A Giant Of Faith And Intellect

When I moved to Israel fourteen years ago, I was very keen on meeting Rabbi Aryeh Carmell, zt"l. He had taught Gemara to my father in Yeshivas Dvar Yerushalayim many years earlier, but what excited me was his role as editor of Challenge, the first of the Torah/science genre. I visited him one Shabbos, and he was glad to answer my questions.

Their Jewish Heritage

"I still had a ham sandwich for lunch, and my mother made great pork chops" - U.S. Senator George Allen (R-Virginia), after discovering recently that his mother was Jewish.

The Democrats’ War Against The War

Two recent news items speak volumes about the Democratic Party's priorities on national security. First, Democratic majorities in the House and Senate - including all the presidential aspirants - voted against the Military Commissions Act of 2006, which authorized military tribunals to try terrorist suspects and established guidelines for their aggressive interrogation. Then 177 House Democrats voted to thwart the passage of the Electronic Surveillance Modernization Act, which expanded electronic surveillance of terrorists on foreign soil.

The Trillion Dollar Question

Imagine for a moment that all of Israel's enemies - both declared and tacit - form an alliance and appoint a single governing body to represent them. They then declare publicly and unequivocally that they are prepared to make a genuine, everlasting peace agreement with Israel. Further imagine that the authenticity of this declaration can somehow be proven beyond any shadow of a doubt.

Bush’s Most Preposterous Critic

Graydon Carter tries so hard to get New York’s liberal establishment to take him seriously – no small task for someone who’s gone from skewering the rich and famous as editor of Spy magazine, the relatively short-lived 1980’s media phenomenon, to toadying to Hollywood celebrities and their imperious agents as editor of Vanity Fair, the glossy monthly that downplays its more serious journalism behind covers that feature scantily clad Hollywood ingénues and headlines seemingly lifted from the National Enquirer. (World Exclusive, shouted the October cover, A 22-Page Tom Cruise-Katie Holmes Family Album.)

Whitewashing FDR on the Holocaust

Rosen cannot even bring himself to use the names that historians normally use, such as "Bergson Group" or "Bergsonites."

Ahmadinejad And The Liberalism Of Fools

Last month the impotence of the world Jewish community was on display for all to see.

In The Quiet Brownstone Near The Danube

At first glance it looks like an ordinary brownstone.

Letters To The Editor

Beautify The Shrines    This is the time of year when we, the Jewish people, visit our holy places in Israel. Having just visited Kever...

Five Years Later: The Roots Of 9/11

The roots of 9/11 lie deeply embedded in civilizational hostility - in its distinctly partial - but nonetheless - primal Islamic hatred for western modernity. This fixed and growing hatred extends to other major religions, especially Judaism, but also to certain elements of Christianity. And although it is true that the greatest portion of Muslims rejects terror violence as a means of fulfilling presumed Islamic expectations, the remaining portion is not statistically insignificant. This group numbers (at least) in the tens-of-millions.

Republicans Should Consider Goldwater’s Libertarianism

The late liberal activist Allard Lowenstein was fond of recalling the time he bucked a boycott of French President Georges Pompidou's address to a joint session of Congress in March 1970.

The Implications For Israel If Democrats Recapture The House

Many pundits have been predicting that the House of Representatives will have a Democrat majority after the mid-term elections in November. This would hold perils that are unappreciated by many.

Larsen’s Perfect Game Earned Me A Slap From My Rebbe

October 8, 1956. Fifty years ago. During a break from our studies at Detroit's Yeshiva Beth Yehudah, a couple of my ninth-grade classmates raced with me to a nearby gas station where we knew the radio would be on and the volume turned high.

The View From Henry Siegman’s Knees

In this week’s Jewish Press front-page essay, Gilead Ini methodically shreds even the slightest pretense of objectivity maintained by Henry Siegman, formerly of the Council on Foreign Relations and the American Jewish Congress and a prolific writer on the Middle East.

Henry Siegman, Pro-Palestinian Propagandist

The Middle East, after all, is a volatile region, and accurate predictions are not always so easy. But there is no such excuse for Siegman's all too common errors of fact.

