Back To Basics In Fighting Terror
It has become vogue in many circles to represent Middle East savagery as part of some sort of "war of civilizations."
My Father, Dayan Grunfeld
One cold December evening, I walked into my father’s book-lined study to light the Chanukah candles, which were placed beside the window that overlooked a high street in North London.
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.
The ‘Dhimmis’ Among Us: Judaism’s Lower Class
This is a damning verdict against the Jewish people. We sing the praises of repentance, yet brutally punish those who undertake the holy challenge.
Jew Without A Gun
With the debate over gun control at fever pitch following the atrocity in Newtown, Connecticut, I thought readers of The Jewish Press would find the following account of my experience during the Los Angeles riots of 1992 both timely and interesting.
Failed Experiment: New York’s Only Chief Rabbi
Rabbi Jacob Juspha, better known as Rabbi Jacob Joseph, was born into a very poor family in Kroz, Lithuania in 1840.
America’s First Torah Scholar: Israel Baer Kursheedt
One of the factors that hindered the proper early development of Judaism in America was a lack of qualified religious functionaries.
The Case for Secular Studies in Yeshivas
"When I was in the illustrious city of Vilna in the presence of the Rav, the light, the great Gaon, my master and teacher, the light of the eyes of the exile, the renowned pious one (may Hashem protect and save him) Rav Eliyahu, in the month of Teves 5538 [January 1778], I heard from his holy mouth that according to what a person is lacking in knowledge of the "other wisdoms," correspondingly he will be lacking one hundred portions in the wisdom of the Torah, because the Torah and the 'other wisdoms' are inextricably linked together ..."
A Decade At-Risk
If history has taught us anything, it's that Orthodox Jews are hardly impervious to the lures of outside influence.
Spiritual Survival In An Immoral World
This is not the only time in Jewish ritual where we demonstrate that as Jews we have a clear interest in involving the world at large in our avodah.
Discerning Reality
Will Sharon continue the policy of ethnically cleansing the Land of Israel of Jews and transfer 95 percent of Judea and Samaria to our enemies - even before he begins negotiating Jerusalem, the immigration of foreign Arabs to the Land of Israel and Israel's security arrangements with anyone?
Blaming the Victim: The Truth About Palestinian Anti-Semitism
In August, the Yale Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Antisemitism (YIISA) brought together some 110 scholars to present papers and share ideas relevant to the theme of "Global Antisemitism: A Crisis of Modernity." The conference had as its seemingly straightforward, and productive, objective to further the initiative's primary role of identifying and seeking to explain current manifestations of the world's oldest hatred.
The Marvel Universe
Mystery is based on concealment and discovery. If everything is immediately known and every object or idea is transparent, there can be no mystery, no pursuit, and no marvel.
A School’s Historic Kiddush Hashem
On March 27, before a huge crowd in Boston's historic Faneuil Hall, the mock trial team of Boston's Maimonides School won the championship for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and became eligible to compete in the national competition scheduled for Atlanta on May 8 and 9.
War and Sukkos
They were lining up for gas masks in Israel.
Apparently, at the very time of year we are supposed to be full of simcha, Hashem wants us to be aware of the possibility of danger. Indeed, during the Yom Tov of Sukkos, we read cataclysmic haftaras dealing with the ultimate war, the Milchemes Gog Umagog. Where does that war take place? In the Holy Land, of course, where the eyes of the world are always focused.
Iwo Jima – The Jewish Connection
The defeat of the Japanese there provided an important foundation for our ultimate victory over Japan, and the battle became a symbol of the great sacrifices made by our fighting forces during the war.
Be Not Afraid: Message From ‘An Israeli of the Heart’
These leaders must not only renounce terrorism, but eradicate it. They must acknowledge Israel's right to exist, secure in its borders, for all time. And they must work to ensure their neighbors in the Arab community do the same.
The Empty Rage of Jewish ‘Progressives’
In complaining that Rosenfeld is trying to silence Jews who disagree with him, Pogrebin at one point compares him to Brandeis donors who withdrew their support from the university after it invited Jimmy Carter to speak.
Eclipses, Red Moons And Chanukah
"Logically" speaking, after the millennia of hatred and destruction directed against us, there should not be one Jew in the world today who still keeps the Torah.
The Values That Make Judaism Unique
Two weeks ago I debated Michael Steinhardt, the renowned philanthropist and self-declared atheist, and Prof. Noah Feldman, arguably America's foremost thirty-something legal mind, on the subject of whether or not Jews are different based on their values.
On Account Of An Apple: Chanukah in Buchenwald
Various types of fruit cross our doorstep during the course of the Jewish year. But for me, the symbol of Judaism is the apple. Not the Rosh Hashanah apple dipped in honey but the one I learned about from my father, which began a chain of events that became a lesson of faith during the darkness of the Nazi years.
Confessions Of A Judaica Document Collector
This marked the first time I experienced the palpable sense of living, breathing history in my hands. “This is actually for sale?” I asked. “But how do I know it’s real?”
Condemned to Perish
It was evident, in the years preceding World War II, that humanity had no desire to throw a saving rope to the drowning Jewish people.
The Settlers’ Field of Dreams
Another part of Hebron liberated by women is Beit Hadassah the old Jewish hospital in the Avraham Avinu neighborhood.
President Taft And The Jews: A Remarkable Friendship
William Howard Taft (1857-1930) was the only American president to also sit on the Supreme Court. The Republican was an effective administrator but a...
Real Simcha
The unwarranted hatred among us that caused the destruction of the Second Temple clearly still plagues us.
Roots of Repentance
Every Jew’s soul is a piece of the Divine essence, hewn from beneath the Throne of Glory.
I Survived Them All
Young children, who in another time and place would have had nothing more serious to contemplate than their schoolwork, grew all too familiar with death as a daily occurrence.
Tending A Waning Flame In Afghanistan
KABUL - Flower Street and its continuation Chicken Street are by far the liveliest and most picturesque commercial thoroughfares in Kabul a river of...
Leftists For A Second Holocaust
In his visit to Lebanon earlier this year, Noam Chomsky justified Hizbullah's military arsenal as a "deterrent to potential aggression."