Many years ago, the Maskilim in Berlin sent an emissary to Vilna to receive advice from Moishele Apikorus (Moishele the non-believer). Upon arrival, Moishele determined that the Maskil hadn`t learned Shas, nor Rambam, nor Chumash and Rashi. more

The welfare of the people in particular has always been the alibi of tyrants — Albert Camus America is slowly moving toward abandoning those rights endowed to us by our Creator and protected by the United States Constitution. more

Last week I shared a burger recipe, this week I have another. Last week it was a main, this week it’s a dessert. Sweets date back to ancient civilizations. Desserts, as we know them today, are the product an evolution of technology and culinary experimentation. more

In the wake of last month’s hotly contested school board fight, Lawrence residents will again be treated to a competitive election next Tuesday. Three candidates are competing to fill two Village of Lawrence trustee positions. Michael Fragin, seeking a third full term under the Good Government Party banner, is being challenged by David Seidmann and Alex Edelman, who are running together on the Unity Party line and have been endorsed by the Lawrence Association. more

The Jewish Star asked our columnist, Rabbi Binny Freedman, Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivat Orayta, just returned from his reserve service in the IDF, to comment on the charedi conflict with conscription to the IDF. He quoted a sergeant who works in nachal chareidi who said that a “very significant portion of the boys in his battalion arrived to the army not religious.” more

A heated and emotional panel of four men presented their uniform views on the importance of sustaining charedi yeshivas in Israel and of continuing to exempt yeshiva students from service in the Israel Defense Forces, last motzei Shabbat at a town hall type meeting in the Wolfson home in Far Rockaway. Over 150 men and women listened attentively as each of the four panelists presented a ten minute statement and answered selected audience questions. more

In 1946, according to legend, a young polish boy digging through the rubble of the Warsaw ghetto found a tube with a manuscript inside. The African American soldier he sold it to for a dollar, recognized it as something Jewish and brought it to the chaplain of the U.S. 8th Army, Rabbi Herschel Schachter, ob”m. Rabbi Schachter quickly realized this was the manuscript of the holy Piaseczner Rebbe, Rav Klonymus Kalman Shapiro H”YD. more

Picture the 1960s advertising. Cigarette boxes danced and kids colored with “Flesh” crayons straight from the Crayola Caucasian collection — assuming you were either anemic or came from Flekkefjord. And then, alevai!, PC pummeled in. Cigarettes were out and Crayola got the memo. “Flesh” was renamed “Peach” in 1962, “Indian Red” eventually became “Chestnut,” and even “Prussian Blue” was turned to “Midnight Blue” in case Kaisers started goose-stepping during the Cold War. We’ve come a long way … or have we? more

Our bags are packed, we’re ready to go. Some of us to Eretz Yisrael; others to the Carribean, Europe, the Far East, even the Jersey Shore. There will be “staycations” in the Five Towns (nothing wrong with that!) or Long Beach, the Hamptons, the North Shore. Depending on our disposition, we might enjoy a few days in the Big Apple, where there’s far more than a vacation week’s worth of things to see and do. more

When you think of venues of Yiddishkeit, how far up the list would you place the Australian Outback? It’s unlikely to have made my list — until now. We received another reminder last week of how the incredible unity of the Jewish people can rise anywhere, surviving even the harshest conditions in the most remote regions. It came to us courtesy of a levaya (funeral) in a distant Australian town that hasn’t seen many Jews since its gold rush in the 19th century, if then. more