June 2026

There is a necessary conversation about abuse in the Jewish community.  There is also a different conversation that is being smuggled in alongside it—one about whether Torah and halacha remain binding authorities at all. Those are not the same conversation. No serious person denies that abuse exists or that it must be addressed.  Halacha itself…

Back in the 2000s when the pedophile rabbis got away with serially attacking children, one question came to my mind over and over again: Why don’t the rabbis stop them? I still can’t answer that question, but there is one thing that I do know. For every victim who speaks out, there are many more…

I am going to anonymize the following anecdote for the sake of the safety of the person who spoke with me today. This person is from a country where people are not free. They’re not Jewish. I mentioned October 7 being a very traumatic turning point in my life as it has no doubt been…

The seating in the Conservative shul is deliberately arranged in a circular manner around the Chazzan, facing the Ark. Everyone tries for an end seat so they don’t get stuck. During the service, this often leads to gaping wide holes where people should be. On this particular Shabbos my husband and I had the misfortune…

This is not a complete list of documents.

A recurring question in many Jewish and pro-Israel circles is not just what is being said—but why it works. “Disinformation,” by Ion Mihai Pacepa (1928-2021) and Ronald J. Rychlak, offers a provocative answer—it is the downstream effect of statecraft. Pacepa, a former top Soviet intelligence official, explains that disinformation is designed to: • Shape moral…

So I went to the cardiologist for an echo and she shows me that I have atherosclerotic plaque, I’ve had this for a few years, and I’ve resisted taking a statin. She says, you need to take a statin, and she shows me in her office what it looks like when the plaque grows in…

Free to republish with attribution. THE FEAR IS REAL For Jews watching the rise in antisemitic rhetoric and anti-Israel political messaging, it is understandable to feel uneasy. Certainly the headlines can make it seem as if the U.S.–Israel relationship is weakening, becoming transactional, or drifting into uncertainty. THE REALITY IS DIFFERENT But that is not…

Most people think tyranny begins with hatred. It doesn’t. It begins with dehumanization. In Chapter 4 of my new book, From Tyranny to Freedom, I explore how societies don’t suddenly become cruel—they follow a pattern that makes cruelty feel rational, even necessary. It starts quietly. People become categories instead of individuals. Names turn into numbers.…

Judaism is complete in and of itself; it doesn’t need any “-ism” or any ideology. It doesn’t need Zionism, it doesn’t need DEI, and it doesn’t need any extra thing—it’s all there. We could talk about all the different ideologies and why they are all contained within Judaism, but I want to focus on feminism…