Inside a Hasidic Schism
The powerful Gur sect in Israel has been rocked by internal violence, scandal and more. On two evenings in late May, the streets of Jerusalem were once again the scene of violent riots. Incensed mobs threw stones, glass […]
Gun Control Plus
Here we are in the wake of another heart shattering mass murder of children in an American school. The pattern of response has become so familiar: shock, outrage, mourning, discussions about the odd, solitary, bullied perpetrator from a […]
Waving to the Angel of Death
Ruminations on the 20th anniversary of the Park Hotel bombing on Seder night 20 years ago – and how the Haggadah helped me cope. It has been 20 years since my family and I exited the bombed premises […]
Blinded by a Black Hat
Israel would do well to examine why in the Shitrit murder, and many other cases involving rabbinical misconduct, authorities often turn a blind eye. I remember the Shitrit family. Very devout new immigrants from Morocco, they lived in […]
To Whom Was the Promised Land Promised? – A Book Review
Finally, there is someone out there authoritative and knowledgeable enough to shine the light of truth on those who have refashioned the Arab-Israeli conflict in terms of legality – mostly Israel’s “illegal occupation of Occupied Arab Land.” Prof. […]
Why I Left Jerusalem
After 50-something years, and to the astonishment of our children and grandchildren, at the end of June my husband and I packed up our things and left Jerusalem, moving halfway across the country to settle in Zichron Yaakov, […]
Aliyah: What I Hadn’t Expected; What I Hadn’t Dreamed
Leaving America Behind Snow covered the wings of the plane I boarded at JFK in January 1971, my first flight ever. My husband and I shivered as we boarded the flight to Israel. We had burned our bridges […]
An Observant Wife
My new book, An Observant Wife, which is a sequel to An Unorthodox Match will be published on September 14th. Here’s a comment by an early reader: “Long before Shtisel and Unorthodox reached television screens, Naomi Ragen had […]
Never Again? Really?
It is not every day that a woman wakes up to find that her children and grandchildren have spent the night in a bomb shelter, bombarded by missiles launched by a vicious, anti-Semitic terrorist organization dedicated to murdering […]