He looked like a teenager, until he began to tell his story, and then his face took on a sadness that aged him…. Avi (not his real name) had only recently finished his regular army stint in the IDF, and was due to fly to South Africa as part of a very special educational mission to work with less-affiliated Jewish teens in South Africa. more

With the world swirling around us with the turmoil of violence and murder, all at the behest of governments and their terrorist surrogates, it behooves us to take a close look at the biblical saga of the Tower of Babel and its role, in antiquity, as the harbinger of the totalitarian rule that has become commonplace today. This week’s essay will be devoted to reviewing several works that deal with this theme from our religious perspective. more

To the Editor: Rabbi Avi Billet’s column of October 12, 2012, “The Crouching Sin,” is one of the most courageous and meaningful columns I have seen in a long time. more

Any sports fan will tell you that if you leave the game talking about the umpire or referee, that official did an awful job. The same thing goes when talking about political debates. more

The election season is becoming an all out brawl between the candidates; each one is trying to paint a picture of the better America he will create in less than four years. Something is wrong with that philosophy, but it is hard to really put your finger on it after being indoctrinated with the short-term fix for so long. more

A wartime diplomat dubbed the “Iranian Schindler” was honored by the Nassau Memorial & Tolerance Center as part of a larger effort to raise awareness of its work in the local Persian community. more

“The first thing I do when I speak at an event is check out the box that I stand on because they don’t realize how short I am. I call it the Bar Mitzvah box, that boys usually stand on when they speak,” said Dr. Ruth Westheimer, a Holocaust survivor. She was preparing for her keynote speech at the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces (FIDF) dinner held on Tuesday night at Fresh Meadows Country Club in Great Neck. more

It’s a unique club that no one wants to be part of, but once you join, you are a member for life. One in eight. That’s the “club” and the chance of a woman getting invasive breast cancer at some time during her life, according to the American Cancer Society (ACS). And although they also cite the death rate from the disease as one in 36, they note that the death rates have been going down, attributing that to earlier detection and better treatment. more

Arlen J. Specter, who was Pennsylvania’s longest serving United States Senator, first as a Republican, and ending as a Democrat, died at his home in Philadelphia on October 14th from complications of non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. He was 82. more

What can a young boy living in Israel teach us about American policy and the support of the American president for Israel? more