I have always been disturbed by the number of times the Bible declares “He, She or It, shall be put to death.” It doesn’t matter the severity of the crime. Being brought up in a liberal western society and having discovered how many innocent men and women have been wrongly put to death by judicial systems, I cannot accept the…
Herman Wouk
Herman Wouk who died a few weeks ago at the age of 103, was one of the most successful American novelists. Surprisingly, he was also a practicing, orthodox Jew. Unlike the current crop of American Jewish novelists (who just love to demean and diminish their Jewish heritage and distance themselves) Herman Wouk was proud of his Jewish religious identity and…
Learning Lessons
Advance notice! This blog will range from Ivan Illich and education, to Charter Schools, to Trade Unions, secular dogma, Chernobyl and Bernard of Clairvaux. Hold tight! Many of us who have suffered at school from boredom, poor teaching and disruptive colleagues, know how imperfect schools can be. My years as a teacher and headmaster have reinforced my conviction that schools…
Martin Buber
When I first started to read Jewish Philosophers, I found them turgid, academic and completely uninspiring. They all seemed to base themselves on Aristotle or Plato and their Christian and Muslim theological acolytes. Then I discovered Martin Buber’s “I and Thou,” It first appeared in 1923 and was translated into English in 1937. It was a revelation. A short book,…
Ben Hecht & Yom Hashoah
The Holocaust Day, Yom HaShoah, that the Jewish world commemorates is on the 27thof Nisan which falls this year Thursday May 2nd. An appropriate time to remember Ben Hecht. Colin Schindler has an excellent piece on him in the Jewish Chronicle “America’s awakening to the Shoah.” Two weeks ago, the New York Times Book Review published an article by Mark…
Why to ask is good.
The Hagadah that we read on Pesach was a response to the tragic loss of the Temple and Jewish political autonomy some two thousand years ago. Its composers wanted to pay tribute to the past, the Temple and all it stood for. And to find new ways of going forward that focused on study, prayer and education. Its aim was…