A couple of years ago I was invited on to a TV talkshow to talk about whether children need fathers. Obviously I was arguing for the motion, but one of the women arguing against it had a son conceived by artificial insemination who till this day does not know the…
Identifying a phony rabbi
There have been numerous examples over the last year of religious leaders causing difficulties for the people that they guided or advised. The most famous amongst them was Barack Obama’s former Pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Obama was forced to distance himself from his pastor after Wright was exposed as making…
Is Jewish Unity Achievable?
This is the time of year when we are supposed to introspect as individuals. No doubt, however, it would be a good time to examine ourselves as a nation as well. There are many problems facing us as Jews. Anti-Semitism is on the rise all over the world. Iran is…
Are Orthodox Jews fundamentalists?
Writing in the UK’s Guardian Newspaper this week my friend Dan Rickman quotes a new book by Sol Schimmel that claims that Fundamentalism is characterized by “fear of truth.” He then goes on to say that ‘Orthodox Jews are fundamentalist in their belief in the divine revelation of the Torah…
Am Yisrael Chai
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in Germany this week. While there, he visited Wannsee Villa in Berlin the place that the “Final Solution” for the destruction of Europe’s Jews was planned in 1942 by Adolf Hitler and leaders of the Third Reich. In the visitors book Netanyahu wrote three…
Make A Real Relationship
Life is all about relationships. We have work-related relationships, we have acquaintances, we have friendships, familial and intimate relationships. Maimonides, one of Judaism’s greatest scholars, wrote that man is a social animal. We have no choice but to interrelate with other people. It is relationships with others that allow us…
Malice at Britain’s Oldest Synagogue
Reading about Jewish communal politics is a favorite past time for British Jews and the UK’s Jewish Chronicle usually does a wonderful job of reporting the community’s foibles. But the most recent UK Synagogue fight beats all of the rest. Except this time the childishness is trounced by the heartless…
Is Free Healthcare Our Moral Duty?
The argument about healthcare in the United States is heating. According to many on the right the United States has the best healthcare in the world and it should not be tampered with. According to the left the entire healthcare system needs to be overhauled because, in their view, it…
Netanyahu Must Clash With Obama
In an article in the Wall Street Journal this week Alan Dershowitz states that many American Jewish supporters of United States President Barrack Obama feel that they have been a victim of a bait and switch. He argues that during the election campaign last year Obama declared his strong support…
Self Serving Executives of Our Non-profits
This week the Froward published an article that exposed which executives of major American Jewish organizations took personal pay cuts while firing staff and which did not. Out of the twenty one organizations surveyed only nine of the executives did so. Three of them refused to comment. The rest laid…