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July 24, 2008

Rabbi Berel Wein: On the road again --- and again and again

Richard Z. Chesnoff: Mideast Refugees --- Failure vs. Success

JWisdom:: Word power is about more than vocabulary by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

July 23, 2008

Jonathan Tobin: The Mufti of Jerusalem's Nazi ideology lives on among contemporary Islamists

The Kosher Gourmet by Joe Gray: Smoked paprika turkey meatballs simmered in red wine and tomato sauce

JWisdom:: 'Routine' doesn't need to mean ‘rote’ By Rabbi David Aaron

July 22, 2008

Yossi Klein Halevi: Dear Barack Obama

Elliot B. Gertel: Eli Stone: Self-indulgent, arrogant corporate attorney as modern-day prophet

JWisdom:: Three Weeks - Nine Days - One Purpose by Rabbi Mordechai Becher

July 21, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Spending your kids' money

Mitch Albom: A grim exchange illustrates a key difference

JWisdom:: The Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith: Hammered on the Anvil --- Severed by the Sickle by Rabbi Nosson Scherman

July 18, 2008

Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo: The Sanctification and Importance of Time

Caroline B. Glick: US wants it absolutely clear it has no intention of attacking Iran's nuclear installations

Mona Charen: What can you say about a people who welcome a child murderer as a hero?

JWisdom:: Living a dog's life, dawg? by Rabbi Dovid Gross

July 17, 2008

Steven Emerson: Deals with devils

Libby Lazewnik: One Step at a Time

JWisdom:: Leader the follower? by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

July 16, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Poaching humans

The Kosher Gourmet by Linda Gassenheimer: Meaty pasta salad with summer berries perfect for warm evenings

JWisdom:: Keeping A Secret by Rabbi Mordechai Becher

July 15, 2008

Dennis Prager: False Equation: Opposing Same-Sex Marriage and Opposing Interracial Marriage

Joel Greenberg: Researchers look to Israeli circumcision program to help combat AIDS 'Alternatives' to Logic Won't Work

JWisdom:: Re-Jew-venating prayer, Part V: Why Judaism ISN'T Spiritual by Rabbi David Aaron

July 14, 2008

Jonathan Rosenblum: A warning from Canada to those who value life

Jonathan Tobin: 'Alternatives' to Logic Won't Work

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

July 11, 2008

Rabbi Francis Nataf: It's hard to be humble when you're great

Caroline B. Glick: A tale of two hostages

JWisdom:: Profane for Prophet by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

July 8, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Q. Duty to save gullible from themselves?

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Islamists have the West just where they want us

JWisdom:: Putting the Spirit Back into Spirituality, Part 3: The Fully Loaded Human Being by Rabbi Dovid Gross

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

JWisdom:: The Moses Method by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

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

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 Oct. 12, 2007 / 30 Tishrei 5768

Outrage becomes Laura Bush

By Kathleen Parker

Kathleen Parker
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | It can't be easy being a first lady. She's the wife-in-chief in a traditional role, but she also has a brain.


And she has a voice, though it is usually muted or restricted to safe "womanly" concerns — home, hearth and domestic issues such as health, education and child care.


When the first lady does step into the policy arena, as Hillary Clinton did during her husband's first term, she faces not just scrutiny of her work, but criticism of her audacity. Doesn't she know her place?


Despite role changes beyond 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. — and notwithstanding the groundbreaking exception of Eleanor Roosevelt — we seem to prefer that our presidents' wives (and perhaps husbands?) tend to the china and holiday decorations.


Until just recently, Laura Bush had been a quintessential Missis, mostly confining her interests to such uncontroversial concerns as reading. Reading is good. See Mrs. Bush read. See Mrs. Bush smile. Every now and then, we get to see Mrs. Bush quip, as when she spoke at the 2005 White House Correspondents' Association dinner.


When she tried to participate in the larger world, however, she tended to get in trouble and then retreat from the spotlight. In 2005 while touring Egypt, for instance, she was criticized for praising Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak for taking a "very bold step" toward democracy with an election that many viewed as a sham.


She also took heat a couple of years earlier from a group of American poets who responded to her invitation to a poetry conference by submitting anti-war poems or declining in protest. Ultimately, Mrs. Bush canceled the affair.


The first lady got her knuckles rapped later for comments made during the Harriet Miers debacle. As liberals and conservatives alike scratched their heads over President Bush's nomination of Miers to the Supreme Court — a tipping point for many previously loyal Republicans who could no longer defend the president — Laura Bush suggested that sexism was at play.


Sexism is the mating call of the left, not the right, her critics howled. Again, Mrs. Bush retreated.


And then a few days ago, Laura Bush came out with her dukes up.


The serenely benign first lady has become feisty of late and for a cause few could find reason to criticize. She's steamed about Burma's brutal military government, which recently clamped down on dissidents, killing several and detaining up to 6,000.


Most Americans are by now familiar with news and images of tangerine-clad monks protesting in the streets, but they may know little about Aung San Suu Kyi. A Nobel Prize winner and icon of Burma's democratic movement, she has been under house arrest for nearly 12 of the last 18 years.


Laura Bush wants her released and she wants the military regime to step aside. Well, somebody had to say it.


Wednesday, Mrs. Bush had an article in The Wall Street Journal decrying the treatment of Buddhist monks rounded up and imprisoned under inhumane conditions. The "Saffron Revolution," which was sparked by a 500 percent hike in regime-controlled gas prices, has "unleashed 19 years of pent-up national anger," Mrs. Bush wrote.


It would seem that it also unleashed seven years of the first lady's pent-up emotions.


Burma, and especially the plight of Suu Kyi, got Mrs. Bush's attention in 2002 when a Bush cousin told her about the imprisoned woman. Since then, Mrs. Bush has followed the story and last year began urging the United Nations to take action.


When the first lady speaks, apparently not just her husband listens. Tuesday, she received a call from U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, urging her to continue her efforts. He also promised that he would send the U.N.'s special envoy back to the region as soon as possible and would encourage neighboring countries to pressure Burmese leaders to shift power to a democratic form of government.


President Bush, meanwhile, has increased economic pressure on Burma, directing the U.S. Treasury Department to freeze assets of 14 senior members of the Burmese junta. Europe also has tightened sanctions.


Hating juntas and demanding freedom for monks and women warriors for democracy may not be the riskiest political move in American history. But Mrs. Bush's voice has hit the right note and telegraphs to those in danger and despair that through her they have the ear of the world's most powerful leader.


A first lady's voice is a terrible thing to waste.

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