On the first day of the Jewish month Adar, the Talmud enjoins us to “increase happiness.� It is, after all, the month that holds Purim, when we express our gratitude to G-d for delivering the Jews in ancient Persia from their enemies, and when we give alms to the poor and gifts of food to one an...

Notes from Limmud 2008 Volver: Modern-Day Marranos and Their Halachic Struggle When Returning to Judaism R. Hillel Athias-Robles When the Visigoths converted from Arian Christinity to Roman Catholicism in the sixth century, persecutions of the Jews began. Then in 711 the Moors invaded, and the Jews'...

Notes from Limmud 2008 Demographic trends in the Anglo-Jewish Community [my title; actual one mislaid] [Presenter mislaid] There were no censuses asking whether the respondent is Jewish until 2001. Also, who counts, as a Jew? Benjamin Disraeli? Bishop Montefiore? In the case of the former, he was bo...

Two students in one of Jerusalem’s high school seminaries came to interview me last week for a documentary about how to internalize one’s Torah studies. I was impressed both the seminary’s sponsorship of such creative projects, and even more so by the ability of these young women t...

Anyone who raised an eyebrow at charges that the “Hekhsher Tzedek� kosher-certification initiative recasts the very concept of kashrut might want to aim an eye at the February 6 Wall Street Journal. At a column, that is, entitled “A Quarrel Over What Is Kosher,’ by the Forward’s Nathaniel ...

Hong Kong and The Sassoon Opium Wars The 99 year British lease on Hong Kong expired in July allowing the Red Chinese to take over. Hundreds of newspaper stories and TV reports have covered this event but not one revealed how England first gained control of Hong Kong! The truth lies buried in the fam...

Armed with my backpack and the Let’s Go Guide to Israel, I descended from the intercity bus at Jerusalem’s Central Bus Station, planning to spend a few nights exploring the city for the first time. I intended, based upon the Let’s Go recommendation, to stay in a youth hostel on Kin...

A winter flurry of “Dear President Obama� letters – in the forms of op-eds and paid advertisements – have swirled around the public square in the days since the 44th president of the United States was sworn into office. Some of the open letters have concerned Mr. Obama’s economic stimulus ...

VATICAN CITY – The Vatican on Wednesday demanded that a prelate who denied the Holocaust recant his positions before being fully admitted as a bishop into the Roman Catholic Church. It also said Pope Benedict XVI had not known about Bishop Richard Williamson's views when he agreed to lift his exco...

The number of anti-Semitic attacks around the world during Israel's three-week military operation against Hamas in Gaza was up more than 300 percent compared to the same period last year, reaching a two-decade high, according to figures released Sunday by the Global Forum Against Anti-Semitism. The ...