Rabbi Reuven Hammer is a former president of the International Rabbinical Assembly and a well-known author and lecturer. His latest book is "The Torah Revolution" (Jewish Lights) and his next book, "Akiva: Life, Legend and Legacy," will be published in October (JPS)
An international body of Conservative rabbis has adopted a responsum affirming Judaism’s basic doctrine that all people are considered equal. Jewish leaders of all streams should follow their course.
Anshel Pfeffer got it wrong: true Judaism is not the same as the fundamentalist Judaism that burned a Palestinian baby to death; the latter ignores thousands of years of development and interpretation of our Torah.
Israel's official religious monopoly is far from being the unifying force that its advocates claim it to be – it is driving a wedge into the Jewish people.
Why should Israel's ultra-Orthodox population be exempt from defending the country through military service, when their lifestyle is generously subsidized by the state?
Orthodox Judaism's exclusive access to power and money in Israel doesn't reflect the wishes of most Israelis, let alone Diaspora Jews.
Moses was a great religious innovator with a broad view of the world and of humankind, and a vision, perhaps too utopian, of what a godly society should be.
It's a totally useless institution. Why not do away with it? Or privatize it? Or turn it into an NGO that would have to compete with other NGOs from different denominations?
Had Abraham actually gone forward with the sacrifice, there would be no Judaism, for we would be no different than any other group, condoning infanticide in the name of God.
The discrimination suffered by Israel's non-Jewish citizens brings Judaism into disrepute in the eyes of the world, to say nothing of rendering the religion less than just and righteous in Jewish eyes as well.
This feeling began before Benedict even said a word, as I watched his arrival - on a Jordanian plane that flew the papal flag out of one side of the cockpit and the Israeli flag on the other - two banners of equal importance.
Treating the body of a human being as merely another piece of material to be molded, shaped and put on display is repugnant and degrading.
How can it be that what we demand of others we do not demand of ourselves?