Op-Eds
Op-Eds by our Officers and Fellows do not necessarily represent the views or focus issues of the CJV.
Don’t Underestimate Trump’s Strategic Thinking
The Democratic Party is rallying behind three of the most vicious bigots Congress has seen in decades. I am alternately annoyed at the president for engineering this and impressed by his strategic thinking for the same reason.
How Socialism Works: Part Two — A Primer for Economic Idealists and Others Who Just Seek Goodness
When you give someone welfare handouts and food stamps, you help him or her until the cash soon runs out. But when you create conditions that enable such people to obtain employment and to work gainfully, you help them and their future generations for life, even as you imbue them with dignity.
Sorry, Rabbi Landes: Rabbi Peretz Was Correct About Diaspora Jewry’s Problem
The elephant in the room is that Rabbi Landes fails to say one word about intermarriage and assimilation being objectionable or problematic. In contrast, the objectionability of intermarriage and its dire consequences are exactly what Rabbi Peretz’ remarks were targeting.
How Socialism Works: Part One — A Primer for Green New Dealers
On its face, socialism sounds so fair, especially in its latest iteration, the “Green New Deal”: To each according to his or her need — and why not? Equality of results. Equality of incomes. As a bonus, an end to climate change and cows flatulating. Let us briefly look more closely.
An Invocation for a Fourth of July Dinner in California
On this 243rd anniversary of our declaring independence from tyranny and launching the greatest human experiment in world history, we stand together before you on this beautiful day that You created — and made gorgeous, by Your grace and Your loving-kindness for all You created — with the word of “Thanks!” on our lips. Simply: Thanks.
Point / Counterpoint: Is The Equality Act Good For The Jews?
The Equality Act is a toxic mixture of opposition to discrimination and endorsement of discrimination against those who adhere to traditional values. Rabbi Broyde says our “approach is deeply mistaken,” but does not challenge the facts my co-author and I provided in the paragraph he quotes. The Equality Act deems Torah beliefs to be bigotry and acting upon them discriminatory. It’s as simple as that.
Why Orthodoxy needs both — OU congregations and Young Israel shuls
As a member of the National Council of Young Israel (NCYI) Rabbis, I learned quickly that, unlike OU congregations, Young Israel requires that the shul president be Shomer Shabbat (Sabbath-observant). Having been a rabbi at shuls with non-observant Presidents, I know first-hand the night-and-day difference behind the scenes when the Shul President is Torah-observant.
Five Surefire ‘Woke’ Political Proposals for Desperate Democrat Presidential Debaters
I hereby offer the 20 Democrats polling under 2 percent five surefire “woke” ideas to propose during the debates that rapidly will recharge the rockets on any sputtering Leftist presidential bid and lift them to unimagined stratospheres.
The Myth and Fraud That There Ever Was an Arab Country or People Called ‘Palestine’ (Part Two of Two)
For the two thousand years after the Romans renamed Israel, the land of “Palestine” was synonymous with the Land of Israel. There never was an Arab political entity called “Palestine.” No Arabs denominated themselves “The Palestinians.” Open an Encyclopedia pre-dating 1964, and look up “Palestine.”
The Myth and Fraud That There Ever Was an Arab Country or People Called ‘Palestine’ (Part One)
Even true friends of Israel in Washington, D.C. like Sen. Lindsey Graham have succumbed to decades of the Biggest Mideast Lie: that there ever was an Arab political entity of “Palestine” or that there ever was a “Palestinian Arab nation.” The dizzying repetition of that Big Lie for so many decades causes even United States Senators and House Representatives who should — and who privately do — know better to speak of “The Two-State Solution.”