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Europe Battles Islamists, but Jews Remain the Canary in the Coal Mine
The murderous shooting attack in Vienna on November 2 is one more wake-up call for Europeans who think they’ve nothing to worry about from Islamists. But while the battle appears to be one in which the West is waging a struggle against Islamists, an indicator that the extremists aren’t losing is the way anti-Semitism continues
Do Americans Understand the Anti-Semitism Around Them?
On Oct. 27, 2018, a white-supremacist gunman sent a wake-up call to American Jews about the always deadly potential for violence from armed extremists. The slaughter of 11 worshippers at a Shabbat-morning service at Tree of Life*Or L’Simcha Congregation in Pittsburgh was the worst act of anti-Semitic violence in American history. That
The Case for President Trump
Partisanship has always struck me as curious, the notion that we must vote for a particular political party always and forever, regardless of its current positions, leaders and tendencies. It is worth observing that the Orthodox rabbis who are most vociferous in their support for Joe Biden have always supported every Democrat, without fail, whether Carter, Dukakis,
Two Different Jewish Tribes Choose Different Candidates
It’s no surprise that Israelis want Trump while American Jews back Biden. The split isn’t so much about Middle East policy as it is about the nature of the two societies.
Among the least surprising poll numbers to be published recently were the results of the Pew Research Center survey that reports a
Why (Orthodox) Jews Must Vote for Joe Biden
Although pro-Trump voices currently dominate American Orthodox discourse, Jews and rabbis in all segments of American Orthodoxy actively support Vice President Biden for president, including Rabbis Menachem Genack and
Reflections on the Ongoing Pandemic
The beginning of the pandemic was terrifying. As a volunteer EMT in Bergenfield, I was overwhelmed by the amount of death and suffering we witnessed.
Contrary to some reports, all kinds of people died in Bergen County—most were elderly, but some were middle-aged and even young adults, too. Seeing the
RBG and How to Save a Corrosive Political Culture
The friendship between the late justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Antonin Scalia provides a model for all Americans interacting with political foes.
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died on Sept. 18—the eve of Rosh Hashanah—at the age of 87 was a symbol of female empowerment,
A Tale of Two White House Signing Ceremonies
Attending the White House signing ceremony on Tuesday of the Abraham Accords—which normalize relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain—was both moving and jarring. Standing at the South Lawn, just meters from the Rose Garden where the Oslo Accords were signed 27 years ago on Sept. 13, 1993, the comparison between
Eliot Engel and the Vanishing Pro-Israel Jewish Liberal
Is it possible to be an American Jew who proudly and emphatically supports the state of Israel while embracing the values of the left? The takeover of the Democratic Party by the ideologies of intersectionality and other far-left philosophies is making this proposition increasingly untenable.
Recent
Don’t Accept the Myth of ‘Jewish Privilege’
Jews reclaimed a hashtag by writing about anti-Semitism. The problem is how extremists seek to shame them into silence or acquiescence to radical schemes.
For one day at least, Twitter became a forum for some honesty, as opposed to the usual orgy of nastiness and pointless memes. After seeing
We Need to Take It Down a Notch
Several years ago, I was in the supermarket and a gentleman I knew was on his phone clearly trying to correctly retrieve the item he was sent to get. When he hung up, I commented that as hard as he tried, he was bound to bring home the wrong thing. His reply was that bringing home the wrong thing sometimes didn’t bother him so much, but
Seizing a 'Viral Opportunity'
Gershon Distenfeld’s “A Viral Opportunity” (April 23, 2020) created a lot of dialogue last week. I appreciated his passionate and well-reasoned plea to the Modern Orthodox community to reexamine its priorities. He acknowledged that many families struggling with the financial burdens of Modern Orthodox life are still considered
