Dennis Ross, founder of AIPAC with Martin Indyk, has served Presidents Carter, Reagan, Bush Sr., Clinton, Obama—all but Bush Jr. Ross got his Judaism after the Six-Day War, founded a synagogue in Rockville, Maryland, and has served in the Pentagon, the State Department, the National Security Council, and the White House. In the Reagan years, he was director of Near

According to voter statistics, only 61.2 percent of New Jersey’s eligible voters vote. That’s only about a percentage point or two less than their Israeli counterparts. (Where in 1949, 86 percent of the Israeli population voted, today’s it hovers around 63 percent. The most dramatic drop in participation—10 points—came between 1999 and 2003.) That is really

If it hadn’t been for the photo of me next to last edition’s article (“Josh Levy: The Best Defense – Get a Gun”), I wouldn’t have recognized myself in the article’s cartoonish description of my views. The article contained imagined quotations about topics that were never discussed, and misrepresented my statements on the topics that were discussed.

There is nothing the media likes more than branding something so they can peg it and sensationalize it, raise your adrenaline and have you coming back for more of their inflated hype. Love Fests, Warm Embraces, Charm offensives. What we have seen in the last few weeks, since Obama threatened to bomb Syria for using gas on its own citizenry,  has left many people

The Torah and Talmud are very clear about the pursuit of peace... Tanach and Chazal have always been more concerned with peace than war. After all, the Torah is the first document to ever to discuss peace as a normal condition of life. Devorim 20 makes it clear Hashem is our warrior, and anyone who ever committed an aveyrahcannot be a soldier. Even the order

What did Obama’s Shabbos Surprise accomplish? For one thing, once he threw the matter into Congress’ lap he bought himself and the American people some time, while adhering to the letter of the Constitution, and took the wind out of the sails of those who were absolutely certain he would act unilaterally, justifying, in their minds, his impeachment. Buying time

As the latest round of Mideast peace talks begin anew, we understand the need to be realistic peacemakers, as those who understand the huge risks of making peace, and who are pained by all the deaths and misery and stress that has gone before and may well continue after these next nine months are spent talking. After all, many in our community have close relatives in

Thirty years or more ago, when the late great Senator from New Jersey and UJA lay leader, Frank Lautenberg, greeted a mission from Bergen County to Washington, D.C. he was asked about school vouchers. His reply was a barely polite negative. Vouchers drain public schools of their resources, he said, and last week, so did three of the four Democratic candidates vying for

Gathering news from around the world as we do, it is obvious that we are living in interesting and tough times – and the last few weeks have been particularly rough. Yet readers who riffle through the pages of JLBC, see our great hopes for the future reflected in the happy shining faces of our community’s children, who play together and grow up together in a

About 30 years ago, attempts were made to change what Orthodox women learned in Kallah classes as the issue of spousal abuse received more public attention and attitudes changed. As divorce rates rose both in society and in the Jewish community, a number of women found that they could not easily free themselves of such men and the issues of domestic violence and child

So many people walk around with a sense of victimhood, and you would think that Holocaust survivors in particular would feel that way. Some do. My mother doesn’t. She went through it, and as I watched her fight her way back from death’s door last week to overcome a deadly infection, heart failure, pneumonia and even dementia, I understood the difference between a

Bravo, the network that loves to bring you “real life” in the form of exaggerated stereotypes, has done it again. Instead of Housewives of New Jersey, Atlanta, Orange County and elsewhere, we now have Princesses of Long Island, a reality (bites) show that showcases six young ostensibly Jewish women, nearing 30, looking for Jewish husbands. One of them labels