WASHINGTON — In a historic about-face in the debate over federalism, conservatives are increasingly attempting to curtail states’ rights over social issuues through congressional legislation and the federal courts, while liberals are arguing for local control on several fronts. This shift was on full display after the Massachusetts Supreme Court recently ruled in favor of…
Professor Berel Lang writes from Trinity College in Hartford, Conn.: “Perhaps you would give a couple of paragraphs to the misconception (and the mistranslation) of the Sixth Commandment [in Exodus 20:13], ‘You shall not murder,’ as ‘You shall not kill.’ The original Hebrew, lo tirtsah., is very clear, since the verb ratsah. means ‘murder,’ not…
Two of Washington’s most famed neoconservatives — David Frum and Richard Perle — have issued a stinging critique of America’s fight against terrorism and are urging more aggressive action. In their new book, “An End to Evil: How to Win the War on Terror” (Random House), Frum and Perle call for universal biometric fingerprinting, immediate…
According to Jewish belief, God transcends history. He started it and could intervene in it at any time. But by means of ritual practices, memorializing events, educational transmission and interpretive practices (for texts and for law), Jews emphatically live out the belief in a suprahistorical God in recognition that historical time matters. Moreover, God’s plan…
JERUSALEM — The deputy mayor of Moscow is pushing for the merger of the offices of the two rival chief rabbis of Russian Jewry, the Forward has learned, in what is being seen as a bid by the government to install one as the sole representative of the divided community. The deputy mayor, Alexander Reisen,…
JERUSALEM — The deputy mayor of Moscow is pushing for the merger of the offices of the two rival chief rabbis of Russian Jewry, the Forward has learned, in what is being seen as a bid by the government to install one as the sole representative of the divided community. The deputy mayor, Alexander Reisen,…
WASHINGTON — Bracing for a ruling against its separation fence by the World Court — which could pave the way for South Africa-style international sanctions — Israel and its allies here are considering a campaign to discredit the court as a biased organ of the United Nations. The proposed campaign is highly controversial even among…
Like its fellow Europeans steaming in the hot dog cart — frankfurters, sauerkraut and pretzels — the knish has by now achieved a pretty solid standing in American society, such that its ancestral origins are no longer much thought about. Its name, though, can’t help but give it away, what with that distinctive two-syllable “k-n”…
Participants in a panel discussion sponsored by The New Republic and Saudi Arabia are claiming that their most hard-hitting criticisms of the kingdom were edited out of a transcript that appeared in the magazine. Billed as an opportunity to talk about Islam and its contemporary relationship with the West, the November 13 panel discussion was…
Like a bottle of fine Bordeaux or a ripe brie, Paris’s kosher scene has come of age. When Polish Holocaust survivors Joseph and Helene Korcarz opened their eponymous bakery in 1948, it was one of only a handful of kosher eateries, which were relegated primarily to the narrow streets of Le Marais, the city’s historic…
Participants in a panel discussion sponsored by The New Republic and Saudi Arabia are claiming that their most hard-hitting criticisms of the kingdom were edited out of a transcript that appeared in the magazine. Billed as an opportunity to talk about Islam and its contemporary relationship with the West, the November 13 panel discussion was…
