By Rabbi Avi Shafran Contributing Columnist There isn’t a sane person on the planet — at least if evil counts as insanity — who doesn’t wish for Iran to be forced to abandon its nuclear ambitions (or to have them vaporized by one or another air force). Many American Jews — most Orthodox Jews likely [ Read More...]

Dear Editor, AJC expressed full solidarity with the French Jewish community following today’s deadly attack on a Jewish high school in Toulouse. At least three students and one teacher were killed, and five wounded. “What tragic, awful news. Our prayers are with the grieving school community, as we hope for the full recovery of those [ Read More...]

By Rabbi Avi Shafran Contributing Columnist I have an abiding appreciation of animals. My family has shared living space at one point or another over the years with: a small goat, a large iguana, a beautiful tarantula, an assortment of rodents of various sizes, and scores of tropical fish (the latter our only current pets). [ Read More...]

Dear Editor, The Gift of Saying Good Shabbos. The Rabbinim say every Jewish soul yearns for the true meaning of life and with just the right words anyone can spark the imagination and ignite the inner flame. I believe this is true, as I happened to be just that person one Friday afternoon in Kroger [ Read More...]

Rabbi Avi Shafran Contributing Columnist The little boy was petrified, as one might imagine, by the gorilla who sat down next to him at the table in his (the child’s) home. I hadn’t meant to scare the kid; I was just tired and needed to get off my paws. It was a very long-ago Purim [ Read More...]

Dear Editor, I read Feb. 9 with utmost dismay of the “management restructuring of the JCC” which involved the replacement of Jeff Baden as executive director. I have worked with Jeff in numerous capacities: as a colleague working in another program at the JCC, as a parent of children who attended and prospered in the [ Read More...]

Rabbi Avi Shafran Contributing Columnist I can’t pride myself on having a good long-term memory (as my wife can attest, that’s an understatement), but a Feb. 1 New York Times article did spur my sluggish hippocampus. The Times article was about Brooklyn’s Crown Heights neighborhood and it noted that “an undercurrent of unease, suspicion and [ Read More...]

Rabbi Avi Shafran Contributing Columnist The recent mini-drama of Rabbi Aryeh Ralbag’s suspension as chief rabbi of his native Amsterdam for signing a document about homosexuality, and his subsequent reinstatement, might well serve as a spur for considering the traditional Jewish attitude on the matter. Whether homosexuality is fixed or changeable is an open question. [ Read More...]

Dear Editor, Reading your Feb. 9 article “JCC Management Restructures” and then reading Edward Paul’s Feb. 16 response to the article prompts my, and I assume many other JCC members and Jewish Federation contributors, confusion and concern. It doesn’t make “cents” to terminate an executive director like Jeff Baden when the Board in their own [ Read More...]

(RNS) Even though men and women from every faith have been members of our armed forces since the Revolutionary War, the struggle for Catholic and Jewish chaplains to gain equality within the American military has been long and difficult. It’s not a new fight. In 1775, the Continental Congress restricted military clergy to Protestant ministers. [ Read More...]