Here’s my latest post on the Jewish Techs blog (The NY Jewish Week) An article in All Facebook, the unofficial Facebook blog, reports that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has been using the social networking site to nab female Israelis who claim to be religious enough to be exempted from army service. Apparently, their activity…
While last week’s decision by the New Jersey Jewish Standard to apologize for the inclusion of a gay wedding announcement and then retract the apology made big news, I didn’t have a chance to weigh in on it. But now, that New York gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino has essentially done the same thing regarding the…
Cross-posted to Jewish Techs (The NY Jewish Week) The Web can be a misleading place. For years, if you typed whitehouse.com into your browser, it wouldn’t take you to the official home of our President on the Web, but rather to the home of a pornographic Web site. In 2004, the owner of that website…
Last week, I was asked by the Detroit Free Press to submit three paragraphs reflecting on where I was on September 11, 2001 and how my life changed as a result of that day. The irony for my wife and for me is that we made the conscious decision to go ahead with our plans…
On its Tublr page, The Atlantic reposted a photo of Cuban leader Fidel Castro with columnist Jeffrey Goldberg. They turned the photo into a caption contest. I love caption contests so I couldn’t resist coming up with the following captions (under the photo): Let me just proofread my note Jeffrey before I give it to you…
A few years ago, it looked like Fidel Castro was going to make his grand exit from the land of the living. Instead, early this summer he emerged from his medically induced hiatus. Since his return, Castro has apparently been reading The Atlantic because he contacted Jeffrey Goldberg, a reporter at the magazine recently. While…
As I prepare for the High Holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, like most rabbis I feel like time is not on my side. For Israel, however, as the Jewish nation engages in the latest round of a potential peace treaty with the Palestinians, Time is certainly not on her side — Time Magazine…
For me, there is something mystical about approaching the Kotel — the Western Wall in Jerusalem. While this remnant wasn’t even one of the walls of the Temple (it was a surrounding wall), I recognize how full those stones are with the history of the Jewish people. However, for many Jews today approaching the Kotel…
Now that Chelsea Clinton and Marc Mezvinsky have gotten married in Whitebeck, NY, some details of the wedding have been reported. The New York Times reports that the interfaith ceremony was co-officiated by Rabbi James Ponet and Reverend William Shillady. Jim Ponet, a Reform rabbi, is Yale University’s Jewish chaplain. His official title is director…
I have it on good authority that Chelsea’s wedding this Saturday night at Astor Mansion in Rhinebeck, NY will be co-officiated by both a rabbi and a Methodist minister. But who’s officiating at their wedding should really matter a lot less than how they will be as a married couple. At the first meeting with…