I haven't written here for quite a while, but I think that I made it up for in the length of this article. If you are interested enough, you can follow the link to my website for a PDF copy. I have been having a debate with my friend Jack (shout out!) about the proper way to view Edward Snowden and Bradley Manning. Both young men came into contact with secrets that they felt obligated, for whatever reason, to reveal.  Whether you consider them heroes, traitors or something in the mid...

As regular readers of my blog know, I teach 8th Grade and Adult Education classes at the Jewish Cultural Society (JCS) of Ann Arbor. Today the 8th Grade and the JCS Youth Group visited the Muslim Community Association (MCA) of Ann Arbor. First, let me give the abbrobation due to the kids and their parents who attended. They gave up time on a beautiful Sunday morning, perhaps one of the last that we will see in Michigan this year, to learn about another faith. It should also be noted that duri...

Like a phoenix rising from the dust of history, once again the original partners of what was once known as the Iraq Petroleum Company are on the verge of gaining access to the wealth of Iraq's oil fields. Exxon Mobil, Shell, Total and BP, as well as Chevron, are about to sign two-year, no-bid contracts to provide technical guidance and refurbish equipment for the government of Iraq, designed to take oil production from 2.5 million barrels of oil to 3 million barrels a day. The contracts are seen...

On November 22nd, 1963 at 12:30 PM CST in Dallas, Texas, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States of America, was shot and killed. There are moments and events that define generations. December 7th, 1941, the day that Pearl Harbor was attacked was one. September 11th, 2001 was another. If you were alive on those days, days which may have begun as ordinary days, you will remember the moment when you heard the news. Life would go on for most of us, but in retrosp...

I am going to ask an open question: What is victory in Iraq? (Or the opposite, what is defeat?) Answer as you will. I am not going to try to sway anyone except to offer this observation. In 2003, if you had said to the American people that Saddam would be removed from power, a democratic government elected, a constitution ratified and Saddam tried in an Iraqi court, convicted and then executed, that would generally have met most people's definition of victory. On the other hand, if ...

I was debating with a neighbor of mine about prayer in American schools and I suggested that we would probably live to see it become an issue again....just not the way that we thought. The prayer book may well be the Quran. Islam is the fastest growing religion in America. Muslims are now the largest minority religion (counting all forms of Christianity as the majority) and have a high birth-rate. In some European countries, the birth-rate of the Muslim minority is often cited as bein...

A general strike, orchestrated by Hezbollah and supported by Syria and Iraq, has flared into violence. The intent of the strike was to topple the pro-Western government of Sinoria in favor of a Hezbollah led government. Opposing the Shiite Hezbollah forces is the Sunni Future party, which is headed by Saad Hariri, the leader of the parliamentary majority and son of Rafik Hariri, the former prime minister many Lebanese believe was murdered on Syria’s orders. Hundreds of followers of e...

Regular readers of mine (if there are any such) know that I teach Sunday School at the Ann Arbor Jewish Cultural Society, a secular Jewish institution. Today we went on a field trip to the JCC West Bloomfield for “Zap! Pow! Bam!” an exhibit on the Jewish influence in comic books. The trip was fun and also educational. Among other things that we learned were: Superman the character was created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, two Jewish teenagers from Cleveland. Superman embodies the Jewish...

I very rarely copy and paste from other articles, but this postmortem was just too good to not share: Feb. 12, 2002 "As we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns - that is to say, we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns, the ones we don't know we don't know." Jan. 9, 2002 "I'm not into this detail stuff. I'm more concepty." In an interview with the Washington Post. Feb. 7, 2003 ...

Six people were shot at the Seattle Jewish Center yesterday, one fatally, by a man who identified himself as a Muslim "angry at Israel." It was believed that the gunman acted alone. But two Mosques in the Seattle area have been investigated for ties to Al-Queda. The man entered the building on the Jewish Sabbath when few people are in the office. People wonder why Jews "play the anti-Semitism card." Could it be because people are always trying to kill us?

Whether for an individual, a nation or a people, there is no right more fundamental than the right of self-defense. We need to be able to defend ourselves in order to be able to excercise any other rights. Wikipedia defines self-defense as "Self-defense refers to actions taken by a person to defend onself, one's property or one's home." Now we get to the part where I can only offer SARCASM. Hamas exercised its' "right" to defend itself by murdering 9 people and injuring almost 50 ot...

I have said before, and this is an old joke, that all Jewish Holidays may be explained as follows: they tried to kill us, we survived, let's eat! Tonight, the second night of the Passover Holiday, is no exception. Tonight I had dinner with over a hundred of my closest friends. We held a Passover meal with many participants, many readers. Not only adults, but children participate in the telling of the old story. We have a common mission, to make some small, incremental difference that mov...

In an online document, Al Qaeda posted their plan to use terrorist acts to influence the Spanish government and force a withdrawal from Iraq. This document was posted months before the bombings last week. What is astonishing is that Al Qaeda was able to execute the plan to perfection and get exactly the desired results. Posted in December on a message board, the Al Qaeda document predicted the Spanish reaction to terrorist acts: "We think the Spanish government will not stand more than t...

I've been following this story for a while now, and very frankly don't know what to make of it. Ivan Rybkin is the opposition candidate running against Vladimir Putin for the Russian Presidency. The election is scheduled for March 14th. Last week, his driver and bodyguard dropped him off at his Moscow home. That was the last time that he was seen for days. By Monday of last week an investigation into his possible murder started. Then stopped. About an hour after publicly saying that the ca...

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is donating $51 million to the City of New York to create small, academically rigorous high-schools to help students prepare for successful careers. “Nearly one of three eighth graders in America today will not graduate from high school,” said Bill Gates. “New York City is demonstrating how we can bring our schools into the 21st century to make sure that all students, not just a select few, are prepared for college and the workplace. Our country’s civic, ...