The message read, “Call me when you can, I have bad news.” I hadn’t heard from this colleague since I performed her grandson’s bris six months earlier. I called right away. “The … more

Jews have lived in Iceland for more than a century, but the community spent most of that time without a permanent rabbi or a synagogue, an absence that set Reykjavik apart from every other capital in … more

Sigmund Freud wrote that “the true masochist always turns his cheek when he has a chance of receiving a blow.” Freud’s observation lay at the core of his explanation of “moral … more

Extreme socialism is now on the march in America, with the demonization of Israel as the principal weapon in its arsenal. Claire Valdez, Brad Lander … more

For most of my life, I looked back at the Jews of the 1930s with a question I could never quite answer: Why didn’t they see it? Why didn’t they recognize what was unfolding around them? Why … more

A coffee shop in Brooklyn recently turned a cup of coffee into a moral X-ray.   Rep. Dan Goldman entered Poetica Coffee with his daughter, after which the shop said it would have … more

As my wife and I spent our last Shabbat in Yerushalayim before returning to the United States for the summer, conversations in both Israel and America kept returning to the same urgent question: what … more

The end of the political career of New York Democratic Rep. Dan Goldman is filled with irony. He was a child of immense privilege who may wind up best remembered for being a victim of discrimination. … more

I recently had dinner in an Italian restaurant that makes these amazing little garlic knots. They are crispy on the outside and fluffy soft on the inside — the kind of bread that pulls apart in … more

Are you feeling depressed? Then dance! Feeling lazy? Work! Angry? Smile! Hostile? Act friendly! These are not merely glib bits of advice when there is nothing better to say. Rather, they reflect … more