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Generalizations as a Form of Prejudice
When thinking about Charedim - think: R' YaakovA commentator who uses the name AI just posted (about an hour or two ago) a comment that I believe is very significant. He apparently identifies as...
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The Greater They Are, the Greater the Chilul HaShem
Rabbi Goldstein with the President at a National Day of Prayer event (NYP)I am extremely disappointed. I cannot even begin tell you how much news of yet another money laundering scheme by a prominent...
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White Fragility
Robin DiAngelo author of White Fragility (The Guardian)Given the choice of living to 100 years as a black man or 50 years as a white man, which would you choose?This revealing question was not asked...
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Leading a Double Life is a Bad Idea
Ayala Fader - author of Hidden Heretics (Jewish Review of Books)Leading a double life usually means behaving one way publicly and another way secretly. This is no less true of religious people. For...
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The Silent Majority Needs to Make Some Noise
Another police riot in Chicago? Media bias at its worst (Chicago Tribune)Is there a silent majority in this country? I believe there is. That term generally refers to the majority of Americans that...
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Adhere to All the Rules!
Rav Shumel Ashkenazi, ZTL (VIN)When a 98 year old person passes away, it is not all that remarkable. But not so in this case. More about that later.98 is a pretty ripe old age. Most human beings never...
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A Rasha in the Guise of a Tzadik
Mizrachi and his list of 'heretics' (Rationalist Judaism)I have to disagree with Rabbi Natan Slifkin. Yosef Mizrachi was never a laughing matter. He was not amusing or entertaining. He is and always...
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The Educational Crisis Created by COVID
Should schools reopen in the fall? (Torah Day School of Phoenix)No one is more committed than I am to fighting the coronavirus pandemic. I need not repeat the numerous times I have urged everyone to...
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Where is the Compassion?
LGBT flag on Jerusalem's King George Street, July 31, 2018 (Jerusalem Post)You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination. (Vayikra -18:22)If a man lies with a male as with a...
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Conversion Therapy - Another Perspective
By Rabbi Shlomo Gegeben* 2018 Gay Pride Parade in Boston (Boston Globe)I received a very long comment in opposition to the views I expressed yesterday about conversion therapy. It was sent by a...
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Democracy Under Siege
A violent protest in Nashville in May sparked by the murder of George FloydThings are really starting to fall apart. I never thought I would live to see the world turned as upside down as it is today....
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What Does Being Transgender Really Mean?
Yiscah Smith (New York Post)The first time I ever encountered the issue of transgenderism was on a made for TV movie many decades ago. I recall feeling great sympathy for the transgender child – a...
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Good Trouble
John Lewis awarded the Medal of Freedom by President Obama (Boston Globe)John Lewis was a role model for what it takes to make the promise of this country a reality for everyone. His passing has...
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COVID and Jewish Education
Some Arie Crown Hebrew Day School studentsIs it a blessing in disguise? Or is it a curse? Maybe it’s neither. And the facts lie elsewhere.I don’t know the answers to these questions. But they are...
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Names, Not Numbers
My brother Jack and my grandson MordechaiIt was in the middle of winter in the Ukraine. The Holocaust was in full bloom. My father, uncle and 3 brothers were living in a hole in the ground. Literally....
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Seth Rogin, Israel, and Judaism
If not for the Torah, the Arabs would be right. I don’t know how many times I have quoted my Rebbe, Rav Ahron Soloveichik saying this. But it’s probably in the hundreds. Those of us who knew Rav...
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Bad? Or Worse?
(Updated) I do not recall anything like this in my lifetime. I am not talking about the pandemic. Although that will impact the issue. The choice for President in the next election is like choosing...
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Rav Shmuel, Rabbi Shafran, and the President
Rav Shmuel Kamenetsky and his son, Rav Shalom (Mishpacha)An important Open Letter regarding Orthodox Jewish involvement with politics (or perhaps more precisely – support for certain politicians) was...
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Sadie Hawkins Day
Tu B'Av (OU)Tomorrow is Sadie Hawkins Day. For those too young to have any clue what I am talking about, this ‘holiday’ is a figment of the late cartoonist Al Capp’s imagination. Capp was the creator...
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Abortion and Halachic Common Sense
Updated* I sometimes have to wonder whatever happened to common sense. Which to me, means looking at a contentious issue from both sides of the argument. This is why I found a recent debate on the...
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