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The Fall of an Icon
Cosby as Cliff Huxtable with his TV daughter, Keshia Knight Pulliam (Time)Bill Cosby is about the closest thing we have to being a cultural icon in this country. His contributions to the advancement of...
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Yiddish Isn’t Enough
Naftuli Moster - photo credit: Jewish PressAs noted here many times the fastest growing segment of Jewry in the US (and probably in the world) is the Orthodox segment. This is no longer news. It is a...
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Bury Them with Deceased Pigs?
Rabbi Steven Pruzansky (Times of Israel)Much as I have tried, it has been hard to get away from the carnage that happened at a Har Nof Shul in Jerusalem last week . The image of bloodied bodies draped...
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Driving While Black
Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson and Michael Brown (New York Post)A few years ago while listening to a comedy routine by comedian Chris Rock he said said something to the effect that black people...
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The Part of Me that is Forever Chabad
Guest Post By Paul ShavivSpeaker of the Israeli Kenesset Yuli Edelstein addressing Chabad ShiluchimOn Sunday I was a guest at the closing dinner of the annual Chabad 'Kinus Shluchim 5775 - 2014'. This...
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Expressing Gratitude on Thanksgiving
Norman Rockwell's 'Freedom from Want'Once again as I do every year, I would like to offer my best wishes to all for a Happy Thanksgiving. The custom widely observed in this country is to have a festive...
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The Rebbe Smiled
Burning dumpsters at a typical Meah Shearim protest (YWN)There is something terribly wrong with the picture painted in a Yeshiva World News story. On the surface it might seem like a story of a man who...
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Rabbi Pruzansky - Kahane Was Not Right!
Bilingual Hebrew-Arabic school in Jerusalem torched by Kahanists (VIN)I’m sorry to have to say this, but as a member of Klal Yisroel that is affected by the words of prominent rabbis – especially...
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Education – the Key to Transitioning Out Poverty
It seems so simple to me. So Logical. It makes so much sense. And yet it seems that logic is thrown out the window when it comes to the ways in which Charedi leaders in Israel view it.The ‘it’ I’m...
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Will This Be a Turning Point?
Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi David Lau at the conferenceIs there a rabbinic role in reporting sex abuse? The answer clearly is yes. Their role is to tell those reporting it to them to go directly to the...
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The Meisels Seminary Saga - Does This End it?
Rabbi Gedalia Dov Scwartz addressing a conference on sex abuse a few years agoIf Rabbi Gedalia Dov Schwartz has signed off on it, I support it. And in fact he did – along with Rabbis Shmuel Fuerst...
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Business as Usual for Enablers?
Accused rapist Elimelech Meisels (Frum Follies)I can’t understand how any kind of imprimatur can be given by anybody to a seminary whose faculty enabled the kind of sex abuse described by victims in...
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The Death of a Black Man at the Hands of a Cop
Eric GarnerThis one is different. I am going off topic again because this is a matter that should affect us all, Jew and non Jew alike. I cannot remain silent when I see an injustice done… even though...
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New Elections in Israel will Gain Little
March 17th. That is the date scheduled by the Israeli Knesset for new elections. It saddens me to see Israel once again go through yet another election that will in the end very likely result in a...
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Hollywood Mores and How to Counter Them
About 20 years ago there was a movie about the Chasidic way of life called A Stranger Among Us. It was a major motion picture with Melanie Griffith, an a-list star (at the time) portraying the main...
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Rabbi Shafran's Flirtation with Heresy
Agudah spokesman Rabbi Avi ShafranAs I have said so often in the past, Agudah spokesman, Rabbi Avi Shafran is one of the ‘good guys’. He is a brilliant writer and eloquent spokesman for his...
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Confronting Abuse in the Frum World
Guest Post by Derek Saker Mr. Saker is the Director of Marketing and Communications for OHEL Children’s Home and Family ServicesLast week I was one of 600+ attendees at a 3 day international...
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The Theory of Everything
Stephan Hawking and his wife, Jane, on their wedding dayCan a man with a debilitating illness still accomplish great things in life after being told he has only two years to live? And knowing in...
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The Inner Light of the Torah
photo credit - Jewish ActionThere has been quite a bit of discussion about Neo-Chasidus online and elsewhere. That is a phenomenon that seems to be taking hold in many places where one would not expect...
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The Strange Case of Rabbi Daniel Eidensohn
Rabbi Dr. Daniel EidensohnI really do try and stay out of the fray on these matters. But when I am sucked into the conversation by one of the protagonists, I have to respond.First let me say that I...
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