See how the world turns on two ideas. The first, that there is one God determining the absolute values by which we should live; the other, the seething cauldron of pluralism and multi-culturalism – in its extreme form a flirtation with relativism. Along comes Pesach – philosophically bound by the former approach – and determines... Read more »
Much ink has been spilled on how to be a Jew in the world we live in. In Russia, Jews still have to struggle with how to keep the Sabbath when most jobs and university classes are in full mode. In Argentina Jews question whether their country has a future and in Hungary, anti-Semitism is... Read more »
The Catholic Church is huge. It has 1.2 billion members. There are more than a million people employed in Catholic institutions. The attitude of the Pope to the Jews is of vital importance. One leading candidate for the papacy is anti-Semitic. Not many Jews are aware, but over the last fifty years, there have been... Read more »
A question that seems to always surface both internally and with other educators is: “what exactly is the role of a Jewish educator outside of the classroom and more importantly outside of school?” It is very obvious that effective teachers play a vital role in the classroom.
Below is my list – just the opinion of one man. (I for example, left out intelligence, because it is a pre-requisite for many of the attributes I did mention.) No one leader has all of these 20 qualities. But he or she would certainly need more than half. However, every leader needs to have... Read more »
February 2013 marks the fifth annual Jewish Disability Awareness Month (JDAM), a unified initiative to raise awareness and foster support for the inclusion of people with disabilities and their families in Jewish communities worldwide. We are all disabled in some sense. We were put on this earth incomplete to strive for perfection, and part of... Read more »
Ah love – that ephemeral, slippery word. Why so? Because we think of love as a pure emotion, when it is really messy – sooner or later it gets mixed into the cholent pot of other relationships we have to have with our spouse – earning a living, and running a house, and education, and illness. In other words,... Read more »
The other day a fellow called me and asked me if I could help him drum up clientele for a new business venture he is considering. One of the approaches he considered was having an open house where potential clients could come and sample his services for free. He asked me what I thought about... Read more »