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August 29, 2008

Rabbi Berel Wein: 20/20 sightlessness

Caroline B. Glick: When history is not repeated

JWisdom: Blessed or Cursed: It's Really Up to You by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

August 28, 2008

Steve Lipman: A Comeback for the 'Jewish Jordan'

Jeffrey Weiss: Researcher reports 'intriguing' diabetes breakthrough

August 27, 2008

Rabbi Zecharya Greenwald: Removing the perfectionist's mask

The Kosher Gourmet by Emily Nunn: Summer harvest linguine

JWisdom:: The Missing Link in Spiritual Life by Rabbi David Aaron

August 26, 2008

Yaffa Ganz: Grandma gets lessons in staying cool

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: The Dems' 'soft' jihadist

JWisdom:: Today: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Plague of indifference

August 25, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Q: A friend is bearing a silly grudge from a supposed wrong. What recourse do I have?

Daniel Pipes: Barack Obama through Muslim Eyes

JWisdom:: The knowledge you need to overcome your insecurities by Malka Schulman

August 22, 2008

Rabbi Berel Wein: Life's essential ingredient

Caroline B. Glick: Dominos anyone?

JWisdom:: Actually, Do Sweat the Small Stuff! by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

August 21, 2008

Today in Biblical History by Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Popularization of Kabbalah: 20 Menachem-Av 1558 CE

Jonathan Rosenblum: Lessons from the Beyond

JWisdom: : The Olympian within is rooting for you -- yes, you! –- to go for the gold

August 20, 2008

Jonathan Tobin: Misleading Platform Platitudes

The Kosher Gourmet by Linda Gassenheimer: Chicken Salad with Asian Dressing

JWisdom: The Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith: America's Defense of the Jews --- Until WWII by Rabbi Nosson Scherman

August 19, 2008

Dennis Prager: If the Almighty doesn't exist

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Obama's Islamist problem has nothing to do with his upbringing

JWisdom: Think your life is messed up? by Rabbi David Aaron

August 18, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Business with Friends

Diana West: Roars About Russia, Bare Whispers About Islam

JWisdom: Relationship agony: The real cause by Malka Schulman

August 15, 2008

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: To love the Divine

Caroline B. Glick: Georgia, Israel, and the nature of man

JWisdom: The Truly Righteous Don't Demand Entitlements by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

August 14, 2008

Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Confessions of broken spirit

Libby Lazewnik: The Numbers Game

JWisdom: Six Questions You'll Be Asked in Heaven? - Uh - Let's Just Take One for Now! by Gavriel Aryeh Sanders

August 13, 2008

Jonathan Tobin: Georgia should be on their minds

The Kosher Gourmet by Linda Gassenheimer: Go Greek: Pair flavorful lamb kebabs with a hearty salad

JWisdom: Human hybrids aren't science fiction by Rabbi David Aaron

August 12, 2008

Rabbi Avi Shafran: Bless us

Daniel Pipes: The West's Islamist Infiltrators

JWisdom: From Sadness to Gladness: The Route from Tisha b'Av to Rosh Hashana by Rabbi Mordechai Becher

August 11, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: A Jewish view on fair pricing

Caroline B. Glick: Ignoring failure in Gaza

JWisdom: 'Communication' Is Not The Answer! by Malka Schulman

August 7, 2008

Rabbi David Gutterman: A Continuing Story With a Sustaining Goal

Rabbi Berel Wein: Mourning and morning

JWisdom: Yes, we are still in exile by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

August 6, 2008

David Ashenfelter: Government made military engineer's life a living hell because of his faith, Defense Department report documents

Jonathan Tobin: Speak the Truth; Defeat the Lies

JWisdom: Jewish Spirituality: Fusion or Confusion? by Rabbi David Aaron

August 5, 2008

Chris Leppek: Church/state wall beginning to crumble?

Paul Greenberg: Exit Olmert (no encore, please)

JWisdom: Serenity: Make the commitment by Rabbi Zelig Pliskin (Read by Gavriel Sanders)

August 4, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Am I taking advantage of another's psychological quirk?

Andrew Silow-Carroll: A black and a Jew walk into the White House…

JWisdom: The Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith: Edward R. Morrow visits the ‘living dead’ by Rabbi Nosson Scherman

August 1, 2008

Rabbi A. Henach Leibowitz: We have the power to alter another's destiny — use it well

Caroline B. Glick: Why Olmert — finally — did it

JWisdom: Life By The (Book of) Numbers by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

July 31, 2008

This Week in Biblical History by Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Ezra the Scribe returns from exile

Joan Verdon: Demure is in demand: More brides seek 'modest' gowns

JWisdom: You don't have to be ‘compatible’ to have a stable, happy relationship by Malka Shulman

July 30, 2008

Jonathan Tobin: Does Israel need 'tough love'?

