Prejudice Part 1 Baroness Warsi, cochairman of the Tory Party, says prejudice against Muslims in the UK has become socially acceptable. She also warned against dividing Muslims into moderates and extremists, saying such labels fuel misunderstanding (BBC January 21). Perhaps now Muslims might just consider what Jews feel like. If ever there was a case of pots calling kettles black,…
Author: Jeremy Rosen
Brain Dead
There has been a running controversy in circles that are committed to Jewish Law over “brain death”. Traditional sources require the heart and lungs to stop functioning. In olden days a mirror or a feather to the nose was the best they could do. Times have changed. Medical science has advanced and “brain death” has now been added to the…
Blood Libel USA
We have by now, all heard of the maniacal misfit in Tucson, Arizona. One would have thought that any discussion about what might have averted the tragedy would focus on guns and the all too easy way crazy or just evil people can get hold of them in the USA. The figures speak for themselves. Each year, according to the…
Dating Non-Jews
The latest international storm in a teacup is yet another dumb letter circulating in Israel. This one, signed by 27 prominent rabbis’ wives and distributed by the “Lehava” organization, calls on Jewish women not to date Arabs, work in places where Arabs are employed, or volunteer for National Service with them. They insist that it isn’t about racism but about…
Censorship
A few years ago there was a kerfuffle in the Orthodox Jewish world over a book called Making of a Godol: A Study of Episodes in the Lives of Great Torah Personalities. The book was a scholarly history of life in the world of the Eastern European Lithuanian yeshivot of the last century, with specific reference to the rosh yeshiva…
Washing Hands
When I was a child and went to visit my grandfather, he always put a bowl and a cup of water next to my bed at night, so that I’d wash my hands first thing when I woke up in the morning. Neigelvasser, it was and is called in Yiddish. Actually, the first thing I did (and still do) was…