This morning I had the profound honor of delivering New Year’s Blessings at the Mayor’s Annual New Year Breakfast in the beautiful beaux arts Celeste Bartos Forum at the New York Public Library. Seeing the different faiths together in one room, and noticing the distribution in number of various sects and denominations, was […]
For the second time in the week that I was here in Israel, Haaretz covered the horribly shameful activities of the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s decision to build a Museum of Tolerance on the site of a medieval Muslim cemetery in the heart of Jerusalem.
Though the Israel Supreme Court rejected the petition against building […]
Every time conflict breaks out among Israelis and Palestinians, the whole world watches, everyone’s an expert, opinions and righteous condemnation abounds from all directions, we start the damn thing all over again.
So on my last night here for this leg of the journey in life, I leave Jerusalem with a few impressions.
1. I am […]
With violence flaring for a second day in Gaza and the surrounding areas, we ventured into the Old City today, albeit with restricted travel due to various security restrictions. The Arab owned markets were on a general strike, which empties the streets and makes them potential sites for demonstrations, so those are off limits. […]
Spending time in Israel with members of the synagogue is always great. That’s the bottom line. As an experience; as an educational opportunity; as a laboratory for exploring ideas of Jewish life, Jewish civilization, Jewish culture, Judaism and contemporary Israeli politics, Hebrew school, in whatever form, can’t hold a candle to being here […]
Rabbi Arnold Jacob Wolf was buried today in Chicago.
I want to remember him.
And since this is the second time in less than six months that I’m in Jerusalem when beloved rabbis and teachers of mine die, I want to admit that this is a sequence of events I am incapable of explaining. The […]
Well the day started better than it ended–at least in terms of news. What I mean is, after a day in which we moved in and out of a variety of security issues and questions, the news broke after dinner that 7 armed rockets were found 5 kilometers north of Israel’s border with Lebanon, […]
Torrential rains fell and strong winds blew all day. We moved from cover to cover in Caesarea, always a great time and the waves crashing into the shore gave every indication of how hard it must have been for Herod to build the city (twelve years) and how quickly it all could have been […]
Today’s Times covers a story about young Jordanians embrace of religion, part of a larger, disturbing trend that has ramifications across the Middle East.
The issue finds its way into Israel as well, no surprise, in this fascinating article in today’s Haaretz about the IDF’s Chief Rabbi, Brig. Gen. Avichai Ronski and his campaign […]
When I woke up this morning, I went for a walk into the Carmel Market to grab a newspaper and get that inimitable feeling of one section of Tel Aviv waking up: the waves crashing into the beach while people exercised; Israelis headed to work; tourist buses lined up outside the hotels; Asian and […]