Adam Dickter's blog

Had a cop been photographed callously walking by an ostensibly homeless man who sat barefoot on one of the coldest nights of the year, it likely would have generated as much media attention as what actually happened:  Officer Larry DePrimo stopped and bought the man a pair of boots and socks.

Writing on the Algemeiner’s web site shortly before Hurricane Sandy hit, Simon Jacobson asked us to consider the “deeper implications” of the catastrophic event.

That includes the "hard-to -ignore coincidence of the hurricane striking the most heavily populated part of the country, including Washington DC, just a week before the Presidential election – winds from above disturbing the final whirlwind campaign efforts of both candidates.”

This Yom Tov, and the past two, are exactly the kind of timing local kosher liquor stores used to dread.

When holidays fell on Sunday night, kosher consumers who wait until the last minute were in for an unpleasant surprise: Liquor stores were required to close on Sundays under New York's antiquated Blue Laws. If you were wise to this fact you'd shop in advance on Friday since Saturday is out for the Shomer Shabbos crowd. Otherwise, you were left scrambling for kiddush wine or Yom Tov spirits at certain permitted markets after 12 pm, where selections were limited.

Shortly after he backed the Republican in a tight Brooklyn/Queens race for Congress a year ago, saying President Obama needed a message on Israel, former Mayor Ed Koch shifted gears and endorsed the president’s election.

He may have traveled over 5,700 miles, but my son Zack is just a local call away.

That's because these days, for a relatively modest fee, you can give your kid a cell phone with a "virtual" U.S. number, creating something of a bizarre illusion that he is just a train ride away in the 646 are code rather than on another continent with a 972 country code.

Over the course of history, Jews would operate in the public sector adopting various political behaviors.

In contemporary times, several of these competing ideas remain in play, influenced by different elements of Jewish experience and practice. Five of them are being introduced here:

Those lucky few who scored dirt-cheap flights on El Al as a result of HaSnafu Hagadol on Monday must have been pinching themselves. As quite a few people told The Jewish Week and JTA, they viewed a visit to the Holy Land on a par with a new Lexus or a backyard pool up until the fateful alert from Dan’s Deals sent them scrambling to Orbitz or Expedia.

The International Olympic Committee is still steadfastly refusing to give into pressure -- from sources as high as the White House -- to honor the 11 slain Israeli athletes of the 1972 Munich Olympics during the games. (A small pre-games ceremony was held Monday.)

If further evidence is needed that the divide between the Orthodox and the rest of the Jewish community is widening, consider that 250,000 Israelis attended the funeral yesterday of a revered 102-year-old Torah sage in Jerusalem who is virtually unknown to American Jews outside the Orthodox world.