Chanukah, the festival of lights. The celebration of the Jewish victory over the Hellenists and the ultimate survival of the Jewish people. Today we marvel at the thought of a Jewish ruffian, standing up to the ruler of the land and saying No. We call Judah Maccabi a hero, we hail him, remember him and celebrate his victory. But what about modern day Maccabis,...

Former US President Jimmy Carter, a noted anti-Israel advocate has called on the Obama Administration to take Hamas off the terror watch list. He made this call on the heels of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s peace appeal to the Palestinians. Let’s take a minute to examine the two distinct, yet connected events. On Sunday, June 14th,...

Ah, how I long for the days of objectivity. How I crave for the days where I could turn on the television and see normal news, objective, non-racist, perhaps even informative. But those days are gone in Canada, they fully evaporated with the touchdown of Airforce 1 in Ottawa yesterday. I had the misfortune of turning on my television and catching the all day...

As appeared in the September 2009 issue of JMAG Magazine: by Howard Silbiger In the 1920s German Jews had ascended to the top of society. They were the aristocratic symbol of wealth, culture and physique. These German Jews were loyal to Germany, they identified as German before Jewish. Judaism to them was an inherited bother, they were more concerned with...

Today, on Shabbos, the front door to the shul was locked. It was an unusual occurrence at this particular shul (another shul for some mysterious reason, never unlocks the front door) and I was bewildered by it. After much investigation, I found that the doors were locked in precaution for reprisals from the incursion of Israel into Gaza, it was done, I was told,...