Recent comments

Jeremy,

Thank you for your thoughtful, courageous and moving statement. By exposing the hurtfulness of Paladino's destructive comments, hopefully you will open up the debate and encourage others to take action to build a welcoming culture and society.

Your morality make conflict with morality that stems from Halacha. Sorry, moral standards are relative to the times. To a great extent, morality that stems from Halacha isn't. Take it or leave it, we are entitled to our own belief system. Oh, part of that is decrying the fact that if you are Reform there is exponentially greater chance that your kids will intermarry. Hey, no more Judaism, no more problem. That fact makes us look at you as having a "moral disorder".

As far as stoning, the Orthodox don't stone anyone including professed homosexuals and never have! There is a famous passage in the Talmud that states that if a Rabbinical Court put someone do death (in ancient times) once in 70 years, they were considered to have had blood on their hands.
Your comment stems from the fact that many in the Reform movement have no ability or desire to look into the texts that have sustained us as a people for all these centuries.

What the Orthodox cannot do is legitimize homosexuality as it is specifically and directly at odds with Halacha. The "Orthodox" as if we were all one organism like the "Borg" do not hate homosexuals. What we cannot do is have a homosexual or for that matter someone that violates the Sabbath in public take part in communal leadership and certain rituals.

You don't think that many of us within this great Orthodox monolith ask how G-D could cause someone to have no choice about being Homosexual and then punish him for the thing that he can't control. It sounds cruel to us as well and therefore, as a community we don't as a rule, gay bash, discriminate in employment or employ hate speech.

But, what we can't do is have a communal leader who violates major prohibitions in public: Sexual, Sabbath, Kashrut and others.

So, I will now crawl back into my cave while I contemplate the light that shines from your openness.

Oh, and this Shabbat, attend a lecture, read some of texts. Try Maimonides or the Shulchan Aruch to start or maybe contemporary writings by Rabbi Solevetchik or Rabbi Kook.

Because if you really want to have a voice you need to be educated.

Shabbat Shalom

 In fairness, I edited/corrected the story in response to the readers' comment. So I did make the error and I then fixed it online. Also, I'm not sure why one of the commenters thinks I am not Jewish. Both my parents are Jewish, all my grandparents were Jewish etc. My parents are not observant, but are nonetheless Jewish, and I was not raised in any other religion.

i agree that the pressure a person who is not sure of their sexuality comes from many in the gay community.I am in recovery and have seen many addicted persons find out they were straight after getting sober.my fear is that young persons with drug and alcohol issues label themselves too soon simply to fit in or people please. i have heard many gay people tell others that they were gay instead of even suggesting that they might wait to find out for themselves.i know of a man who was "gay" but wanted to go out with a women and was afraid for his other gay friends to find out.

No administrator or rabbi will ever get fired, or demoted, for the crime of moving slowly on communications. But the question has to be asked: what is the opportunity cost of moving slowly? And who shall we hold responsible for imposing it?

Don't know what story you were reading, but Julie wrote Elvis Costello, who indeed boycotted!

I am a mix of English, Irish, Dutch and Cherokee Indian, a real hybred American. I live in a senior community that has a large Jewish population that I interact with every day. Also I am a Republican who believes in smaller Government. I now wonder after reading the vitriol comments about some one like me if my Jewish friends here look at me the same way.

Quote Richard Schwarts " Republican party that is increasingly dominated by Christian fundamentalists and Tea Party extremists". I am a Christian and belong to the tea party but am not an extremist.

Chrissay quote #1 " the cretin Sarah Palin. (cretin as definned in Webster -
Stupid, obtuse,or boorish". #2 "zionist Jews very possibly WILL suck it up and vote for these clowns. So I guess that puts me in a class with cretins and clowns.

Quote from Paul "Easy, her "friendship" towards Jews is opportunistic and based on wanting money. WHAT CAN I SAY, YOU ARE THE MONEY CHANGERS AND I APPROVE OF THAT EXCEPT FOR MADDOFF.

Richards quote about Palin " Skin, hair, teeth, and figure". Richard your such a sexist, shame on you.

And last but not least Pauls quote. "That's easy. It's not what the U.S. wants, it's what Israel wants that counts. If Israel wants a Republican prez, that's what they'll have. Who do you think picks our presidents anyway?".

Well thanks for that info Paul, now I know who elected Bush, and you only have yourselves to blame, so stop blaming me.

These comments are just another example of the outrageous lies against Israel spewed by the anti-semitic Islamofacist Arab terror apologists. THERE HAS NEVER BEEN A PALESTINIAN COUNTRY, PEOPLE, LANGUAGE OR SOCIETY! The so-called Palestinians are Arab occupiers who immigrated to Israel thousands of years after the first Jews walked in their Jewish homeland. JEWS ARE THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. ARABS ARE INDIGENOUS TO ARABIA!

Ancient Israel was re-named Palestine thousands of years ago by the Romans and has no connection to the Arabs. Jews were the first to be called "Palestinians" because Jews have always lived in Israel/Palestine. Palestinians were created by the KGB and Arab countries to steal the Jewish homeland from the Jews. ARABS ARE THE SETTLERS AND OCCUPIERS!

Julie is just another liberal appeasing idiot, who isn't even Jewish. She was raised Christian and married a Christian man. Then in her adulthood Julie figured out she would "become" a Jew because she had Jewish parent. Please go back to church with your gentile family and leave us alone!

Apparantly, some people beleive that Jews are not allowed to celebrate their culture or history until every Arab in the world is happy.

Tell them that Israel may be the new South Africa, but Iraq will soon be the new Cambodia.

Kol HaKavod, Jeremy! A scholar and a mensch! You'll make a nice Jewish man very happy. What mother wouldn't want you to partner with her son? Ach--what a match!

The only problem with Obama is that he is so utterly incompetent. Other than that, he's ok

Thank you for the courage to speak painful memories so that we may better understand what is at stake here. You are helping to create more safety and compassion in a situation where hate is being viciously exploited for political ends, hate that results in deep harm to children and teenagers. You continue to provide leadership that is a wonderful balance of the head and the heart, may it always be so.