I confess to having contrarian instincts. When the hounds are baying for someone’s blood, my inclination is to wonder if just perhaps the problem is with the hounds. I’ve never had an occasion to write about sexual and financial abuses committed by rabbis, pastors, and priests. With the vast majority of cases, I suppose a member of…

Perhaps as an antidote to Jewish histrionics in the context of the Pope’s Jerusalem visit, the Jerusalem Post carries a refreshing interview with Rabbi Norman Lamm of Yeshiva University, a prominent personality in centrist Orthodoxy. Rabbi Lamm has always struck me as a model of dignity, moderation, and good sense.  On the Pope: “The pope…

Now the criticism of Pope Benedict is that in speaking in memory of Holocaust victims at Yad Vashem, he was “restrained, almost cold.” Can anyone direct me to a video link where the former Cardinal Ratzinger appears unrestrained and full of emotion about anything?

Would Pope Benedict accept an invitation to edit the next speech given by Israeli former chief rabbi Israel Meir Lau? No, I don’t think he would. It would be beneath his dignity.  Yet when Benedict comes to Israel and speaks at Yad Vashem in memory of victims of the Holocaust, Rabbi Lau, who is chairman of the Yad…

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