Politics – Cross-Currents

As the tale goes, a learned non-Jewish cleric challenges the town’s Jewish populace to have its greatest scholar meet him on a bridge over a raging river, each a heavy weight tied to his... T...

https://cross-currents.com/2023/11/14/toldos-knowing-that-one-doesnt/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=toldos-knowing-that-one-doesnt

The average Yiddish-speaking Hasid has working fluency in two more languages than the average American, but the NY Times inverts reality. The post NY Times smears Hasidim again… now, in Yiddi...

https://cross-currents.com/2023/09/07/ny-times-smears-hasidim-again-now-in-yiddish/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=ny-times-smears-hasidim-again-now-in-yiddish

The model for all subsequent demagogues in history, Korach told the people that his grievance was really their grievance, that he was standing up not for himself but for them. And he used snidene...

https://cross-currents.com/2023/06/19/korach-monkeys-in-the-crowd/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=korach-monkeys-in-the-crowd

A piece I wrote for the Forward about the Chametz Law in Israel can be read here. And a thought about the Haggadah and American history appeared today at Religion News Service, here. Chag... Th...

https://cross-currents.com/2023/04/03/two-pesach-pieces/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=two-pesach-pieces

That may be the safest prediction anyone could make – a sign of my cowardice. I will be more than happy to find out that I am wrong. But it has been this way... The post The Charedi Vote Will...

https://cross-currents.com/2022/10/27/the-charedi-vote-will-fizzle/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-charedi-vote-will-fizzle

The closest word for “hero” in Hebrew is gibor, often translated as “a strong man.”  And its true definition is provided in the fourth chapter of Pirkei Avos: “Who is a gibor? He who.....

https://cross-currents.com/2022/10/24/parshas-noach-strongmen/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=parshas-noach-strongmen

Today, the Supreme Court of the United States overruled Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision establishing a woman’s constitutional right to abortion. Agudath Israel of America welcomes this historic ...

https://cross-currents.com/2022/06/24/agudath-israel-on-reversal-of-roe/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=agudath-israel-on-reversal-of-roe

It would be silly to claim a “favorite” Rashi, but one comment made in rare places, including in this week’s parshah, by the author of perfectly succinct yet brilliant glosses to not only T...

https://cross-currents.com/2022/05/23/bechukosai-to-know-what-we-dont/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=bechukosai-to-know-what-we-dont

It is fair to say that as Taylor Lorenz researched and wrote her article, she fully understood the evil of what she was doing. The post Ortho-doxxing at the Washington Post appeared first on C...

https://cross-currents.com/2022/05/01/ortho-doxxing-at-the-washington-post/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=ortho-doxxing-at-the-washington-post

You never know what sets some people off.  Back in 2015, when I dared to write that the U.S. remaining as a partner in the Iran Deal might be better than what might happen... The post The Vehe...

https://cross-currents.com/2022/02/28/the-vehemence-virus/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-vehemence-virus