A Bisl Torah — Your Time Capsule

I’ve noticed a few schools encouraging the graduating class to create a time capsule. A newspaper headlining a major moment of that year may be included. Perhaps a trendy piece of clothing or something representing an inside joke. But what if the time capsule included items that represented the students’ values? Perhaps a Magen David […]

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Michigan Mischief

It has been a busy time for combatants and spectators in the campus free speech wars. As I was drafting a comment about the University of Michigan, we got word that Northwestern University President Emeritus Morton Schapiro canceled his plan to deliver an invited address and receive an honorary degree from Georgetown University Law School, […]

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The Best and Worst of Times

Sorry to go all-out Dickensian this week, but for global Jewry, it surely is both “the best of times” and “the worst of times.” Not a tale of two cities, but a story of two realities—one sanguine; the other ominous. The Jewish State of Israel is a global phenomenon. Yet, its very existence—and envy over […]

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Michigan Mischief

It has been a busy time for combatants and spectators in the campus free speech wars. As I was drafting a comment about the University of Michigan, we got word that Northwestern University President Emeritus Morton Schapiro canceled his plan to deliver an invited address and receive an honorary degree from Georgetown University Law School, […]

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Jews of Morocco: Beauty, Memory and Loss

We arrived in Morocco feeling a bit anxious. With everything happening with Iran and throughout the region, many of us wondered: was it safe to be here now? Yet the StandWithUs Jewish Heritage Mission to Morocco generated tremendous interest and filled up almost immediately. In fact, there were additional people who wanted to come, who […]

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What’s Worse Than Sticks and Stones?

In 1835, the Chatam Sofer, Rabbi Moses Sofer, received the following question: Regarding the shochet (ritual slaughterer) Michael Raab, who serves in a local village. He met a well-respected man, the honorable Rabbi Michael Pashkez from your esteemed congregation. Raab mocked Rabbi Pashkez by telling him that his wife had given birth to a son, […]

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The Righteous Exist

There truly are the righteous, those who have a conscience, who think not of their personal safety, but about what is right and just, who are humane and compassionate. Even in these trying times, they are among us today. They always have been — so great that they did not even think that what they […]

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