Despite the very many attempts on the pro-Israel right to undermine John Kerry’s initiative for peace in the middle east, there seems to be a growing number of American Jews willing to embrace peace. For instance, even the notoriously hawkish AIPAC has come to Kerry’s defense, in a message they published supporting the reopening of [...]

When the Egyptian people stormed Tahrir Square back in 2011, many of us looked on with hope as an Arab country appeared to call for democracy. The farcical election in Iran a little bit earlier had demonstrated just how difficult such an event was in the Middle East, and many people looked at the action [...]

As a precondition for reopening peace talks with the Palestinians, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu unsuccessfully called on the U.S. to release Jonathan Pollard, the American convicted of spying on behalf of Israel in the 80’s. The fight to free Pollard from a life long prison sentence has gone on for decades, with many well [...]

Is Israel advocacy a partisan issue? Well, after the appointment of Ron Dermer, a neo conservative former supporter of Mitt Romney, as the new ambassador of Israel to America, many of us might think so. When we look at the voting records of Republicans and Democrats in this country, being pro-Israel wouldn’t seem to be [...]

Right after the news of Rabbi Norman Lamm’s resignation hit the media, there soon came an even more eye opening story out of Yeshiva University. A group of 19 alumni who claim to have been sexually abused by Yeshiva faculty in high school filed a 380 million dollar lawsuit against the institution, and they’re being [...]

My mother was the daughter of the Chotiner rebbe, who died at the hands of the Nazis in 1941 with his oldest son at his side. My mother lost her mother as well to the Nazis. She later came to America and started a whole new chapter with her surviving five siblings. She was introduced [...]

When it comes to naming one of the loudest Orthodox rabbis in the non-Jewish world, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach certainly comes to mind. And despite his inconsequential impact on the Orthodox community, the self-declared human rights activist has been named by Newsweek as one of America’s 50 most influential rabbis, been featured on Oprah, and even [...]