Leonard Fein
By Leonard Fein
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Opinion Ready for Separation of Synagogue, State
In an earlier phase of the argument between Israel’s Orthodox sector and the rest of society, the issues that were most heatedly debated involved the status of Reform and Conservative Judaism and of their rabbis. The battles were over inequities in the support provided Reform and Conservative Judaism as compared to the lavish support provided…
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Opinion Why Romney Tags Obama as ‘European’
Mitt Romney’s brilliant campaign strategy: Never ever mention Obama’s race, but find an alternative way to call attention to Obama’s fundamental alienness. So run against Obama the Europhile: “He wants to turn America into a European-style entitlement society. We want to ensure that we remain a free and prosperous land of opportunity.” Or: “This President…
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Opinion Prisoners of Both Memory and Hope
All the pastries and the fine wines cannot erase our tortured wisdom; though affluent, we are not comfortable. We are imprisoned both by our memories and by the world’s disorder. Our only remedy is to remain prisoners of hope as well, to remember not only yesterday but also tomorrow, the promised tomorrow. The notion that…
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Opinion A Crazy World, From Pyongyang to D.C.
Our world has rarely seemed so impenetrably mysterious as it has these past days. The spectacle of hysterical weeping and wailing in North Korea follows hard on the heels of 10,000 protesters marching in downtown Cairo in outrage over photos of soldiers dragging women by the hair and stomped on them, stripping them half-naked in…
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Opinion Measuring Distance Between Us
‘Distancing” is the current favored word to describe the reaction of many American Jews, especially young Jews, to the ongoing situation in Israel. (Curiously, Peter Beinart’s essay in the New York Review of Books in May 2010, which catalyzed much of the conversation, nowhere uses the word.) But “distancing” is inadequate to describe the range…
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Opinion Darfuri Helps Fellow Newcomers Get Start
I intended to write about an Israel too often overlooked. I wanted a feel-good story for a change, a story that did not include the word “however.” And I had, so I thought, exactly such a story, the truly inspiring story of a 30 year-old man — we’ll call him Hamza — with whom I…
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Opinion Searching for the ‘Divine Society’
Let’s start with the good news. Dorit Beinish, president of Israel’s Supreme Court and vehement opponent of what she calls “incitement against the court,” exempts Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from her indictment. And rightly so. In her remarks during a conference on public law, Beinish mentioned the role of Netanyahu in blocking the bills that…
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Opinion It’s Time for Dialogue With Hamas
I was not in Stockholm in 1988. More precisely, I had declined an invitation to join what turned out to be a five-person delegation of American Jews who flew to Stockholm to meet with Yasser Arafat. I had cogent reasons for demurring, but I applauded the gumption of the five who went, and was pleasantly…
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