Peace at Any Price?

Iran's founding Ayatollah Khomeini

The U.S. could have established diplomatic relations with Iran a long time ago. We might even have exchanged ambassadors. Imagine what the Middle East might have looked like had Washington simply accepted the new Iran guided by a religious leader instead of a monarch who was rapidly modernizing his country along Western lines.

Perhaps peaceful relations with a religious regime would have been possible. Would that not have been better than the open hostility that has now lasted 47 years? Hostility expressed in endless demonstrations of Iranians chanting “Death to America.”

Should the United States have taken that route?

Maybe. Except for one small detail: the State of Israel would have had to be sacrificed.

Iran’s religious ideology does not allow for a Jewish state in the region. Allowing Israel to exist violates a core belief of the regime. Had the United States abandoned Israel ‘for the sake of peace,’ Israel might never have developed the military capability it has today. Even with its ingenuity and military prowess, without American military support Israel might have had little ability to defend itself against an Iran determined to eradicate it.

In that scenario, Iran might well have achieved its primary goal: ‘Death to Israel.’ ‘Death to America’ has always been secondary, largely a response to American support for Israel.

As long as Israel exists with U.S. backing, Iran will remain a mortal enemy of both countries. And because Iran’s goals are rooted in religious ideology, they will be compromised. Pursuing them - even dying for them - is seen as a religious imperative rewarded in the next world.

Yet this is the regime much of the world has been willing to live with. While paying lip service to Israel’s right to exist, many nations appear largely indifferent to whether it actually survives.

If, God forbid, Iran had succeeded in destroying Israel, the world would have expressed regret, said Kaddish, and moved on. After all, Israel is already compared by some in Europe to the genocidal Nazi Germany. In that worldview, its disappearance would hardly be mourned.

No more conflict. It would be an all-Muslim region. Palestinians would then live in a new Palestine, and everything would supposedly be right with the world.

That mindset helps explain the opposition to the U.S. and Israeli war against Iran. Critics constantly point to Obama’s  JCPOA nuclear deal, which allowed Iran to keep building its ballistic missile arsenal while funding terrorist militias surrounding Israel. With money released to them by the United States. In return, Iran merely paused nuclear enrichment for ten years, a pause that would already be nearing expiration.

The deal only made sense if one believed Iran could somehow be moderated during that time. But that was never realistic unless the United States was willing to abandon Israel altogether.

I dislike sounding partisan. Until October 7^th, I wasn’t. I voted for presidential candidates in both parties depending on what they were offering...

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The Islamophobia Red Herring

Muslim who drove his car into a a Jewish Temple (IBT)

Suspecting Muslims of violence is not Islamophobia. It is a legitimate suspicion. And I’m getting tired of hearing the word. Not because Islamophobia isn’t real. Irrational fear and suspicion of Muslims certainly exist. But because the term is almost always invoked when progressives discuss antisemitic incidents. As though the two were equal. They are not.

Antisemitic attacks far exceed attacks against Muslims. By nearly a factor of ten. FBI statistics report about 1,938 anti-Jewish hate crimes in 2024 compared with roughly 200–230 anti-Muslim hate crimes.

That makes the fear of a Jew being attacked a far more serious concern. And the perpetrators are often Muslims. As was the case yesterday at a Jewish temple in Michigan. Nor are Jews the only targets. Virginia’s Old Dominion University was recently attacked by a convicted Islamic State supporter. Yet when hate crimes are discussed, the media reflexively pairs Islamophobia with antisemitism - as though the threats were comparable. They aren’t.

To be clear, most Muslims have no interest in terrorism and wouldn’t harm anyone, even if they oppose Israel. Some Muslims even support the Jewish state. Including those living in Israel – some of whom serve in the IDF.

But that should not prevent legitimate concern over radicalization within parts of the Muslim world. Certain interpretations of Islam have repeatedly produced deadly extremists.