The Kosher Gourmet by Gail Borelli: Pickling captures the fleeting tastes of summer's fruits and vegetables

JWisdom: Serenity: It's Really Up to YOU! by Rabbi Zelig Pliskin (Read by Gavriel Sanders)

July 29, 2008

Rabbi Avi Shafran: Good things happen

Dick Morris: How Israel's race could shift ours

JWisdom: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Equal but Not Jewish or Jewish but Not Human?

July 28, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: How and when to lie

Steven Emerson: More Perils of Interfaith Dialogue

JWisdom:: A TripTik for Your Spiritual Journey by Rabbi Dovid Gross

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 May 20, 2008 / 15 Iyar 5768

Will Obama claim a cultural war victory?

By Clarence Page


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | John Edwards did a large favor for Sen. Barack Obama, but the Illinois senator is not out of the woods yet.


The former North Carolina senator's endorsement last week of Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination blunted Sen. Hillary Clinton's ability to celebrate her two-to-one West Virginia primary landslide.


But, even if Obama is nominated and chooses Edwards for vice president, as many hope he will, the old adage still remains overwhelmingly true that voters vote for the candidate, not the running mate. Obama still needs to reach more of the folks who have supported him the least.


According to Dave "Mudcat" Saunders, the savvy Virginia-based consultant who helped Edwards and other Democrats improve their rural vote: We make too much of "color" and talk too little about "culture."


Culture matters. Democrats have long been frustrated to see their party, historically the party of America's working-class, being rejected by the very voters its policies are intended to help.


For example, Democratic presidential nominees have not won a majority of working-class white males at the ballot box since Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964. Since then, Bill Clinton came closest in 1992 by connecting culturally, not just politically. When he said "I feel your pain," a lot of people believed him.


Obama's weak appeal to blue-collar voters is tied to his other liability, his newness to America's political stage. Lower income voters tend to be the least knowledgeable about "the skinny kid with the funny name," as Obama cheerfully introduced himself during his Senate campaign. In his presidential quest, they have been the most likely to believe the false rumors that he's Muslim, refuses to salute the flag, hangs out with radicals and doesn't appreciate the values of people who work hard for a living.


Obama's awareness of that cultural gap probably explains why he's taken to wearing his American flag lapel pin again. It may be a small thing to him intellectually, as he has said, but it does a lot to shatter some of the false Internet-fed impressions about him that have been allowed to grow and harden in some neighborhoods.


Ironically, despite Republican attempts to paint Obama as a liberal, he is in many ways a cultural conservative. His 2004 Democratic National Convention speech that launched his rapid rise on the national stage, you may recall, was grounded in values that made him the Democratic Party's answer to Colin Powell and Bill Cosby.


People from across the political spectrum hoped Obama might transcend the nation's racial divide. That effort was brought rapidly down to Earth by the inflammatory sound bites of his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. Obama's image as a unifier can rise again by speaking to issues that connect with people's daily lives. One example has been embedded in his biography: the breakdown of the American family.


The rise of out-of-wedlock births is one the thorniest issues facing the black community today. But the issue reaches beyond race. Out-of-wedlock births have risen to almost 70 percent in black America, almost half of Hispanic births and more than a fourth of white births. In 1950, the rates for all three were about 10 percent.


Add in the high rates of divorce and other parental breakups and you have large numbers of American children growing up in single-parent households. Some 24 million children live apart from their fathers, according to the National Fatherhood Initiative. As Roland Warren, the initiative's president, has said, "Kids have a hole in their soul the shape of their dad."


Obama knows that feeling, as his first autobiography recounts. His parents were married, but his Kenyan father abandoned his mother when Barack was very young. He was raised mostly by his mother's parents.


In endless arguments, conservatives cite the welfare policies of "the nanny state." Liberals point to the disappearance of jobs and other community resources that give families assistance.


Obama has cited both. He also has introduced legislation to remove some of the government penalties on married families and crack down on men avoiding child-support payments.


Yet, beyond occasional mentions of being raised by a single mom, Obama has not used his bully pulpit very much to couple government action with the promotion of marriage and other personal responsibility. That's not easy to do without being accused of "blaming the victims" for their problems. But, Obama could hardly find a more worthy topic for a national conversation.

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