Editorial & Opinion | Opinion

Women Rabbis: A Conservative View Of An Orthodox Decision

05/11/2010 | Francine Klagsbrun | Special To The Jewish Week | Opinion

In the book of Genesis, God allows Adam to create names for all the beasts and birds in existence. With that powerful act, the first man establishes the identity of every earthly creature. From then on the image and function of a whale or a dove would always be tied to its name.

Cracking the UJA-Federation Shell

05/11/2010 | Stuart Tauber | Special to the Jewish Week | Opinion

Thousands of tweets. Hundreds of thousands of hits. Millions watching the video clips.

The earthquake in Haiti? No.

Innovation Is Not A Synonym For ‘New’

05/04/2010 | Aaron Bisman And Rochelle Shoretz | Special To The Jewish Week | Opinion

In late 2002, when our Joshua Venture Group (JVG) cohort was announced, the term “Jewish social entrepreneur” did not yet roll easily off the tongue. There was no “innovation ecosystem” to speak of, few incubators interested in helping us grow our ventures, and little confidence that Jewish life could or should blossom outside of existing institutional frameworks. JVG was founded to help emerging leaders change the Jewish world with their ideas.

Jerusalem, The Mundane City

05/04/2010 | Martin Raffel | Special To The Jewish Week | Opinion

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu received a standing ovation at the recent AIPAC conference when he declared, “Jerusalem is not a settlement. It’s our capital.” Pronouncements about Jerusalem as the united, eternal capital of Israel have long served as guaranteed applause lines in virtually every Jewish audience. Israel and world Jewry devote a great deal of attention to the city’s current and future political status.

On Jerusalem Day, Don’t Write Off Liberals

05/04/2010 | David M. Gordis | Special To The Jewish Week | Opinion

May 12 (Iyar 28) will mark 43 years since the Israeli army’s triumphal entry into the Old City of Jerusalem. This is certainly a moment for the Jewish People to celebrate the restoration of Judaism’s holiest sites to our people.

Halacha and Innovation Are Not Mutually Exclusive

05/04/2010 | Rabbi Shai Held | Special to the Jewish Week | Opinion

This past week, Rav Hershel Schachter, eminent Torah scholar and leading figure at Yeshiva University, issued fighting words. The ordination of women as rabbis is such a serious infraction of Jewish Law, he insisted, that it technically falls under the rubric of “Yehareg Ve-al Ya’avor”—one should sooner be killed than violate the Law.