May 9, 2008 Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: Reverence, Yes; Worship, No Mona Charen: Did Israel Drive Out the Arabs 60 Years Ago? JWisdom: Ultimate opportunities by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky May 8, 2008 Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo: Israel at 3,500+ Jonathan Tobin: Still Fighting the Same War Steven Plaut: How ‘nakba’ proves the fiction of a Palestinian Nation JWisdom: Taking Israel for Granted? by Rabbi Mordechai Becher May 7, 2008 Rabbi Hillel Goldberg: Israel is irrelevant to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict Dion Nissenbaum: Latest Olmert scandal could derail efforts to force Israel's compromises JWisdom: My Inner Ventriloquist by Sara Yoheved Rigler May 6, 2008 Caroline B. Glick: Anti-Zionism at 60 The Kosher Gourmet By Ethel G. Hofman: In honor of Israel's 60th anniversary, the former president of the International Association of Culinary Professionals, whose members included the likes of Julia Child, is back with a smorgasbord featuring the taste and essence of the Jewish homeland JWisdom: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Jewish Deer in Nazi Headlights May 5, 2008 The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Busy work Jonathan Mark: Remarkable half-century old Mike Wallace interview with Abba Eban puts current anti-Israel sentiment into perspective May 2, 2008 Rabbi Berel Wein: Rote religiosity Caroline B. Glick: Whitewashing Hamas JWisdom: Parent trap? May 1, 2008 David Zwiebel: Faith communities can learn from Orthodox Jews in stimulating private philanthropy for religious education George Friedman and Peter Zeihan of Stratfor: The Shift Toward an Israeli-Syrian Agreement JWisdom: It's time to wake up by Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis April 30, 2008 Jonathan Tobin: Pennsylvania's Democratic slugfest may leave some Jewish votes up for grabs The Kosher Gourmet by Linda Gassenheimer: Fresh herbs, sauteed veal and tiny creamer potatoes makes a light spring dinner JWisdom: How to Build a Mentch by Rabbi Mordechai Becher April 29, 2008 Daniel Pipes: Barack Obama's Muslim Childhood Joel Brinkley: On human rights, the U.N. once again strikes out JWisdom: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: When The Truth is Unbelievable April 28, 2008 The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Q: I'm often stuck in the doctor's waiting room for hours! Doesn't he owe me something for my wasted time? Steven Emerson: New U.S. government policy advises agencies to avoid using some of the very same words that make up terror groups' names JWisdom: Why You & I Never Die: A Jewish View of Immortality, Part I by Rabbi David Aaron April 25, 2008 Rabbi Mitchell Wohlberg: Schadenfreude isn't kosher for Passover --- or at any other time Rabbi Berel Wein: The secret of how the data bank of memory is transferred from one generation to the next JWisdom: Stepping Up to A Higher Spiritual Life by Rabbi Lawrence Kelemen, Part III April 24, 2008 Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo: The successful failure Fred Burton and Scott Stewart of Stratfor: Placing the terrorist threat to the food supply in perspective JWisdom: Stepping Up to A Higher Spiritual Life by Rabbi Lawrence Kelemen, Part II April 23, 2008 Connie Ogle: An intricate game of a novel Jonathan Tobin: Making Sense of the 'J Street' Jive JWisdom: Stepping Up to A Higher Spiritual Life by Rabbi Lawrence Kelemen April 22, 2008 Jonathan Rosenblum: Why Israel's 'Leaven law' matters Caroline B. Glick: Obama the Savior April 18, 2008 Rabbi Harvey Belovski: Multimedia tool of antiquity Caroline B. Glick: Revealed Truths vs. revealed lies JWisdom: More than miracles by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky April 17, 2008 Rabbi Avi Shafran: Deconstructing Dayeinu Rabbi Elazar Meisels: Is innovation at the Seder a slap at tradition? JWisdom: Discovering Your Divine Mission, Part III by Rabbi David Aaron April 16, 2008 Jonathan Tobin: A Prayer for Sderot's Children Ethel G. Hofman: Sumptuous Seder JWisdom: The Divine is in the details by Rabbi Mordechai Becher April 15, 2008 Rabbi Dovid Zauderer: Let Charlton Heston Go! Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Jimma, tyranny's enabler JWisdom: Relationships: Beyond Mars & Venus, Part IV by Dr. Lisa Aiken April 14, 2008 The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: The Snitching Supervisor Jonathan Tobin: Forget the Fun and Games! JWisdom: Sincerity is Valued Most by Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski, M.D. April 11, 2008 Rabbi David Gutterman: A Mystery in the Middle East Caroline B. Glick: Why Ahmadinejad smiles JWisdom: Elevated illness by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky April 10, 2008 Stratfor Intelligence Briefing by George Friedman: A Mystery in the Middle East The Kosher Gourmet By Steve Petusevsky: The spring elegance of asparagus JWisdom: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: The Power of Rational Lies April 9, 2008 Michael Feldberg: An all but forgotten Colonial doctor who put his Jewish values before his life Jordan "Gorf" Gorfinkel's "Everything's Relative" gets philosophical JWisdom: Four Rabbis in Bnei Brak by Rabbi Mordechai Becher April 8, 2008 Caroline Glick: Covering for the enemy Elliot B. Gertel: 'House' goes Hasidic JWisdom: Relationships: Beyond Mars & Venus, Part III by Dr. Lisa Aiken April 7, 2008 The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Q: I have a translating business. Recently someone asked me to translate some financial documents that are clearly forged. Should I agree? Jonathan Rosenblum : Israel is unwittingly helping to fuel the international campaign of delegitimization against it JWisdom: Matzah and leaven as a life philosophy by Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski, M.D. April 4, 2008 Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: The Mystery of Suffering Caroline B. Glick: Fear of democracy JWisdom: Dirty Jews by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky April 3, 2008 Rabbi Y. Y. Rubinstein: Parents --- and the children who would be them The Kosher Gourmet by Kathy Manweiler: Tempted by restaurant dressings? Don't be. Here are recipes that can be made at home, healthier! JWisdom: The importance of retaining a 'slave mentality' by Rabbi Mordechai Becher April 2, 2008 Mitch Albom: Child abuse, disguised as faith Jonathan Tobin: Unreasonable Accommodations JWisdom: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith with Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Eliminating Jewish Influence over Germans March 22, 2007 J-Rhythms with Avraham Rosenblum: JWR's cutting-edge music program showcasing performers -- singers, song writers, musicians, and bands -- who learn and live the Torah lifestyle (OUR NEWEST IGODCAST !) Oct. 29, 2003 Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review Sept. 26, 2007 / 14 Tishrei 5768 Ahmadinejad on Broadway By Jonathan Tobin Media circus around Iranian shouldn't obscure the high-stakes debate on nukes http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | The biggest show on Broadway this week wasn't any of the plays or musicals packing in the tourists in a midtown theater. Rather than "The Drowsy Chaperone," "Spamalot" or the revival of "A Chorus Line," the hottest ticket was to the traveling show starring the man whom The New York Post dubbed a "pint-sized Persian" — Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, president of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The appearance of Iran's leader in the Big Apple to attend the annual U.N. General Assembly overshadowed all other world leaders at the international talking shop on Manhattan's Turtle Bay. His invitation to speak at Columbia University set off the sort of media frenzy usually reserved for the hi-jinks of O.J. Simpson or Britney Spears. Columbia students, alumni and anyone who's ever heard of the school weighed on the propriety of the event. While panels attended by heads of state at the university's school of international affairs do not usually merit time even on C-Span, this one was broadcast live around the world on CNN. 15 MINUTES OF FAME Columbia's embattled President Lee Bollinger was subjected to opprobrium before the event for the bad taste of inviting a Holocaust-denier to the sacred precincts of the Morningside Heights campus. But after using his literal — as opposed to proverbial — 15 minutes of fame to lambaste the somewhat befuddled Iranian, Bollinger became an American idol and the subject of a laudatory editorial in The New York Times that applauded the university's judgment. At the Columbia forum, Ahmadinejad lost points even among the hard left, which tends to like anybody who hates America, Israel or the Jews, by denying not the Holocaust, but the existence of homosexuality in his nation of approximately 70 million people. Coming across as more of a fool than a demon or Hitler-wannabe, Ahmadinejad may have garnered some applause from some in the audience in the hall, it isn't likely he won too many new American friends. On campus and some 70 blocks south outside the United Nations, a largely Jewish crowd of protesters raged at the Iranian's impudence, and a bipartisan parade of politicians lined up to denounce Ahmadinejad's calls for Israel's destruction, his country's support of terrorism and its oft-publicized nuclear ambitions. As for the rights and wrongs