America's Rabbi / Shmuley Boteach

If only my city were to treat me with the same courtesy they accorded Kaddafi.

When Jacob is fooled into marrying Leah, he accepts her as a partner and eventually the mother of his children. But his yearning is for Rachel.

What can explain the "Shades of Grey" phenomenon? Why are so many married women reading about submission in an age of feminine liberation?

Obama is placing all the pressure on 16 Senators from his own party rather than squarely on the Iranians.

Terrorists are not folks and Americans were not attacked but murdered in a despicable and cold-blooded act of terrorism.

Those who use either chemical, or even conventional weapons to slaughter innocent people must be held accountable.

The shocking video of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa trying to push through Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in the Democratic platform highlights the strong reservations that many American Jews are feeling toward the Democratic party.

Forgetting how to hate can be just as damaging as forgetting how to love.

We can afford a few cruise missiles fired at Bashar Assad’s air force and presidential palaces.

Men ultimately fall in love with those women who bring out their best qualities.

Rice was part of Bill Clinton’s National Security Team whom in 1994 refused any intervention whatsoever in the Rwanda genocide that left 800,000 dead.

The world and the United State continue to give Rouhani a pass.

What is better, a popular Israel riddled with dead Jews or an unpopular Israel filled with living ones?

A few hours ago I lost my bid to unseat Congressman Bill Pascrell in New Jersey’s Ninth District. But thank G-d, I’m in a good place and miraculously in a good frame of mind. I’m writing this late at night to capture my thoughts and feelings after investing approximately seven months of my life in this endeavor.

Twenty years, countless conversations, and hundreds of Friday night Shabbat dinners later, Cory today is a much-loved honorary member of the American Jewish community, regularly lecturing at Synagogues and Jewish conferences across the country. More significant, Cory has challenged the Jewish community to live up to its Biblical calling to serve as ‘a light unto the nations.’ In many of the speeches we deliver together he asks the Jewish participants if they study the weekly Parsha, if they honor the commandments, and cherish the Sabbath. What allows an African-American Christian Mayor to challenge Jewish leaders to deepen their Jewish commitment? Because those same leaders are amazed at Cory’s knowledge of Judaism and appreciation of the Jewish contribution to civilization. (Watch video)

GoDaddy's Super Bowl spot was a disappointment for American culture and even more disappointing that it starred an Israeli icon.

The answer is an emphatic no.

Americans are sick and tired of rancorous, scorched-earth politics, which has given Congress a nine percent approval rating. Let’s show America that politics is an honorable profession, a noble calling, filled with people who put values, country, and integrity first. Let’s start winning people back to the political theater by demonstrating that politics are inspiring rather than depressing, ennobling rather than corrupting, and harmonious rather than rancorous.

When all the ribbetting is silenced, we begin to hear an old, familiar tune: the melodious song of our own souls.

Eric Garcetti’s caring for those who are struggling would become his defining political legacy as a Los Angeles council member and as President of the Council.

My own experiences within the shidduch system has caused me to question it considerably.

I call upon President Obama to honor his campaign pledge of 2008 to recognize the Armenian slaughter of 1918 by the Ottoman Turks for what it was - a genocide. I also ask my political opponent Bill Pascrell, to join me in a press conference and call upon the U.S. to put a $25 million bounty on the head of Bashar Assad for his arrest for crimes against humanity, and for the removal of the U.S. Ambassador to Russia so long as President Putin continues to protect Assad.

Senator Lautenberg, how exactly has our President demonstrated his friendship to Israel? He declared Israel's settlements to be illegitimate, put near-unilateral pressure on Israel to make peace without any expectations from the Palestinian side, declared that Israel should return to the arbitrary 1967 borders, and treated Prime Minister Netanyahu shamefully at a March 2010 meeting where he refused even a photo op with the elected leader of the Middle East's only democracy.

There is nothing beneficial that comes from suffering that could have not been achieved far more effectively through a positive means.

When in 1948 President Harry Truman recognized the new Jewish State of Israel, Einstein declared it 'the fulfillment of our dream.'

While Aref Assaf, President of the Arab American Forum in Paterson, New Jersey, might be forgiven for condemning my daughter’s service in the Israeli army, nothing can explain his defense of Congressman Bill Pascrell’s silence on the mass slaughter of Arabs in Syria.

Yet the one thing I have always known, amid the hills and valleys of life: whether or not you succeed in your public endeavors, you cannot fail at your private commitments.

None of this is a criticism of Reform Jews who are my brothers in every way.

When my daughter first made aliyah she was a student at Hebrew University. After a year she called me and told me she was enlisting.

I came to know Mr. Shamir quite well when I hosted him at the University of Oxford in the mid-90’s. He seemed all but forgotten even then and told me that his dramatic drop in popularity in Israel had been due to the euphoria over the premiership of Yitzchak Rabin and his dramatic overtures for peace. He told me this with a touch of resignation. It seemed he did feel underappreciated. More importantly, he seemed to divine the coming catastrophe.