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July 3, 2008

Rabbi Dr. Abraham J. Twerski: A spiritual budget (TOUCHING!)

Jeff Jacoby: Israel still paying for its defeat

JWisdom:: Re-Jew-venating prayer, Part IV by Rabbi David Aaron

July 2, 2008

Jonathan Tobin: Appeasers Make Poor Patriots

The Kosher Gourmet By Kathleen Purvis: Slaw, y'all: For BBQs or Sabbath dinner, these southern recipes are something else!

JWisdom:: Rabbi Mordechai Becher: Jewish Rx for A Simpler Life

July 1, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Q. I think it's important to leave a legacy to my children. How much should I save towards this end?

Paul Greenberg:A President who is history deficient?

JWisdom:: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Poland's Unique Antisemitism

June 30, 2008

Jonathan Rosenblum: Remembering the architect of Torah Judaism for the modern world

Abe Novick: Hulk: Still a Jew?

JWisdom: : Putting the Spirit Back into Spirituality, Part 2: The Abandoned Child

June 26, 2008

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: Quantum leap to evil

Caroline B. Glick: Victimized families must not be allowed to dictate policy

June 25, 2008

Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Today in Biblical History: King Jeroboam of Israel prevents pilgrimage to Jerusalem

Jonathan Tobin: Real Friends and Real Enemies

JWisdom: Raping of reason By Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

June 25, 2008

Steven Emerson: Kristof: Never Mind the Terrorists

Stratfor Intelligence Briefing: Mediterranean Flyover: Telegraphing an Israeli Punch?

JWisdom: Rabbi David Aaron: Re-Jew-venating prayer, Part III

June 24, 2008

Caroline B. Glick: What were they thinking!?

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Guilty knowledge

JWisdom: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Warping Innocence

June 23, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Diploma dilemma

Jeff Jacoby: A world without children

JWisdom: Rabbi Dovid Gross: Putting the Spirit Back into Spirituality --- Introduction

June 20, 2008

Rabbi A. Henach Leibowitz: Man: The Crowning Glory of Creation

Caroline B. Glick: Israel's darkest week

JWisdom: We aren't worthy? by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

June 19, 2008

Rabbi Elazar Meisels: The saints who don't come marchin' in

Chris Christoff: Muslim woman demands an apology from Obama after camera snub

June 18, 2008

Jonathan Tobin: Still Dancing Around Jerusalem

The Kosher Gourmet by Steve Petusevsky: Chilled fruit and vegetable soups

JWisdom: Souls Need A Check Up? by Rabbi Mordechai Becher

June 17, 2008

Rabbi Avi Shafran: Baby Einstein

Caroline B. Glick: Bush's rhetoric, Bush's policies

JWisdom: Re-Jew-venating prayer, Part II by Rabbi David Aaron

June 16, 2008

Varda Branfman: Bob Dylan, won't you please come home?

Diana West: Academic dares to question the 'religion of peace'

JWisdom: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Positive Backfire

June 13, 2008

Rabbi Berel Wein: Trading manna for whine

Caroline B. Glick: Peace with friends

JWisdom: From the mouths of … by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

June 12, 2008

Michael Feldberg: Meet Paul Revere's pal, the Orthodox Jew who played a key role in laying Boston's cultural and business infrastructure

The Kosher Gourmet by Kathy Manweiler: No need to be tempted by Wendy's mandarin chicken salad

JWisdom: Re-Jew-venating prayer, Part I by Rabbi David Aaron

June 11, 2008

Rabbi Avi Shafran: What would Hillel say?

Jonathan Tobin: UNRWA and NGOs: The Real U.N. 'Insult'

JWisdom: Sara Yoheved Rigler: Greatness Made Simple: How a momentary decision shifted life's course and destination

June 6, 2008

Rabbi Pinchas Stolper: Revelation: The basis of faith

Binyamin L. Jolkovsky: Mere hours after becoming Israel's new 'best friend' Obama backtracks on status of Jerusalem

Caroline B. Glick: UN choosing to protect rogue nuclear programs

JWisdom: Sameness in difference by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

June 5, 2008

David Lightman: Now Obama wants to be Israel's newest 'best friend'

Obama's remarks to AIPAC policy conference

The Kosher Gourmet By Ethel G. Hofman: Shavous cuisine: Ruby Fruit Soup, Lokshen Kugel with Cheese, Key Lime Curd, Calsone Casserole Frittata with Wild Mushrooms, Sun-dried tomatoes and Olives, Baked Tilapia with Pepper Cheese Cream and Brown Sugar Shortbread

JWisdom: Why a Jewish Jerusalem makes so many nervous by Rabbi Mordechai Becher

June 4, 2008

Jonathan Rosenblum: A different sort of 'religious broadcaster'

Jonathan Tobin: Misgivings on the Road to Damascus

JWisdom: 44 Years Without An Argument? by Sara Yoheved Rigler

June 3, 2008

Daniel Pipes: Obama vs. McCain on the Middle East

Everything's Relative: There is a crisis growing in Orthodox synagogues worldwide, reveals Jordan "Gorf" Gorfinkel

JWisdom: White Facades; Black Secrets by Rabbi Mordechai Becher

June 2, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Q: Lie to outsmart discriminator?

