The very dramatic first section of the Torah portion of Toldot begins with the word that gives the portion its name, and also sets the tone for much of what we will read about. “These are the toldot of Isaac (Gen.25:19)” – a word that…
Category: Other
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Toldot: Isaac’s Two Sons and the Challenges of Parenting
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When Antizionism Becomes a Barrier to Learning: A Call for Equity on Campus
Universities have long been spaces where difficult ideas coexist,where students stretch beyond familiar narratives and where debate and critical inquiry are foundational. Yet over the past two years, especially since October 7, the climate on…
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The Degrees of Delusion: Why the World’s Smartest Nations Keep Getting It Wrong
Ireland now has more university graduates than farmers — and more baristas with master’s degrees than builders with toolkits. Switzerland and Singapore proudly join it at the top of the global education league table, each with nearly half…
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Creating and Promoting Yeshiva Day School Graduate Profiles
What should our yeshiva/day students know, understand and learn by the time they graduate (knowledge)? And, what are the school’s expectations regarding their student’s attitudes and behaviors when they graduate? These are just several of the…
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A New Middle East Is Possible—If Israel Steps Up
For years, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the right-wing coalition he leads have danced around the question of Palestinian statehood with all the sincerity of a bad-faith negotiation. They posture, they stall, they punt the can down the…
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Who Is Hitler Today? (The answer might surprise you.)
What do Mamdani, Trump, AOC, Boris Johnson, Tucker Carlson, Ilhan Omar, Bibi, George W., King Henry VIII, Angela Merkel, FDR, Giuliani, Napoleon, Attila the Hun and innumerable others have in common? They have all been compared in print to…
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Why the Fear of Mamdani? Is it Justified?
66% of the New York Jews voted for Andrew Cuomo while 33% voted for Zohran Mamdani. It seems quite clear that many of those who voted for Cuomo voted out of fear of Mamdani, and not out of support for the former governor, who carries…
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MBS, Trump and Netanyahu Take the Stage Toward a New Regional Horizon
MBS, Trump and Netanyahu Take the Stage Toward a New Regional Horizon. A delegation of 1,000 people will accompany Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) on his visit to the United States on Tuesday — including nearly all of his cabinet…
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Those deserving the death penalty for October 7 are dead already
Antisemites call us evil, but for us, ethics should be our middle name In a democracy, the majority decides, but not on everything. For that, we have the High Court of Justice. It can rule against majorities and laws to protect ethical standards…
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An Absent State and Missing Questions
By a strange twist of fate, one of my daughters is called after Hadar Goldin, the captured Israeli soldier whose body was recently returned by Hamas from Gaza after eleven years. In 2005, I was living in Cambridge, UK, commuting to the City of…
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