MK Aryeh Deri derided Modern Orthodoxy as “Borderline Reform” as reported by Israel TV’s Channel 2. This head of the Haredi Sefardic political party, Shas, has served a prison term for criminal corruption, hardly a badge of honor for an Orthodox spokesman we would expect to be committed as a matter of conscience to “doing…
Every day, Hillel brings Israel to the campus – and now, we are taking extra steps to bring the campus to Israel. That is why Hillel International is proud that The David Project and its effective Israel advocacy programs are now under the Hillel umbrella. Hillel International’s The David Project builds connections between Jewish and…
To the Letters Editor, The leftwing J Street’s Director of Communications has written a breathtakingly inaccurate and careless screed against ZOA, falsely claiming we are an “ultra partisan” group advocating for Trump which refuses to criticize him. Yet, your own newspaper’s Nathan Guttman verified this as a phony allegation by writing on May 15 an…
I was travelling in Italy when I received an e-mail on May 7 from Jack Rosenthal. The subject line simply said, “Illness” – enough to make me shudder. And sure enough, the first sentence of his message got right to the point: “I’ve just been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.” Fifteen weeks later, Jack was gone….
Days after the horrific showcase of American far-right extremism in Charlottesville, America’s leading extremist, white supremacist leader Richard Spencer, appeared on an Israeli television newscast and compared his hate-filled ideology to Jewish nationalism, declaring it “white Zionism.” Riding the waves of extremism and hate, Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) staffer Naomi Dann asserted in The…
We accept criticism when warranted. In the case of Avital Chizik Goldschmidt’s “Why Won’t Orthodox Leaders Condemn Trump’s Ties to White Supremacists?” it is not. In that article Ms. Chizik Goldschmidt writes, “The Rabbinical Council of America mourned “violence and bigotry”, but not our leader’s failure to condemn it.” Even though Ms. Chizik Goldschmidt does…
Dear Ms. Eisner: Thanks for the attention by the Forward to my column about the Times review of the Eichmann exhibit. I appreciate it. There is however one factual error that I would appreciate your correcting. You write “he ends his piece by beseeching his readers to cancel their Times subscriptions.” In fact nowhere did…
I was taken aback when I read Peter Beinart’s article, “Is Judaism a Big Tent?” just a few days after returning from a four week kayaking trip with my daughter through our ancestral homeland of Lithuania. Each day, we paddled along Lithuanian rivers, large and small — the Neris, Levuo, Nevezis, Nemunas, and Minija —…
This year, Congregation Beit Simchat Torah was invited to join 17 other organizations in the Resistance Coalition that led the LGBTQ Pride March on June 25 in New York City. Our goal was to bring a clear and consistent message of resistance to the Trump administration’s threats to American democracy, and tochechah — reproach —…
Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie’s research, analysis and essay on officiating at an interfaith wedding is interesting. It is clear that his proposal comes from a place of thoughtfulness and love of Judaism, the Jewish people and those connected to them. Rabbi Lau-Lavie, like all of us, is struggling with our generation’s most complex problem: how do…
Jane Eisner recent editorial asks an important question: “Should We Celebrate the 50th Anniversary of The Six Day War – Or Despair? Ms. Eisner, why should we despair? Israel has done nothing wrong. She offered to withdraw from most of the territory she liberated (while, as you note, defending her people from planned genocide) in…
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