On April 25, the day set aside to commemorate the end of Nazi occupation in Italy during World War II and the victory of the Resistance, the story that dominated the Italian news involved people … more

Sometimes a cluster of unrelated events transpiring in close succession seem to have an invisible dialogue all its own. Last week was just such a week. It started with the milestone of modern day … more

Naftali Bennett is Israel’s minister of education and Diaspora affairs. For decades, world Jewry helped Israel. Organizations gathered and sent funds to the feeble, small state; our Air … more

In “Anti-Semite and Jew,” Jean-Paul Sartre wrote, “I refuse to characterize as opinion a doctrine that is aimed directly at particular persons and that seeks to suppress their … more

Spring is finally here. We want to be outside as much as possible, and we do not want to spend a lot of time in the kitchen on dinner prep. The kids are probably busy with after school programs and … more

We should not be surprised by the similarities between Judaism and the surrounding cultures, one of my professors, Rabbi Menachem M. Brayer, PhD zatzal, once noted. After all, they were in the same … more

Shortly after his election as Sephardic chief rabbi of Israel in the early 1970s, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef visited New York City and spent Yom Ha’Atzma’ut here. He gave a shiur for rabbis, at … more

Three years ago Koren Publishers released a unique liturgical work dedicated to Yom Ha’atzma’ut and Yom Yerushalayim. Among its essays, one written by Rabbi Berel Wein, titled simply … more

While much of the first part of Parshat Emor speaks of rules of the Kohanim, there is a greater theme in the Torah portion on the periphery to being a Kohen, and it has to do with the desecration of … more

Since I began writing this column in December 2011, I’ve been asked over and over, “Are all the stories about your husband Jerry true?” “It’s not possible that he … more