Defenders argue that extremists are the exception and that Islam is a religion of peace...

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Antisemitism Among American Youth

Have to admit. I never thought it would come to this. But antisemitism has raised its ugly head in this country to an alarming degree. Far greater than I ever imagined it would.

Please do not misunderstand. I still believe that the vast majority of the American people do not have an antisemitic bone in their body. That is certainly true of all three branches of government. There has never been a more pro-Israel executive branch than there is right now. The majority of the legislative branch is clearly not antisemitic, and the same can be said about the judicial branch. Ev ten though here are exceptions. Some obvious and some not.

It is also clear to me that the religious tolerance embedded in the U.S. Constitution ensures that we will never experience the kind of hatred that permeated Europe during the Holocaust. The kind that led ordinary citizens to eagerly hand over their Jewish neighbors to the Gestapo to be gassed and cremated. That is not going to happen here.

Still, there is an element of Jew-hatred among some Americans that existed just below the radar until October 7. After that, Palestinian students and their progressive allies began protesting what they claimed was genocide against Gaza’s civilians. Those claims were fueled by images from Israel’s defensive war against Hamas terrorists who have openly declared genocidal intentions toward the State of Israel and the Jews who live there.

But regardless of the truth, images of war often speak louder than facts. That helps explain why many Americans opposed the war in Gaza. And why many Americans started questioning U.S. aid to Israel.

The country is divided largely along party lines. Most conservative Republicans support U.S. military aid to Israel, while many liberal Democrats have begun to question it. The political division reflects divide in the population.

Still, I chalk up most popular opposition to ignorance and the power of media images. Not antisemitism. I’m not so sure that’s true about the opposition by some members of Congress. They ought to know better. I suspect there is at least a hint of antisemitism. As for Jewish Democrats who oppose Israel, some may simply feel the need to prove their ‘objectivity’ and show that being Jewish does not mean offering knee-jerk support for the Jewish state.

Ironically, it is on the Republican side where antisemitism seems to be creeping into rhetoric critical of the US-Israel war against Iran. I hear claims like: Benjamin Netanyahu is calling all the shots; that he is somehow leading Donald Trump by the nose; and that America should not be dragged into a foreign war...

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Hard Questions for American Jewish Life

2 heterodox schools that are now merging

Walk through many non-Orthodox synagogues today and the effects become visible. Fewer young adults can comfortably read Hebrew or lead prayer without transliteration. Jewish identity often remains emotionally meaningful, yet it is increasingly detached from the literacy and confidence that once sustained communal leadership. Institutions rarely disappear overnight, but they become harder to reproduce.

Samuel J. Abrams made this observation in a recent Jewish Journal op-ed. He may not realize it yet, but he is a dying breed—something I very much lament. Because if there were ever a prototype of the American Jew determined to save American Jewry from near extinction, it is people like him.

Abrams is one of those rare individuals educated in a non-Orthodox Jewish day school and high school who actually took that education seriously. That much is clear from the sentiment above. Seeing the handwriting on the wall with respect to non-Orthodox Jewish education, he challenged fellow non-Orthodox leaders to ask “whether we believe that with equal seriousness and whether we are willing to invest, sacrifice, and build accordingly.”

Sadly, I think it is too late.

About ten years ago, an Orthodox Jewish philanthropist here in Chicago was honored by the Jewish Federation (of which he is a board member) for his generous contributions to Jewish education. When it was his turn to speak, he made a simple observation about where the growth of Chicago’s Jewish community was taking place—and where it wasn’t.

Many of the large Conservative and Reform synagogues so common in mid-20th-century Chicago, once filled every Friday night or Shabbos, have either closed their doors, merged with other struggling congregations, or been sold and converted into Orthodox shuls that are once again filling seats.

Conservative and Reform synagogues still exist, of course. But many now carry the long combined names of merged congregations—and even those continue to shrink.

The question is: why?

