When I was in college, there was a relatively new book we were required to read in a Criminal Justice class: “Blaming the Victim,” written by William Ryan (1971). In his book, the author coined the phrase, which became the title of his book (“blaming the victim”), which then became …
We have read so much about “fake news” over the past many months, that the title of this post came to me as I kept looking at the stream of news I was reading on Facebook. A little context. For quite a long period of time, there have been many …
I recently posted an article in which I made a suggestion about how, perhaps, the residents of Bet Shemesh can come together to try to resolve the ongoing religious conflicts and violence in their community. I wrote this as a total outsider, but with the intention of trying to voice an …
As I said in an earlier post, it was only a matter of time before there would be blood shed by someone, somewhere in the name of Judaism. Whether it would be as a result of (violent) protests against the army or perhaps the “Tzniut Police”–it was only to be …
Dear Mr. President: Later this week, you will be meeting with a person, who (on the outside) appears to be an older, respectable gentleman, in the twilight of his life. Do not let that outward appearance fool you. Sir, he is a terrorist with blood on his hands. Not only …
The UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, made an amazing statement the other day for which he deserves not only a lot of credit but our thanks as well. He stated: “…completely clear that the Temple that the Romans destroyed in Jerusalem was a Jewish temple.” While the statement is not …
What so bad about the plague of darkness?
Allow me to preface this with a very important statement. What I am proposing here is merely in theory. The Shulchan Aruch (the Code of Jewish Law) indeed prescribes various fast days and days in which joy is curtailed. Therefore, any comments or ideas here cannot be taken as a …
This morning, on the way home from shul, I was asked by a neighbor, “Why should we care what the UN says?” For anyone who may follow me on Facebook knows, I have been pounding US President, Barack Hussein Obama for abstaining (via Samantha Powers) in the UN vote against …
