The Pope Speaks, and The Critics Pounce Your June 2 article “At Auschwitz, Ire at What Pope Didn’t Say” reported on the criticisms leveled by some in the Jewish community at Pope Benedict XVI’s speech at Auschwitz. It is worth noting, however, that several days later, in his General Audience in Rome, Pope Benedict delivered…
Scottish Church Shows Commitment to Peace Religion, at its purest, is the search not only for peace but also for truth. In a May 19 opinion article, Peter Kearney, national spokesman for the Catholic Church in Scotland, demonstrates a noble commitment to both (“British Academic Boycott Is Just Blinkered Bigotry”). By appreciating that defensive measures,…
Pluralism at Seminary A May 12 letter writer asks who will serve as the Jewish Theological Seminary’s halachic authority now that Arnold Eisen has been selected as chancellor (“Conservative Seminary Lacks Rabbinic Leader”). The Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Rabbinical Assembly is, in fact, the halachic authority for the Conservative movement. Eisen…
Survivors Will Fight On The Forward has sunk to new depths by attacking Holocaust survivors who have objected to being treated like third-class citizens (“At Long Last, Have You No Shame,” May 12). Perhaps out of the continued naiveté that our views mattered, several survivors met yet again with Judge Edward Korman and Special Master…
Conservative Seminary Lacks Rabbinic Leader Opinion writer Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove’s comparison of Arnold Eisen, the newly appointed chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary, to Solomon Schechter begs the question (“When a Scholar Became Chancellor,” May 5). Schechter possessed a profound understanding of Judaism in its rabbinic, theological formulation, as shown by his classic work, “Some…
Hard Work Needed For A Good Job Anywhere I don’t know whether, as an April 28 article reports, more young Israelis have been leaving the country (“Israelis Park the Moving Truck and Head to the Mall”). All data are skewed, including the Israeli Democracy Institute’s finding that 7% of Israelis aged 15 to 18 do…
Support Rally Instead Of Predicting Its Size Frankly, an April 21 article on the national rally called by the Save Darfur Coalition is a new one on me — critiquing the turnout at an event before it happens, deploring the absolutely unknown size of a rally because it is not likely to be as big…
Note Orthodox Record Of Government Service An April 7 article describes the hundreds of letters that were submitted on behalf of Jack Abramoff to U.S. District Judge Paul Huck, many from prominent rabbinic and lay leaders in the Orthodox community (“‘Dear Judge’: Religion-tinged Letters Praise Good Deeds of Felon Lobbyist”). Assuming that Abramoff is truly…
Word to Music Critics: Just Let Matisyahu Sing The racially focused critiques of Chabad-Lubavitch reggae star Matisyahu lack merit (“Trials of a Hasidic Rapper,” March 24). Matisyahu and his band are attacked for being white. To paraphrase the late Miles Davis, it doesn’t matter if this cat is black, white or polka dot with green…
Editorial Romanticizes U.S. Support for Israel In a March 24 editorial on John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt’s controversial polemic on the “Israel lobby” (“In Dark Times, Blame the Jews”), the Forward states that “Israel has had the support of successive American administrations in large part because it enjoys the sympathy of much of the American…
Rabbi’s ‘Medical’ View Of Gays Simply Wrong I should like to thank the Conservative movement Rabbinical Assembly’s Rabbi Leonard Levy for giving us his expert medical opinion on the nature of homosexuality (“Gay Issues Roil Rabbis In Advance Of Parley,” March 17). Were we not in the blessed position of being enlightened by Levy, we…
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