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Auschwitz Gates

Last week the iconic banner over the gates of Auschwitz with the ironic legend “Arbeit Macht Frei” (“Work Sets You Free”) was stolen. The phrase itself has now entered our culture, sometimes to replace the famous words that Dante placed over the Gates of Hell, “Abandon hope all you who enter here.” “Arbeit Macht Frei” is far more sinister and…

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Boxing

This time of the year when there is a tendency to glorify the Hasmoneans as Jewish tough guys, it is appropriate that two Jewish boxers have just hit the news. Both are Russian Jews and both are newly religious under the influence of Lubavitch. Yuri Foreman of Brooklyn, but of Israeli citizenship, surprisingly defeated champion Puerto Rican Daniel Santos in…

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Suckleukah

More than the calf wants to suck, the mother wants to suckle. Talmud Pesachim 112a It’s Chanukah time! Consumerism has gone mad. We ape the rest of the world and we overindulge in an orgy of unnecessary spending, spoiling, and waste. Before my children complain that I am the worst overindulgent grandparent on the planet, hear me out, because this…

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Others

I recently watched the debate between arch atheist Richard Dawkins and believing Oxford mathematician John Lennox and found myself alienated from both. And it struck me once again with satisfaction and self-validation, how I do not fit in anywhere completely. Sadly, there are others who turn this into a problem. In the case of Dawkins it was not his critique…

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Conor Cruise O’Brien, 1917-2008

Conor Cruise O’Brien, who died December of last year at the ripe old age of 91, was, as one cynic once said, “An Irishman who wanted to be a Jew.” This was not only because he was not anti-Semitic in a rabidly anti-Semitic world, but also a supporter of Israel. He was something of a hero to me, a benchmark…

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Contraception

An article in an Orthodox Jewish paper recently argued that couples should use contraceptives for the first year of marriage so as to get used to each other before children arrive. This will probably not strike many of you are either remarkable, unusual or in any way worthy of a second thought. Except that officially in Orthodox circles contraception is…

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