96 Judaism’s Liquidoxy rejects extremes, right and left View this email in your browser The Jerusalem Post 19/02/2020 Judaism’s Liquidoxy rejects extremes, right and left Did I get this right? Iranian mullahs threaten to nuke us. Palestinian terrorists threaten to bomb us. The UN and international courts threaten to delegitimize us. And various […]
Category: The Jerusalem Post
Are Rabbinical Schools becoming anti-Israel Bullying Pulpits?
In 2011, when Rabbi Daniel Gordis highlighted “how lonely it can be for an unapologetically pro-Israel student at some of today’s rabbinical schools,” his Conservative and Reform colleagues excoriated him for exaggerating. Today, his criticisms seem mild; things are far worse. Every year, I hear from non-Orthodox rabbinical students that, in their programs, the once-marginal […]
Max Singer z”l: Happy Conservative, Optimistic Jew, Fulfilled Zionist
96 Max Singer z”l: Happy Conservative, Optimistic Jew, Fulfilled Zionist View this email in your browser The Jerusalem Post 29/01/2020 Max Singer z”l: Happy Conservative, Optimistic Jew, Fulfilled Zionist Last Thursday, one of Southern Jerusalem’s leading lights, Max Singer, died. This exuberant futurist who flirted with doomsday scenarios in Cold War America […]
75 Years After WWII, Jews Deserve Freedom from Fear Too
Seventy-five years ago, the Red Army liberated Auschwitz, the ghoulish mass-murder-factory that killed as many as 15,000 Jews daily. “We ran up to them and they gave us hugs, cookies, and chocolate,” the late Eva Mozes Kor would recall for the BBC/KCET documentary “Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State.” “Being so alone, a hug meant more […]
Tzohar Rabbis: Happy, Halachic, and in love with the Jewish People
Sephardi chief rabbi Yitzhak Yosef’s branding of Russian immigrants as “religion-hating gentiles” has fueled cries for a rabbinate filled with peoplehood-loving Jews. So many of us are desperate for change. Change comes from the bottom-up or from top-down. People love sitting around, doing nothing but grumbling about the leadership failures empowering the chief rabbinate to […]
Center Field: Leaders’ credibility chasms
With each week, the global hypocrisy epidemic grows. People keep cultivating their blind spots, consciously narrowing their vision, not broadening it.We see it in too many leaders ready to say anything to stay in power. We see it in their followers reduced to enablers. And we see it in their opponents, who forget how slavishly […]
CENTER FIELD: GANTZ’S ‘GANTZER’ GIFT: DEMONSTRATING CHARACTER, NOT BEING ONE
Although no one can predict who will win this election, we should still pronounce Benny Gantz’s inaugural speech last week a winner. After enduring mockery as a sphinx, keeping too quiet, Gantz found his voice, flapped his wings and soared. The speech didn’t offer any new policies. It lacked innovative solutions to Israel’s challenges. That’s […]
CENTER FIELD: ADDRESS INVISIBLE ELECTORAL ISSUES: THE MAASARWE AND BIADGA TESTS
Election campaigns are like spotlights focusing intense light on a limited number of issues, while rendering others invisible. Clearly, this election campaign will pivot around the Netanyahu corruption scandals, the Hamas and Hezbollah threats, the Palestinian stalemate, Israel’s economic future. Spotlighting those issues will leave other compelling issues in the shadows. As proof, most politicians, […]
CELEBRATE INDEPENDENCE DAY OUTSIDE ISRAEL…BY PLAYING HOOKY
On April 19, 2018, the State of Israel will turn 70. Israelis will stay home from work and fire up the barbecue. Some will party. Some will picnic. Some might even parade. But everyone in Israel will feel the holiday. Everywhere else in the Jewish world, adults will go to work and kids will go […]
CENTER FIELD: THE NETANYAHU HANGOVER BRINGS OUT THE WORST IN US ALL
Watch how a corrupt but charismatic leader who has overstayed his welcome becomes a moral plague, weakening his country’s moral fiber, tarring everyone around him. Instead of doing what great democratic leaders do – bring out the best in everyone – he’s bringing out the worst. He makes his opponents look petty and partisan while […]