Letters To The Editor

Neturei Karta Loves Ahmadinejad    The president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has repeatedly called for the total destruction of Israel. Such a catastrophe would mean...

Whither Israel: After Lebanon And Gaza? Finally, Time To Reject A Suicidal Peace...

There are other PA/PLO/Hamas violations of Oslo, any one of which could comprise an entire magazine article.

Trip To Ukraine And Poland

As of Tzom Gedalia, Sept. 25, I will be on a trip to Ukraine and Poland.

Not Home For The Holidays

What else could I do? This past summer, former Israeli chief rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu instructed Jews around the world to recite Psalm 102 for the release of captured Israeli soldiers Gilad Shalit, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev. So every day, rain or shine, tired or not, with time to spare or in a big rush, I read Psalm 102 without fail.

Unexpected Motif Of A Solemn Season

The Jewish High Holy Days began last Friday evening with two days of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and will end next week with Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. Jewish wisdom teaches that what God thinks of us is far more important than what we think of God. Thus it follows that Rosh Hashanah, literally the head of the year, is the time when God judges all humans. Rosh Hashanah's solemn role of affirming that God does judge us makes one of its central themes - laughter - difficult to understand.

The UN’s Dictator Tour 2006

Not the least unfortunate aspect of the United Nations is its habit of providing Third World despots with a prominent pulpit to speechify against the agency's principal sponsor: the United States. Last week was no exception, as three worthy claimants to the title of most anti-American head of state - Iran's millenarian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Venezuela's Castro protégé President Hugo Chavez; and Bolivia's Bolshevist President Evo Morales - descended on Turtle Bay to diabolize President Bush, denounce American foreign policy, and revel in the adulation of the UN's correspondingly anti-American membership.

Israel Needs A Lot More Patriotism And Prayer

Each morning they line up, rain or shine, several rows deep, just before the start of class. After the principal says a few words and wishes them a good day, the hundreds of students at an elementary school in central Israel burst into "Hatikva," the national anthem, in a reaffirmation of their loyalty to the state.

The Pope’s Lose-Lose Choice

Representatives of the religion of peace had their hands full earlier this month organizing demonstrations, burning the pontiff in effigy, promising to assassinate him, instigating church bombings, killing at least one nun, and generally threatening the annihilation of Christian civilization because of the pope's remarks about Islam nurturing "evil and inhuman" acts. A Turkish cleric declared that the pope's statement reflected a terrible ignorance of Islam.

Au Revoir, Oriana

Oriana Fallaci, the Italian journalist who late in life did a profound about-face – going from leftist supporter of revolutionary movements to resolute defender of the West and vocal opponent of Islamic fundamentalism – died last week in Florence.

Riding the Waves of Teshuvah

The tzaddikim, unsayed by desire to indulge in the pleasures the "island" proffers, stay on board.

Whither Israel: After Lebanon And Gaza? Finally, Time To Reject A Suicidal “Peace Process”...

The rights of both Jews and Christians were openly trampled on by the Muslim conquerors of Jerusalem. Churches were made into mosques. Slaughterhouses were deliberately established near Jewish places of worship. Mosques were built next to churches and synagogues so that their minarets could literally "over-tower" them.

Polish Leaders In New York And Israel

Last week, President Lech Kaczynski of Poland visited Israel, where he participated in many events in support of Israel and the Jewish community in Poland.

Letters To The Editor

New Year Greeting    I am a Muslim living in the Detroit area who faithfully visits your Jewish Press website. I enjoy the political commentary,...

Are You A Clueless Defeatist?

There is some confusion these days over who is really in favor of peace, who is still clueless, who is a defeatist, and who has failed to learn anything at all about the Middle East conflict over the past 20 years.

Clear And Present Danger

Many in the chattering classes in the United States recently devoted their energy to the controversy about ABC's television film "The Path to 9/11." Partisanship seems to dominate virtually every discussion these days. So it was no surprise that, just as Republicans have sought to minimize the lack of attention paid to the terror threat by the Bush administration, so, too, have Democrats resisted the notion that the failures of the Clinton administration be highlighted, as the film did with some respects.

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