Judaism

By Rabbi Ben Kamin ENCINITAS, California — On February 1, 2003, the Space Shuttle Columbia exploded and incinerated as it began its return descent to earth. Among the seven noble astronauts lost, from a wide range of backgrounds and creeds, was Israel’s first space traveler—Col. Ilan Ramon, a decorated Air Force hero and the mission payload […]

By Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal SAN DIEGO — By a strange confluence of fortuitous happenstance this Shabbat, on which we read parashat Yitro, is also Groundhog Day. Groundhog Day celebrates a commonly held folk belief. If a groundhog emerges from its burrow on February 2 and sees its shadow, winter will linger for another six weeks.

By Rabbi Baruch Lederman SAN DIEGO–In Radin, there lived a pharmacist.  The man was not only a caring apothecary; he was involved wholeheartedly in any Jewish cause, from supporting the Yeshivos, to feeding the poor, to maintaining the shuls.  His support was sincere and enthusiastic.  He was once asked, “Where did this enthusiasm come from?”

By Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal  SAN DIEGO — Is lack of faith our fault or God’s fault? This week I discovered two commentaries on parashat B’shallach with radically different points of view. When the Sea of Reeds blocked the escape of the Children of Israel from Egypt, they thought they were doomed. As Pharaoh’s chariots closed

By Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb NEW YORK –Did you ever sing in a choir? If you did, you will easily be able to appreciate what I am about to describe. I well remember singing in a choir, and I recall three different scenarios which occurred in my choir with my choirmaster, who was invariably also

By Danny Bloom CHIAYI CITY, Taiwan — There’s a Jewish story everywhere, for sure, and this one spans three continents and winds its way from North America to Taiwan to Israel. Let me explain. Peter Kubicek, now 83, lives in New York, but he was born in Czechoslovakia, a nation that no longer exists. The

By Abraham H. Foxman NEW YORK — It is fitting that the United Nations, as part of the international commemoration of the Holocaust on January 27, is paying tribute this year not only to the millions of innocents who died in the Nazi gas chambers, but also to those who made extraordinary sacrifices to hide

By Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal SAN DIEGO — Although helping those in need is one of my fundamental guiding principles, I rarely give to individuals who solicit funds on street corners. When someone with a sign reading “Anything Helps. God Bless” walks by my car I usually look away. I am never sure whether such people

 By Rabbi Baruch Lederman The following illuminating excerpt from Season of Life, published by Simon & Schuster, was submitted to ShulWeek by Josh Lintz,  Kew Gardens Hills, NY: In today’s excerpt – as reported by Pulitzer Prize winning author Jeffrey Marx, Gilman High School in Maryland has an unusual and  highly successful football team. And

  By Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb NEW YORK — I have been asked questions about my Jewish faith since I was a very young boy. Back then, it was the tow-headed children of the Irish family in whose large summer home we spent our summers who pestered me with questions about the yarmulke on my