Category
February 2, 2011
No Jewish child left behind
I recently visited the Westchester Fairfield Hebrew Academy in Connecticut and saw in practice what should be standard in Jewish day schools. Students with special needs are welcomed into the school through its PALS initiative (Providing Alternative Learning Strategies), enabling them to maximize their academic, social and emotional potential and offering them the myriad benefits of a Jewish education.
Put some teeth into Iran divestment
Today was a difficult day. I met with Iranian dissidents, former political prisoners who had been tortured by the current regime. Seeing their scars was particularly difficult for me. But the stories of these people just personalized for me what I already understood about modern-day Iran. This is a government that executes a person every eight hours. That backs terrorists throughout the region and the world. That has made statements about Israel that are immensely disturbing.
Letters to the Editor: Immigration, Debbie Friedman, Beatrice (Bea) Mazure and San Remo
Janice Kamenir-Reznik is wrong to defend illegal immigration to Israel (“Israel Must Grant Entry to Asylum Seekers,” Jan. 28). It’s not about dealing without care for “asylum” seekers. It’s about Muslims infiltrating and undermining Jewish sovereignty in what the United Nations intended to be a Jewish homeland. Every non-Jew seems bent on taking away that right from the Jewish people, and some Jews also support “multiculturism” and liberalism or other “isms” but betray their Jewish destiny. Those who reject the Jewish character of Israel or wish to harm Jews have no place in Israel.
No God, no moral society
Every reader of this column — no matter how alienated from religion — is familiar with the adage, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Even the United Nations issued a postage stamp with these words chiseled into stone. I suspect, however, that many people who are familiar with this verse either have no idea where it’s from, or believe it’s from the New Testament. In fact, it is from the Torah, the very middle of it, as if to say, “this is what the Torah is all about.”
Israel never looked so good
They all warned us. The geniuses at Peace Now. The brilliant diplomats. The think tanks. Even the Arab dictators warned us. For decades now, they have been warning us that if you want “peace in the Middle East,” just fix the Palestinian problem. A recent variation on this theme has been: Just get the Jews in the West Bank and East Jerusalem to “freeze” their construction, and then, finally, Palestinian leaders might come to the table and peace might break out.
Tehran to Cairo
It all looks dauntingly familiar — the spectacle on the streets of Cairo and elsewhere in Egypt. People in the streets, buildings on fire, a wavering army, a vanishing police force. We saw this 32 years ago, in 1978 and early ’79. That time, it was the Shah who was being forced out. Like Mubarak, he had ruled for three decades, been a staunch ally of the United States, stymied the reach of the mullahs. Like Mubarak, he clung to too much power for too long, became a victim of his own hubris (or paranoia), woke up one day and found himself alone in the world.
Of Time, and a Father’s First Century
My father understands unwinnable conflicts. He has been fighting a personal war against time since 1911. \”Where does the time go?\” he is likely even now to be wondering out loud to a stack of magazines and mail he has yet to get to, but will.
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