By David Brin ENCINITAS, California –Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum is truly on a roll. Feeling his oats, he has been laying down a hardcore line. And if this one week is any sample, we are in for one heckuva ride. He started by impugning President Ombama’s religious faith as “phony theology.” This is red [...]
By Rabbi Ben Kamin SAN DIEGO — President John F. Kennedy rarely spoke publicly about his personal faith, though he brilliantly and effectively defused the issue of his being the first viable Catholic nominee for the White House. It was an ignominious issue in 1960 (hard to fathom nowadays) and he mitigated it head-on at [...]
By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — An internet friend sent me a video screed from an Atlanta television station that presents, in the most inflammable language, the old saw about too much foreign aid while Americans suffer. Even worse, some of that aid goes to refurbish mosques in unfriendly Cairo and elsewhere. The images tweaked [...]
By Shoshana Bryen WASHINGTON, D.C. (Press Release)–It is a struggle to decide who, if anyone, has a claim to U.S. foreign aid dollars. It is, after all, money earned by American taxpayers and sent to people who didn’t earn it, at least not in the traditional sense. Should it be used to encourage countries to [...]
WASHINGTON, D.C. (Press Release) – Former Staff Director of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Kenneth L. Marcus, announced the launch of independent Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law. www.brandeiscenter.com Marcus, director of the new center, is founding the Washington-based organization to combat campus anti-Semitism through civil rights litigation, legal research, and public [...]
By Rabbi Ben Kamin SAN DIEGO — In his short lifetime, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. collected a cadre of loyal and fervent friends and colleagues. The majority of them, including Rev. Ralph David Abernathy, Andrew Young, John Lewis, and Jesse Jackson, have been African Americans. A notable exception to this list of King’s inner [...]
By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — The confluence of Barack Obama ‘s problem with contraception and Mitt Romney’s candidacy reminds me of that often expressed sentiment that the United States is a “religion soaked” country. It leads western democracies–including Israel–for people who express a belief in God and pray on a regular basis. The existence of [...]
By Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel CHULA VISTA, California — Most rabbinical students attribute omnipresence and omniscience as qualities befitting a Creator. Only God is called, “The Knower of Thoughts,” and “The Searcher of the human heart.” Rabbinical wisdom has long taught, “Always keep in mind these three things, and you will never come to the [...]
WASHINGTON, DC (Press Release) – In response to the Administration’s Budget release on Monday that once again limits the value of tax deductions for charitable contributions, leaders from The Jewish Federations of North America — one of America’s largest philanthropies — released the following statements: William Daroff, vice president for public policy and director of the Washington [...]
Dear President Welty, President Armstrong, President Hellenbrand, and Chancellor Reed: We are co-founders of the AMCHA Initiative, a grassroots organization representing thousands of members and supporters of the California Jewish community, who are united in their concern for the safety and well-being of Jewish students on college and university campuses across the state. We would [...]