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Traveling

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The IDF and the Golden Calf

Satmar Rebbe of Kiryas Joel

I don’t know who is behind a blog entitled DUS IZ NIES, which is clearly a play on the popular Orthodox Jewish news site Vos Iz Neias, now known simply as VINnews.

I am occasionally forwarded the blog’s opinion pieces. Despite some “over-the-top” rhetoric, I often find myself agreeing with many of the points being made.

Today I was sent what appears to be a translation of a lecture delivered by the Satmar Rebbe of Kiryas Joel at the Shalosh Seudos meal this past Shabbos to his Chasidim.

If the translation is accurate, the remarks are not merely controversial—they represent a profound moral failure. When Jewish soldiers are risking their lives to defend fellow Jews, to portray their actions as a form of idolatry is not simply an ideological disagreement. It is a distortion of basic Jewish moral sensibilities.

Following in the footsteps of his uncle, R’ Yoel Teitelbaum—who published a scathing attack against Rav Kook, the spiritual progenitor of Religious Zionism, and who famously described the miracles of the Six-Day War as maaseh Satan (the work of the devil)—the Satmar Rebbe compared the IDF to the Egel HaZahav, the Golden Calf of last week’s Torah portion...

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Putting Carlson in His Place

Once again, the president has risen to the occasion. And at his own political expense, I might add. In what has to be the most damning criticism of Tucker Carlson yet, the president said the following:

“Tucker has lost his way,” Trump told ABC News correspondent Jonathan Karl in an interview. “I knew that a long time ago, and he’s not MAGA. MAGA is saving our country. MAGA is making our country great again. MAGA is America First, and Tucker is none of those things. And Tucker is really not smart enough to understand that.”

I’m finding it harder and harder to criticize the president, even knowing all the ‘bad stuff’ about him accumulated since he first took office.

But as I have said in the past in his defense, the president does have a conscience. It isn’t always about ego. Or getting maximum support even it includes bigots and antisemites. Especially when it comes to Orthodox Jews, for whom it seems he has the highest regard. (Which is not the case for non-Orthodox Jews, most of whom despise him about which the feeling is mutual.)

What triggered this presidential response was yet another far-out conspiracy theory from Tucker Carlson about Chabad:

“You may know people who give money to Chabad or run Chabad—super nice people, engaged in all kinds of charitable activities,” Carlson told his followers about the global Hasidic sect in a video he posted Thursday. “But what is Chabad exactly?”

Carlson went on to claim, “Chabad has been pushing in a pretty subtle way, unless you look carefully, for the reconstruction of the Third Temple”—the fabled structure that, according to ancient Jewish teachings, heralds the arrival of the messiah. Building the temple, he says later in the video, “is considered so esoteric and weird and crypto-historical and religious and kind of culty. What’s Chabad? No one ever mentions it.”

He accused Chabad of sitting at the center of what he said was an effort to wage a holy war in the Middle East aimed at destroying the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque—Muslim holy sites built on the remnants of the ancient Jewish Temple, known as the Temple Mount—in order to clear the way for its reconstruction.

Now, I certainly have issues with Chabad. Oddly enough, the primary one being their messianism... 

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The YU Paradigm as the Model for Torah Jewry

It makes me so sad that the prevailing view of Judaism being taught in the vast majority of yeshivos is the Lakewood ‘Torah Only’ school of Jewish thought. This view holds that L’chatchila - the primary choice of every Jewish male should be to choose a life of full-time Torah study. Jewish women, in turn, are expected to seek such men as their preference and be willing to support them in that holy task, thus sharing in the heavenly reward their husbands receive for learning full time.

That is the paradigm. And that view has increasingly been perpetuated ever since Rav Aharon Kotler established his yeshiva, Beth Medrash Govoha, in Lakewood. The idea of working for a living - even while establishing regular times for Torah study - is considered to be B’dieved, - pursued only as a last resort. Women raised in this paradigm generally refuse to date men who choose that path.

