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On today’s New York Times op-ed page, David Dow writes a very interesting but ultimately morally flawed article on the death penalty. In short, he suggests: Instead of focusing on the issue of whether or not someone convicted of the death penalty is innocent or not, “Abolotionalists… ought to focus on the far more pervasive…

The January election of a Hamas-led government in the Palestinian territories immediately led to stern resolve on the part of the international community not to have dealings with or assist this regime–and rightly so. Hamas has been and continues to be opposed to Israel’s fundamental right to exist; when it talks about “ending the occupation,”…

I can’t stand people who invoke moral obligations regarding providing humanitarian aid to the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority. I am sorry, but a group that demands my destruction has no right to make moral and ethical claims on me or anybody else. Suicide bombers and ethics are incompatible languages. That said, there is still good reason…

If someone wants to destroy you, are you obligated to help them? How humanitarian is aid when it supports hate? This stopped being a theoretical question when Hamas was elected to lead the Palestinian people, because Hamas continues to be dedicated to the destruction of the State of Israel. The Torah teaches us we are…

In the past few years, an increasing number of allegations about rabbinic sexual impropriety have come to light, beginning with charges against Rabbi Baruch Lanner and more recently against Rabbi Mordechai Gafni of Bayit Chadash in Israel and Rabbi Yehuda Kolko of a boys’ yeshiva in New York City. The most recent allegations have tended…

Recently, there has been a spate of sexual abuse cases surfacing within the Orthodox community. These cases have come to the fore primarily through the constant pressure of blogs. Blogs are an important check for religious democracy. Traditional communities by their nature can be incredibly insular, preventing the type of healthy critique that keeps all…

Should the Internet be used to publicize the names and alleged improprieties of alleged sexual predators? Is such use justified to protect victims and potential victims from sexual predators even if it runs roughshod over the requirement to protect innocent individuals from potentially false charges that can ruin their reputations and their careers? According to…

In his masterful book “Sacred Fragments,” Rabbi Neil Gillman explores the question of revelation and asks: What really happened at Sinai? And what does our answer mean about revelation and the value of the Torah? Gillman considers, and rejects, a variety of positions–from the traditional belief that God literally handed a scroll to Moses, to…

According to tradition, God gave the people of Israel the Torah at Mount Sinai on Shavuot, the holiday we will celebrate Thursday night through Saturday. There is no way to truly know what–if anything–happened at Mount Sinai. Ultimately, it is a matter of faith to believe God revealed the Torah to Moses and the Jewish…

There is no question that neither the Jewish day school nor supplemental “Hebrew school” model is succeeding when it comes to educating our kids to be informed, conscientious, proficient, identified Jews. The reason is simple: both day schools and supplemental schools are being called to take on an impossible role–that traditionally played by parents, extended…
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