The Shabbos App is a Farce
It is true that the “Shabbos App” has attracted a great deal of attention and discussion. Personally, I am waiting for the prankster to come forward and explain that this was all designed to make...
View ArticleElon Musk Can Sleep Easier
Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla Motors, was quoted yesterday comparing artificial intelligence (AI) to “summoning the demon.” “I think we should be very careful about artificial intelligence. If I...
View ArticleFruitful Conversations About Fruitful Continuity
In a recent editorial in The Forward (“Be Fruitful and Multiply — Please?”, Dec. 12), Editor-in-Chief Jane Eisner sets aside the Pew Report’s alarming statistics regarding non-Orthodox intermarriage...
View ArticlePassover and the Eternal Jew
I have commented many times that “Let My People Go” must be the most famous half-quote in the Bible. Exodus 7:26 reads as follows: “And G-d said to Moses: Come to Pharoah, and say to him: So says G-d:...
View ArticleNot Just Once
Just before Purim, a non-Jewish woman asked me about the holiday. After I explained a little bit about Haman and his plan, she asked, “so Hitler wasn’t the first?” They really have no idea. We read in...
View ArticleA Foreign Fire
Last night was the yahrtzeit, the anniversary of his passing, of Rav Zvi Elimelech Hertzberg zt”l, my wife’s grandfather. The Hertzbergs were amazing people — they took Holocaust refugees into their...
View ArticleLet’s Not Cry Anti-Semitism
The trail of anti-Semitism is long and bloody; irrational hatred towards the Jewish people permeated Europe, Asia and North Africa back through ancient times. Nonetheless, one should not be overly...
View ArticleThe Rabbis and the Holocaust
This is a topic that comes up frequently, and when it appeared on a friend’s Facebook discussion I put these thoughts together. This is especially appropriate after the Ninth of Av, when we remember...
View ArticleBigotry Watch
First things first: I learned while preparing this that one of the victims of today’s stabbing in Jerusalem is unstable and in critical condition. Whoever he or she may be, and I hope we’ll get his or...
View ArticleJ’Accuse. You Have Hurt Me, Lisa
Lisa, I am very disappointed and personally hurt by your words directed against me. You and I have communicated before. We are in agreement on many issues, and have always been amicable with regards to...
View Article“Ultra-Orthodox Ministers Are Some of Israel’s Best”
That’s not my headline, it belongs to Ha’aretz. This is no small matter — in a way, it’s earth-shaking. Ha’aretz columnist Gideon Levy is a member of the hard left — his most recent book is entitled...
View Article10 Questions about the Gaza War
I realize I’m not saying anything particularly new or profound here, but a Twitter comment about the Gaza War and Israel’s “disproportionate” response prompted me to write a list of questions. Needless...
View ArticleThe Har Nof Massacre, Knife Attacks, and BDS
After nearly a year of fighting for his life, a fifth rabbi just passed away, murdered during morning prayers last November. The terrorists of that morning did not target a discotheque, settlement or...
View ArticleOpen Orthodoxy: The Real Issue
In the wake of the declaration by the leading rabbis of Agudath Israel of America (a body called the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah, the Council of Torah Sages) regarding Open Orthodoxy and its institutions,...
View ArticleOpen Orthodoxy: An Amicable Divorce?
Are the “Open Orthodox” finally going to leave Orthodoxy behind? Several months ago, Rabbi Avi Weiss and a few of his students publicly announced their departure from the RCA, given that organization’s...
View ArticlePharoah and the Jews: A Case Study in Anti-Semitism
The biblical book of Exodus begins with the tale of Pharoah and the Jews under Egyptian rule. Most people are at least vaguely familiar with the story, but few notice that it is the first account of...
View ArticleRabbi Gordimer and His Critics
That Rabbi Avrohom Gordimer has become the standard bearer in the face of the Open Orthodox onslaught is truly quite remarkable. Until he started writing for Cross-Currents, we had not met, and it was...
View ArticleRemind the University of California Regents That It’s Purim
Tomorrow, March 24, Jews around the world will celebrate the holiday of Purim. This holiday does not commemorate the inauguration of a new country, a great victory for freedom, or even the birth of a...
View ArticleSpeak the Truth, with Conviction
Today as always, our enemies are unafraid to speak lies with complete conviction. Just as their predecessors claimed as fact that Jews are disloyal, controlling and murderous, so too today. But in our...
View ArticleThe Dor Yeshorim Rap
This article is written under the assumption that most every reader is by now familiar with a viral video that has taken the Jewish world by storm — very much against the wishes of its subjects, two...
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