Millions of people around the world are expected to watch the opening ceremony of the London Olympics at 9 p.m. London time on Friday, July 27. While the ceremony is being promoted as a joyous event celebrating tradition, athletics, patriotism and the international cooperation of the world, for the Jewish...

We are just a couple of weeks away from the Twelfth Siyum Hashas, which is a truly great moment that deserves to be celebrated by theentire Jewish community.

A siyum hashas literally means "completion of the Talmud"; what this colloquially refers to is the completion of a...

The Jewish and Muslim communities have recently expressed international outrage and concern about a ruling emanating from a German court in Cologne that apparently limits the freedom of those wishing to practice a ritual circumcision, known in Hebrew as a berit milah.

For a...

A recent article by Anne-Marie Slaughter in Atlantic Monthly, titled "Why Women Still Can't Have It All," has provoked much commentary as it questions whether it is really possible for women to have it all, and by that she means an uncompromisingly ambitious professional career and a full...

On June 21, for the second month in a row, a Jewish woman praying in a once-a-month prayer service was detained for hours by Israeli police for the crime of wearing a tallit -- a prayer shawl -- at the Western Wall.

The Western Wall is considered...

Have you ever tried arguing with a three-year-old? It is definitely a no-win situation. Let me give you an example. A certain three-year-old I know might say to me: "I want chocolate milk in a sippy cup." I will then pour the milk into the sippy cup and add the...

In September 2012, a successor to Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, the current Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom, will be appointed. The new rabbi will begin his tenure in September 2013. If the post will not undergo a major transformation and become purely one of spiritual and educational leadership, then it...

This year the first night of Passover Seder is Friday night, April 6th. And on this special and holy night, I want to encourage everyone who participates in a Seder to "gossip."

C'mon rabbi! You know that it is a great sin to gossip, so why would you tell...

Dear Rick,

I know you to be a man of deep faith in God and a person whose faith causes you to have a strong sense of responsibility to improve the world. Several years ago I heard you speak passionately about the threat of a nuclear Iran to the...

In his masterful autobiography, Out of the Depths, the former chief rabbi of Israel, Israel Meir Lau, tells the story of his time as a young boy in Buchenwald. Outside Buchenwald there was a sign which read in German, "Each man to his own fate."

Rabbi Lau...