President Obama visited the friendly confines of Adas Israel Synagogue in Washington on Friday and delivered a speech meant to reach out to the Jewish community and other supporters of Israel. … more

It’s been a few weeks since I’ve written my column (apologies for the reprints), but I was busy planning an aufruf, catering the Friday night dinner, working on the seating for the … more

After  we’ve celebrated Shavuot and commemorated our receiving of Torah, it’s worth remembering that it almost didn’t transpire. In tractate Shabbat 88b, many of the famous … more

In Arabic, the word is Farhud means “violent dispossession.” It’s a word the Jews of wartime Europe did not know, just as Holocaust was a word unfamiliar to the Jews of WWII … more

With Shavuot now behind up, we restart our learning of Pirkei Avot, beginning with the first chapter. Thus, it is most opportune to bring to your attention a new commentary by Rabbi Marc Angel, a … more

In Parshat Emor, the Torah tells us, “You shall then count for yourselves seven complete weeks after the day following the [Passover] holiday when you brought the omer as a wave … more

It was the first time, as an officer, that I came under fire. Well, sort of. We were stationed on the edge of the Bekaa valley, in Lebanon, and intelligence had information that terrorists might try … more

Last week the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed the Corker-Menendez Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act. The bill may turn out to be nothing more than window dressing, with Congress not … more

Judy’s off one more week (mazel tov on her son’s wedding!), so we’re running a version of a favorite pre-Shavuot column. Seems like yesterday that I wrote about the chocolate … more

Another Palestinian teenager was shot to death last weekend. You didn’t hear about the latest killing? Maybe that’s because she was shot by Palestinians, not by Israelis. That kind of … more