Op-Eds
Op-Eds by our Officers and Fellows do not necessarily represent the views or focus issues of the CJV.
Not Even Your Bubbe’s HUC
The first ordination banquet of the Hebrew Union College of Reform Judaism did not go smoothly. A group of invited rabbis opened their menus, realized that the first course was to be little-neck clams, and immediately left. Fast forward 125 years, and once again the abandonment of Jewish values was too profound for some of those invited to bear.
California Dreamin’ — A Night in the Jungle
How the media spin misconveys the GOP’s November House chances in the Golden State.
Masterpiece Cakeshop Ruling Looks Tasty But Is Only Half-Baked… Meantime
Not every such future case will be marked by such glaringly bigoted underlying bias — and, even more so, the anti-religious bigots on radical “Civil Rights Commissions” now operating in some of America’s deepest-blue states now have their Supreme Court-authored manual on how to operate prejudicially against religionists without getting caught.
The Chief Rabbinate Did What Was Necessary — And There Is No Blacklist
The Chief Rabbinate most justifiably was unable to accept the credentials of a rabbi whose affiliation and actions are at odds with accepted Orthodox standards. It has nothing to do with politics or “ignorance and abandonment,” and everything do to with proper quality control and accountability for established standards.
The never-ending saga of unrecognized American conversions
Why blame the Israeli Rabbinate for not recognizing American “Conversions” that American Orthodox Rabbis also do not recognize?
Jews Marrying Jews: That’s Apparently The Problem
At the HUC graduation, Chabon said that intermarriage is “the source of all human greatness” while “endogamous marriage is a ghetto of two.” He condemned Judaism in particular, saying, “[A]ny religion that relies on compulsory endogamy to survive has, in my view, ceased to make the case for its continued validity.”
Knock on the Door? Call on the Phone? Not in The New World
There was a knock on the door and the young couple was startled by the sound. I answered the door, took care of business, returned to the table and asked the couple why they jumped when they heard a knock. They replied that no one knocks on a door anymore; it is considered impolite.
Israeli Chief Rabbinate Slams The Door On Yeshivat Chovevei Torah
Farber has repeated at every opportunity that the Rabbanut maintains a “blacklist” with which it unfairly and capriciously rejects rabbis from chutz la’aretz, whereas in reality, the Rabbanut rejected Herzfeld for very substantive concerns.
Dismantling The Palestinian Lie
In a recent, now infamous, speech PA President Mahmoud Abbas turned his attention to history’s favorite target: the Jews. This is no surprise, as the very name “Palestine” has always served to dissociate the Jews from their homeland.
Why Is Rabbi Riskin Ordaining Female Rabbis?
The title “rabbi” in Judaism does not, in fact, denote a leader of services and Torah reader. Rather, it denotes – you guessed it – a halachic authority and spiritual leader, which is exactly the title Rabbi Riskin conferred upon these three women.