The Person Who Did That
There is a kind of shame that can feel morally serious because it refuses to let us off the hook, and we are right to be suspicious of anything that seems to soften responsibility.
View Articleshanah in Jerusalem
As much as one might have closely followed Israeli news over the past three years, even if one knows people who were killed (as I unfortunately do), there is a difference between spending the past...
View ArticleA Life That Is Not an Edition
A total Jewish experience includes the parts that do not photograph well. Army service for those called, coalition politics that embarrass, neighbors who vote differently and still sit in the same...
View ArticleMamdani Must Protect Netanyahu’s Safety
Having previously, unsuccessfully attempted to arrest Netanyahu for bogus “genocide” crimes and more recently encouraging public demonstrations against the visiting leader, the mayor now faces a...
View ArticleWhat Washington’s Refusal to Saudi Arabia Over Yemen Means for Israel
The Houthis have now learned that firing on ships, on Saudi oil, and on Israeli cities produces negotiations rather than consequences.
View ArticleNews I Didn't Want to Hear
I face 41 days of straight Monday through Friday radiation in September and decided to start that process the Monday after Sukkos as I was hospitalized again after my wife took a look at me and took my...
View ArticleFrom Memory to the Public Square
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks put the difference without ornament: “In Israel Judaism is part of the public square, not just the private, sequestered space of synagogue, school and home.” The sentence is...
View ArticleA New Chapter In a Continuing Story
We’re multifaceted people, with inclinations and inner drives toward spirituality and goodness as well as toward physicality and the opposite of goodness. This doesn’t mean that either drive is...
View ArticleEducating Our Children in Jerusalem
In Israel, as opposed to America, Jewish education is run through the government. There are various religious public schools, which are government-funded, and then there are private schools, which are…...
View ArticleJewish Lawyer Vs. Al-Qaeda Lawyer: The Mayor’s Troubling Double Standards
A prominent, qualified Jewish jurist is blacklisted from public service for performing his constitutional duty to provide legal defense, while the mayor’s own Muslim chief counsel is handed a sacred...
View ArticleThe Person Who Will Live This Year
Most of us walk into Rosh Hashanah with a list. Be more patient. Put the phone down at dinner. Daven like I mean it... The items are usually accurate. Someone has thought honestly about where his life...
View ArticleEs Wird Wieder Anders Werden (Things Are Going to Change)
Of course, as is so often the case when a truly antisemitic line is being crossed, it is a Jew who makes the announcement. On this occasion that Jew is called Ed Miliband who recently became Britain’s...
View ArticleWhy Sanctioning Turkey Was a Geopolitical Necessity
The premise of Washington’s current strategy against Iran relies on financial suffocation.
View ArticleThe Home of Hope
A positive case for living in Israel today does not depend on dark forecasts about anywhere else. It depends on the simple claim that a home of hope should be lived in by those who can.
View ArticleWhen You Don't Trust Your Own Promises Anymore
Think of someone who has told you more than once that he will be there, and then wasn't. At some point another passionate assurance does nothing at all.
View ArticleThis Elul in Jerusalem
The idea of hundreds, if not thousands, of people gathering together in preparation for the Yamim Noraim – not as a shul program, but as a much larger convocation – reminded me of Yishay Ribo's huge...
View ArticleMamdani’s Toxic Anti-Establishment Ideology
The mayor’s glowing sympathy for a violent sociopath – and his chilling silence regarding the innocent victim – is not just a political gaffe. It is a defining feature of an ideological worldview that...
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