There are internal challenges to Israel’s existence nearly as pressing as the external ones. The tension and gulf between the secular and the religious is one of them. At least in a democracy the issue is out in the open, but the ill feeling that exists between the two camps is palpable. One of the battlegrounds is Education. Everyone agrees…
Henry VIII and the Jews
The recent TV miniseries, The Tudors, has been a fascinating combination of drama, titillation and history. It is an excellent example of the benefits and dangers of watching television. In all the episodes there is not one mention of the Jewish angle, but there was a very important one! Did the producers leave it out because they wanted the series…
Shimon Peres
I am pleased that Shimon Peres is to be the president of Israel. Yes, I’d have preferred a religious Jew who could also have represented the spiritual greatness of our people, though I confess I don’t know that many rabbis who would have fitted the bill. But it’s nice to have someone at the top (even if it is symbolically)…
Blood Libels
The 20th of Sivan, this week, is the anniversary of the Blood Libel at Blois in France in 1171, when the Jewish community of about 40 people (at a time when the total Jewish population of France was no more than a few thousand) was massacred. Half were burnt to death singing the Aleynu prayer as they perished. The great…
Ghetto Life
I am always surprised that whenever I am critical, no matter what the subject, some of my readers assume that I am depressed. So let me admit that this piece is indeed influenced by spending time in one of the world’s great ghettos, Antwerp. But I hope you won’t think this another “angry” piece. In purely material terms, life here…
Why?
In reference to my post “Am I A Believer?”, several readers have told me that the most troubling issue is less belief, but more what actually happens, or is allowed to happen, on earth. To make matters worse it is religion that is often the cause of much of our suffering. Of course we must separate religion and what humans…