Eliyahu Federman
By Eliyahu Federman
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Opinion In Menachem Stark Slay, Where’s the Humanity?
Menachem Stark, a Brooklyn Hasidic real estate developer, was abducted, murdered, and thrown into a dumpster. Stepping to a new low, the New York Post reports this story with inappropriate levity and derision toward the victim. Practically gloating over Stark’s death, the front cover of [Sunday’s New York Post rhetorically asks, “Who didn’t want him…
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Opinion It’s a Christmas Tree, Stupid
In a Yuletide shift, Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee finally agreed to call a 17-foot statehouse spruce a Christmas tree, admitting that his past practice of calling it a “holiday tree” generated too much anger. No kidding. Naming a Christmas tree a holiday tree or Hanukkah bush should be offensive to both the religious and…
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Opinion Tall (Reform) Rabbi in Sea of Black Hats
More than 5,000 Chabad rabbis and supporters gathered on Sunday for the 30th annual conference of international Shluchim, or messengers of the Hasidic movement. Former U.S. Senator Joseph Lieberman addressed the crowd as the first keynote speaker. Rabbi Dov Greenberg, Chabad rabbi at Stanford University, told the crowd that you are more likely to find…
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Opinion Thanksgivukkah’s Shared Dirty Secret
Hanukkah and Thanksgiving occur at the same time this year. This won’t happen again for another 79,043 years, according to calculations by Jonathan Mizrahi, a quantum physicist at the Sandia National Laboratories. Many are asking what the connection is between these two holidays. Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert even did a spoof on it. On a…
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Opinion Swing a Fish for Kapparot
Thousands of Orthodox Jews are preparing to swing live chickens over their heads before Yom Kippur, symbolically transferring their sins to the chicken. The chicken is then slaughtered and donated to the poor for consumption. This practice is called ‘Kapparot,’ which literally means “atonement.” Using fish, money or chickens are acceptable methods of performing this…
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Opinion Sam Horowitz, Bar Mitzvah Role Model
The short clip of Sam Horowitz’s burlesque show-themed bar mitzvah celebration received significant criticism last week. Rabbi David Wolpe, writing in the Washington Post, called it “egregious, licentious … awful” and “a travesty.” Debra Nussbaum Cohen wrote that Wolpe “forcefully and gracefully articulated what many of us were thinking.” We should be commending this young…
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Opinion Marijuana Legalization Is Freedom of Religion Cause
Medical marijuana is spreading in acceptance, with Illinois this month becoming the 20th state to legalize medical marijuana. But so far no states have legalized religious marijuana use, even though there is compelling reason to do so. People consume alcohol for religious reasons, especially Jews. At least 25 states even allow minors to consume alcohol…
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Opinion Stigmatizing the Unmarried
In the insular Jewish world there is constant buzz around the so-called shidduch (marriage) crisis, where Orthodox are single despite wanting to find a mate. This marriage worldview manifested itself in a recent letter, published on the Jewish news site Shmais, in which an anonymous “older single girl” describes her shame and depression for being…
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