This week past: From The Jewish Star 2002–2013

2002 —It’s open house season, “a rite of passage in October.” A classroom photo of students at North Shore Hebrew Academy High School in Great Neck illustrates The Jewish Star’s front page report, “Choosing the right High School.”

2003 — Columnist Rabbi Avi Shafran argues for a change in abortion debate terminology. When a choice must made between the mother’s life and that of her child, it “is a matter of weighing adult life against fetal life … not a matter of ‘personal choice.’ And moving the discussion from the realm of ‘choice’ to that of lives’ — how to value them and what to do when two clash —is precisely what the pro-abortion movement seeks at all costs to avoid.” Rabbi Shafran was, and remains, director of public affairs for Agudath Israel of America.

2004 — “The pool of people who can afford tuition and taxes is getting smaller and smaller,” said Woodmere resident Harry Cedarbaum, as District 15 taxes rise another 12 to 13 percent.

2005 — Rabbi Shneur Z. Wolowik writes on the meaning of circumcision.

2006 — By Pesach, Ohel is preparing to open two homes for adults in the Five Towns.

2007 — Benjamin Brafman writes “A Kristallnacht lesson for our generation”: “Jews in the free world who failed to protest against the persecution of Soviet Jewry, were also ‘Jews of Silence’.”

2008 — A “gentlemen’s club” billboard on Rockaway Turnpike prompts local upset. “She’s not wearing any clothing!” a 3-year-old exclaimed to his mother. The Star reports: “To parents who attempt to shield children from the seamier aspects of the secular world, it is a large understatement to call the billboard inappropriate.”

2009 — Columnist Micah D. Halpern writes: “The Palestinians have developed a unique style of diplomacy —a kvetch and complain style. They express displeasure and dissatisfaction with almost every plan put before them, almost ever concession made to them and almost every pledge made on their behalf.”