From 1994 through 1996, as a captain in the Israel Defense Forces, I served as a member of Israel’s negotiating team with the PLO. Those years were the heyday of the so-called peace … more

Our parsha, Beshalach, begins with an apparently simple proposition: “When Pharaoh let the people go, G-d did not lead them on the road through the land of the Philistines, though that was … more

This Shabbat is Shabbat Shirah, as our parasha contains the 21-verse song of exaltation sung by our forebears in response to the miracle of Kriyat Yam Suf: “And the waters returned and … more

Bernie Sanders and Michael Bloomberg both want to be the nation’s first Jewish president. But they couldn’t possibly be more different. Sanders is a socialist who is hoping to lead … more

The U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved $10 million over five years to fund Holocaust education in American schools. The vote Monday was timed for International Holocaust … more

Tu B’Shevat begins Sunday night, Feb. 9. When I was a kid, each week for ten weeks before the holiday, we brought 10 cents to school and bought a stamp which formed another leaf of a tree … more

Our parasha contains the mitzvah of sippur yetziat Mitzrayim, the recounting of the story of the Departure from Egypt, that is fulfilled during the Pesach Seder. The 13th century author of the … more

Sometimes others know us better than we know ourselves. In the year 2000, a British Jewish research institute came up with a proposal that Jews in Britain be redefined as an ethnic group and not … more

What is the power of a hug? Sometimes it’s all about the context. Recently, someone sent me a story regarding a fellow named Yankel, a survivor of Auschwitz who began his journey there … more

With a small push, yet surprisingly little creativity, we can easily notice that the Exodus from Egypt mirrors the events that surround the last evening of the existence of Sodom. In Egypt, … more