He writes the songs that make our souls sing:Gavriel Aryeh Sanders interviews Jewish music legend Ben Zion Shenker; includes stirring, uplifting song

JWisdom: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Of laws and lives

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 April 23, 2007 / 5 Iyar, 5767

When anything goes — even evil

By Diana West


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Like a cultural earthquake, the Virginia Tech massacre violently jolted all news and events to a halt. Or, rather, all non-massacre news and events. Massacre updates remain constant: the survivors' ghastly stories, which are ghastly; the victims' harrowing ends, which are harrowing; the campus authorities' inexplicable actions, which are inexplicable. Is there anything more to learn?


True to compulsive American habit, we want to know why the crime occurred, what drove Cho Seung-Hui, a chronically maladjusted individual of irredeemable evil, to shoot 28 students and four professors to death on a chilly April morning — as though the secret still to be deciphered lies with him.


But even as the murderer's life is scrutinized for a "motive," we also come to understand there is no "reason" to explain this supremely irrational crime. So, liberals conclude insufficient gun control is at fault. If only Cho hadn't been able to get his hands on handguns, the theory goes, this heinous mass murder — the worst school shooting in U.S. history — would never have happened.


But owning guns doesn't kill people. And under even the strictest gun control laws, Cho might well have taken a page from the black book of Andrew Kehoe, who, back in 1927, perpetrated the biggest school massacre in U.S. history when he used dynamite to blow up a Michigan school. The blast killed 38 children and seven teachers.


A conservative explanation of the crime points not to the existence of guns in society, but rather to the existence of evil in the killer — a man who, according to reports, left no fewer than three bullet wounds in each of his victims. But even evil is not enough to explain why this crime happened, or, rather, why this crime was virtually allowed to happen.


The fact is, Cho Seung-Hui wasn't the "quiet man" you read about who one day "snapped." He was notorious in his academic circle long before the heinous events of this week. Indeed, one former classmate, Ian MacFarlane, has written that on reading the twisted, violent plays Cho wrote for an English class, "we students were talking to each other with serious worry about when he could be a school shooter."


Even faculty and administration members at Virginia Tech were reportedly well aware of Cho's alarming work and behavior, whether it was teacher Nikki Giovanni, who told The Washington Post that her 2005 poetry class of 70 dwindled to seven over students' fears of Cho, or unnamed university officials to whom faculty members say they turned for guidance about the troubling student.


According to press accounts, the poetry class case went up the academic chain of command. Agreeing that Cho's writings were disturbing, the then-chairman of the English department, Lucinda Roy, "contacted campus police, counseling services, student affairs and officials in her department," The New York Times reported. But since Cho had made no "direct threats," there was nothing they could do. And besides, according to The New York Post's Andrea Peyser, there were concerns about Cho's "free speech."


So Cho exercised his free speech, but no one listening was permitted to respond to it. Cho set off all the alarm bells — and I haven't even mentioned the stalking incidents, and other psychopathic behavior — but evidently, as in a frustration nightmare, no one in authority did, or thought they could do much about it besides suggesting therapy. And even that was fruitless. "He wouldn't say yes," said Ms. Roy, "and unfortunately, I couldn't force him to do it."


Why in tarnation not? Why couldn't Virginia Tech officials have "forced" Cho to seek counseling or else lose his affiliation with the college? Better still, why couldn't the college have given Cho "F's" for handing in psychopathic tirades instead of poetry and plays? The college could have expelled him even as it urgently recommended to his parents that he seek counseling. And since when do psychopathic tirades earn course credit, anyway?


Since for a long time. Since we, as a society, decided to abolish "normal," effectively eliminating the parameters of, well, normal behavior. Since we, as a society, decided to rid ourselves of taboos, effectively disarming basic self-defense mechanisms, including good judgment. It is unlikely Cho realized any of this as he maniacally exploited society's weaknesses. But it is crucial we understand our inaction on Cho's warning signs as a consequence of political correctness and begin to reverse it. Otherwise, we won't have even a hope of warding off such evil next time.

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 Diana West is a columnist and editorial writer for the Washington Times. Comment by clicking here.

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