The pathetically incompetent film “Innocence of Muslims” has sparked off the usual and predictable riots and murder around Muslim streets illustrates perfectly the cultural chasm between Islam and the West. It is not an issue of democracy, as is often suggested. After all, Hitler was elected democratically. It is the evidence of a culture that has simply never faced an…
General Topics
Fear and Trembling
They are called the Yamim Noraim, the Days of Awe, these ten days from Rosh Hashanah through Yom Kipur. But I would argue that the difference between the two holidays is often overlooked. Yom Kipur is when each one of us, as an individual, is figuratively judged. Rosh Hashanah on the other hand is when the nation is assessed. It…
What’s Wrong With State Education?
My years of suffering through the English educational system, and actually running a school, gave me a very jaundiced view of schools in general. But in recent years there seems to be an increasing groundswell of opposition to the way schools have suffered as tools in political battles. There was a widely praised but controversial documentary in 2010 called “Waiting…
Tom Carew and Bongani Masuku
Amongst the few voices of sanity and balance is an Irishman of note by the name of Tom Carew. I know him only through friends and internet exchanges, but he strikes me as a man of intelligence, wit, and courage to challenge ideas about religion and politics. Above all, he relishes his lone voice of reason. Every now and again…
Marriage
There’s been a lot of discussion this past year about marriage–what it is and what it means to different people. Since my son, Avichai, gets married to Linda Benrimon this week, I thought it would be an appropriate topic. What defines a Jewish marriage? It is true the Bible talks about a man “acquiring” a woman. But since he Talmudic…
Ezra Golombok
Life is enriched by the range and variety of the people we encounter. Increasingly nowadays we confine ourselves to mental ghettos. Even within Judaism there are so many different people, different ideas and ideologies but all contributing in their different ways to the richness of our communities. I have benefitted in so many ways by the special individuals I have…