It started out like any other campus visit. Mr Alon Roth-Snir, the Deputy Ambassador of Israel to the Court of St James’s arrived yesterday to speak at Essex University on Israel and the Middle East. What happened next is precisely the sort of thing that has tarnished Britain’s reputation on the global academic map. Within[…]
The hoopla of “Women of the Wall” is getting yet more media attention lately. I was invited to participate in a televised debate for BBC International the other day to discuss the question of whether religion needs to move on with the times. The debate was going to focus particularly on the “Women of the[…]
Sitting with an Imam on one side, a priest on the other and a Jewish anti-Zionist opposite was never going to make the question, “Is criticism of Israel Anti Semitic,” an easy one. That was the big question on yesterday’s BBC1 ‘The Big Questions’ programme. The question emerged on the back of MP David Ward[…]
Call me naive but if there is one thing I don’t get it’s when I hear about brothers and sisters who ignore one another or parents and children who haven’t spoken in years. One of my most tragic recollections as a Rabbi is the time I officiated at a funeral to which only half the[…]
Officer Lawrence DePrimo has become a household name. On a cold November night, just a few weeks ago, the NY City police officer, on counterterrorism duty in Time Square, encountered an older, barefooted homeless man. Taking in the man’s plight, the officer disappeared for a few moments into a nearby Sketchers Store, then returned with[…]
Another week, another act of terror as a young boy is making his way home and is set upon by five thugs baying for his blood. I’m not talking about the backwaters of Iraq or downtown Gaza. I’m speaking of Beit Shemesh, a community in the heart of Israel. The once peaceful town in the[…]
For all the political divides in Western society the one thing we all agree upon is our mutual resentment of the radicalism that defines many Middle Eastern countries. We look with disdain upon men who treat women as second class. We mock governments that mete out anachronistic justice. We detest those that regard democracy as[…]
I’ve been invited to participate in a public debate on whether Britain needs a new Chief Rabbi. What with the media hoopla surrounding different candidates and my name being linked I think it would be imprudent for me to participate in such a discussion. But only if I was advocating for the position as it[…]