I have always believed that the truth of Judaism is more closely represented by the Yeshiva University (YU) model, which sees working for a living as much of a L’chatchila as learning full time.

It doesn’t really make much difference to me whether the underlying philosophy of that model is Torah U’Madda, Torah im Derech Eretz, or Torah U’Parnassah. While there are clear ideological differences, the result is largely the same. YU is a yeshiva that produces learned baalei batim and, in some cases, gedolim who devote their lives to Torah study. Much the same as Lakewood students. YU reflects the idea that the God never intended His people to live exclusively in the warm cocoon of a Torah-only lifestyle.

I can hear the howl of laughter from friends to my religious right, who will claim  that the proof they are correct lies in the fact that the Lakewood view is the majority view of observant Jewry. Evidenced by the overwhelming number of religious schools that teach ‘Torah Only’ L’chatchila.. That those schools are the majority and growing exponentially speaks volumes about the primacy of their ‘Torah Only’ paradigm. To the extent that schools with other philosophies exist in relatively small numbers - is seen by them as B’dieved.

That attitude was made clear by one of the most revered talmidei chachamim of the 20^th century, Rav Baruch Ber Leibovitz. He was asked by Rav Shimon Schwab whether his Hirschian philosophy of Torah im Derech Eretz was a L’chatchila. His answer was clear: No, it was not. He claimed that Samson Raphael Hirsch intended it only as a B’dieved for his community and his time. That is still how the Lakewood world tends to see it now, even though it is clear from Rav Hirsch’s writings that he meant it as a L’chatchila.

For me, it is a simple matter... 

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Whose Side Are Democrats On?

Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer

What’s missing in Washington these days is moral clarity. Truth be told, it is missing on both sides of the political aisle. The difference is that one side is doing something about it despite its lack of clarity in articulating the issue.

The issue is the war against Iran being waged by the US. The lack of clarity involves why the US is doing it. That charge is mostly issued by Democrats and a few Republicans in near-universal language. They keep saying that the president has offered no clear reason for the attack and no clear objective. They claim, with some justification, that they are getting mixed messages, or that assertions of an imminent attack from Iran have no basis in fact.

This is where the Trump administration is dropping the ball. 

Instead of trying to justify the war against Iran based on a direct imminent attack - which at best is questionable - they ought to be articulating the real reason for it. A reason that, in fact, anyone with half a brain already knows, and which therefore deserves unequivocal support. A reason articulated by the many supporters of the war.

Which is as follows: Iran’s fanatical religious beliefs include the destruction of the Jewish state, which they consider an affront to Islam — and in the process, the seven million Jews living there. That, my friends, is what is called genocidal intention. As an important ally of the United States, it is in US interests to prevent that from happening...

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Bomb Iran

After the murderous religious Nazis of Islam took over Iran in 1979 (and in the process took 52 U.S. embassy workers hostage for 444 days), the sentiment in much of the civilized world was that Iran had become a rogue nation that needed to be stopped before it spread its murderous theology across the globe.

A parody of the The Beach Boys’ hit song Barbara Ann was released in 1980 that reflected that sentiment. A sentiment few believed would ever translate into reality. Until it did a few days ago on Shabbos, Parshas Zachor.

Parshas Zachor is when we read about the Torah’s requirement to erase the very memory of Amalek, which in our day can be applied to any individual or nation that seeks to destroy the Jewish people. That is why we read this portion of the Torah on the Shabbos before Purim. Which is today.

Purim is the story of ancient Persia (today’s Iran), then under the control of Haman - the Amalek of his time. He sought to wipe the Jewish people off the map and prepared to do so swiftly. It was on Purim that the tables were turned on Haman and he himself was destroyed. The Jewish people of ancient Persia had their freedom restored and were once again able to practice Judaism openly.

Modern-day Persia (Iran) had its own Amalek...

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