of the Columbia event itself, suffice it to say that anyone who thinks that free speech has anything to do with whether an Ivy League university gives a platform to a man who leads a murderous fundamentalist dictatorship isn't thinking clearly. As a former Columbian myself, I bow to no one in my affection for the place, but the scolding from Bollinger notwithstanding, the school dishonored itself. A university that won't let the armed forces of the United States recruit or teach in an ROTC program on campus ostensibly because it dislikes the army's position on gays (though the hard-core anti-military feelings and contempt for patriotism of much of the faculty has more to do with it than support for gay rights) was in no position to play the free-speech card for Ahmadinejad. If anything, it's easy to suspect that Bollinger seized the opportunity to grandstand against the Iranian (albeit with a searing indictment that deserved applause) more for his own public-relations profile than anything else. While a great deal of time was wasted debating the invitation of a world leader who has called for the genocidal extermination of a member-state of the United Nations — Israel — and whether giving him a platform is a defense of freedom of speech or a travesty of it, is there any real will, as opposed to rhetorical lip service, among both the chattering classes and our politicians to doing something about Iran? Will the question of what measures the West is prepared to take to halt the progress of the Iranian nuclear program, as well as its subsidization of Islamist terror, fade back to a blur once the circus leaves town? Though no one wants to think about the alternative to sanctions, French President Sarkozy himself stated at the United Nations that appeasement of Iran will lead inevitably to "war." The French, like the Americans and the Israelis, believe that diplomacy can do the trick if it is accompanied by the sort of tough sanctions against Iran that the U.S. House of Representatives voted for this week. But for all of the fine talk about international cooperation, there is little sign that the opposition of both Russia or China to a genuine sanctions regime against the Islamic republic will be enacted this year or at any time in the future. Nor, one suspects, will that change, until those nations become convinced that an already war-weary America means what it says about squelching the mullahs mad plans to gain nuclear capability. FORGET ABOUT HITLER The problem here is that the Ahmadinejad show was just that: a farce that did little to illustrate the fanatical nature of his regime's religious extremism, its deep involvement in international terrorism or its willingness to use any weapons it gets his hands on to wipe out the State of Israel. Historical analogies are, at best, inexact, and often misleading. Contemporary Iran is not a clone of Nazi Germany. But given its size, strength and the way it can use its support of Shi'ites throughout the Middle East, as well as via alliance with Sunnis who share its anti-Western and anti-Semitic beliefs, it doesn't have to be in order to be an extraordinary threat to world peace, even without nukes. If Ahmadinejad, or someone like him, gets their finger on a nuclear button, it won't matter that he doesn't resemble Hitler and seems more comical than threatening. If he ever gets the means and the opportunity to match his motive to commit mass murder of the Jews of Israel (or some other non-Islamist target), who cares if the differences between Shi'ite Islamism and National Socialism are enormous. As virtually all of the American presidential candidates have shown, it takes no courage to huff and puff about Iran and back sanctions. But does anyone really believe that the international community will unite behind them? Despite the general revulsion felt for the Iranian, is there any doubt that support for the use of force against Iran if it proves necessary simply doesn't exist yet in this country? The Ahmadinejad show was good theater, but anything that doesn't help galvanize American public opinion into realizing that action on this issue is a matter of life and death is nothing but a meaningless sideshow. If, within the next few years, Iran's nuclear plans are allowed to become a reality, it will be too late for debate about Ahmadinejad, but more than enough time to ponder a new round of genocide. Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in Washington and in the media consider "must reading." Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here. JWR contributor Jonathan S. Tobin is executive editor of the Philadelphia Jewish Exponent. Let him know what you think by clicking here. Jonathan Tobin Archives © 2007, Jonathan Tobin