monstrous, but the murder in India of Rabbi Gavriel and Rivkah Holtzberg stands out for its unspeakable infamy.

Today the Dominican Republic welcomes thousands of sun-worshippers to Sos?a, its popular North-Coast beach resort.

In the Jewish tradition, the principle of a Higher Law is not only well established; it is the very foundation of all legal order.

Apparently Israel is no longer a voting issue for most American Jews.

Recently I wrote about the partial desecration of the cemetery in Bilgoraj, by a construction company, despite the promises of local officials that no defilement would take place.

Recently I wrote about the partial desecration of the cemetery in Bilgoraj, by a construction company, despite the promises of local officials that no defilement would take place.

I cannot recall in my lifetime a man elevated to the presidency who was abandoned by his father as a small child.

It's Saturday evening at the Broadwood Hotel and well over a thousand Philadelphians have flocked to the grand ballroom.

Now your rabbi has proof that coming to shul is good for you.

It is hard to imagine a scene as joyous and religiously charged as Machpela on the Friday night of Parshat Chayei Sarah. Every year, many thousands of Jews from all over Israel, and hundreds more from Europe and America, flock to the tomb of our patriarchs, which Abraham purchased for Sarah’s burial nearly 4,000 years ago.

Barack Obama spent his first week after being elected president planning the next four years. And even though the Oval Office is occupied by someone else until January, the pundits were already predicting the next administration’s trouble spots.

At first glance, it’s not surprising that I voted for Barack Obama for president this election. I’m a New Yorker and a Jew, and so any pollster would have predicted my choice.

The Greek philosopher Heraclitus believed that reality is ever in flux. “You cannot step into the same river twice,” he taught, emphasizing that the only constant is change.

No doubt there were some well-meaning consumers of news who labored under the naïve illusion that the mainstream media would become just a wee bit more objective in its coverage of Barack Obama once their anointed one won the White House.

In recent months, Israel's Minister of Defense Ehud Barak, has issued several administrative expulsion orders.

There is a great scene in "Fiddler On The Roof" where a donor gives a beggar one kopek. "Why only one kopek?" asks the beggar. "I had a bad week," replies the donor. "If you had a bad week," responds the beggar, "why should I have to suffer?"

Recently the world commemorated the 70th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the event that most consider the start of the Shoah.

Recently the world commemorated the 70th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the event that most consider the start of the Shoah.

Liberal Jews have invented the myth that Judaism is a synonym for the pursuit of "social justice."

In September I attended a special screening of the movie "Defiance" at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in Manhattan. The film attempts to depict the formation of the Bielski partisans and some of their early exploits in the dense forests of Belorussia during the Holocaust.

The assassination of the third secretary of the German Embassy in Paris, Ernst Vom Rath, by 17-year-old Herschel Grynszpan in early November 1938 was unquestionably a crime. Under normal circumstances, young Herschel would have been arraigned in a court of law.

Well, it's finally over – and about time, too. After two years of seemingly endless campaigning and eight of partisan bickering and recriminations, the country appears to have turned a historic corner.

Over the next few years, the Jewish community will face serious challenges. Throughout this presidential election, we always understood that whoever was elected president would shape how our country deals with these challenges.

The Monitor supported John McCain in the presidential campaign just concluded, and given the opportunity would do so again. Having said that, anyone who wasn't profoundly moved by Barack Obama’s victory rally and speech last week has to be either emotionally dead or devoid of any appreciation of just how historic a moment it was.

It is essential today that the Begin Doctrine be reinvigorated and declared.