As I read the lines in lamentations, over the fast of the Ninth of Av, the sentences about Jewish virgins being raped in the streets of Jerusalem were particularly poignant. I have recently had to defend Judaism against the charge, both from yet another anti-Semitic website and also from a Jew, that Jewish law, or at least the Bible, condones…
Jews Talk
We all know Jews love talking, and there’s no better place to talk till you drop than a conference. Israel has been organizing conferences forever. It’s not just for tourist bucks. When I was a student, the Jewish Agency in Israel arranged conferences practically all year round. I’m not sure it actually did anything else. I used to go to…
Boycott Anglo-Jewry
You may have noticed that that there is a “Boycott Israel” campaign sweeping through the British trade union movement like wildfire. On one level I should be pleased. After all, it is now so blatantly and unequivocally clear that this movement is motivated by the irrational hatred of a small, if vocal, minority. There is no call to boycott Robert…
On Fasting
Let me come clean. I hate mourning and I hate fasting. I had enough of being sad during the Omer period that ran from Pesach to Shavuot. Now we’re in the Three Weeks that lead up to Tisha B’Av (the Ninth Day of Av), commemorating the destruction of two Temples and our amazing capacity as a people to self-destruct. Even…
Immigration
The more we feel ourselves to be under assault as Jews, the more we are inclined to contrast ourselves favorably with those who come to Britain more recently under benign immigration laws, yet seek to destroy the state and murder its citizens in pursuit of their own ideological goals. Both Britain and the US are currently struggling with the issue…
Education in Israel
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…