Free Republic

Mrs. Yael Eckstein is the 35-year-old mother of four who is the President of one of Israel’s largest philanthropic organizations, The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. After serving in various senior capacities for a decade, Mrs. Eckstein took over the organization, founded by her father, the famous Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein upon his sudden passing just over a year ago. Yael now has the distinction of being one of the very few women in the world leading a religious non-for-profit and fewer still lead an organization with an annual budget exceeding one hundred million dollars.Interestingly, this Jewish-led organization is...

As the Israeli ambassador to the US, Ron Dermer said: " It is true that in every generation they rise up against us...But it is a rare thing- a very rare thing- a president like President Trump and an administration like the Trump administration- it doesn't happen every generation. It may happen once in many, many generations." If President Trump had only banned travel from China thus stopping the Angel of Death- Dayenu If President Trump had only moved the US embassy to Jerusalem- Dayenu If President Trump had only recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan- Dayenu If President Trump...

One of the most pivotal events in salvation history is the exodus from Egypt. The Israelites were trapped in the bondage of slavery in Egypt when God called Moses to free them. God said to Moses, “…’I have witnessed the affliction of my people in Egypt and have heard their cry of complaint against their slave drivers, so I know well what they are suffering. Therefore I have come down to rescue them … and lead them out of that land into a good and spacious land …” (Exodus 3:7-8). What’s fascinating about God’s emancipation of the Israelites is the...

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio warned the Jewish community, again, not to hold services in the synagogues. Failing cooperation, he said, permanent closure would be the next step. Although many shuls have closed in deference to the city’s COVID-19 coronavirus restrictions, some have not and instead continued to hold minyanim despite the city’s orders to close in order to prevent the spread of the virus. “We’ve had extraordinary, across the board rabbinical support from all the different elements of the Jewish community and the same is true of other faiths as well, de Blasio said at his daily...

Mechinoh School says issues related to sexuality must be 'the domain of the parents'A strictly Orthodox secondary school in Salford has been threatened with removal from the register by the Department for Education because it will not teach openly about LGBT people. Mechinoh, a small independent boys school, was rated as good in three out of four areas by Ofsted a year ago but was told it was not complying with requirements on equality. This week it was warned by the DfE it could be permanently shut unless it produced an action plan to address the issue. The school insists...

Orthodox teaching on the practice is more complex than some media suggest. People magazine recently published its pro-abortion issue, “Women’s Choices, Women’s Voices.” In it you’ll find the misleading story of an Orthodox Jewish mother and wife in the suburbs of New York City who once traveled to Colorado to abort a distressed baby in the 31st week of pregnancy. The woman chose to tell her traumatic story, relayed to a People staffer, anonymously because she fears her community and friends will stigmatize her for ending a life, “even for medical and religious reasons.” And she ends her story on...

Before Shanee Markovitz and Tani Kay get married this May, the couple gathered their close friends together recently to celebrate … their prenup. “I want my friends to see this as a huge part of our wedding. It’s as important as every other piece, if not more,” says Markovitz, 20. “We’re going to announce it at our wedding and put it in our programs, too.” While many prenuptial agreements are kept hush-hush and often seen as unromantic, for this couple — who have been together since they were high-school sophomores — it’s a sign of liberation. And not everyone is...

February 17, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) — Jewish leaders in the U.K. have stated that they will oppose educational authorities and not allow their schools to teach about homosexual and other “lifestyles” that are “prohibited by the Torah.” Chinuch U.K., an organization that represents Britain’s main strictly Orthodox Jewish communities, has “issued a defiant challenge to the government by insisting their schools cannot discuss LGBT-related issues with pupils,” according to The Jewish Chronicle. The statement was reportedly prompted by recent visits to Jewish schools by government inspectors, who made it clear that primary schools have to teach children about LGBT “equality.” In...

I explore Surah 80 (He Frowned), and contrast the empathy and compassion demonstrated by Christ with the contempt felt towards his fellow man by Muhammad.

I explore Surah 79, and explain how Islam has a completely misguided interpretation of the role of angels, particularly with regard to salvation. I point out where and how Muhammad went wrong in his confused theology.

I explore Surah 78, and point out the fatal flaw in Muhammad's eschatology. I describe how the lack of Original Sin-and the lack of substitutionary atonement-doom the Islamic narrative of resurrection/judgment.

ROME — Pope Francis said Monday selfishness leads to populism, which in turn gives rise to antisemitism. Addressing a delegation from the Simon Wiesenthal Center in the Vatican, the pontiff offered a systematic, “connect-the-dots” thought experiment tying selfishness to anger, anger to populism, populism to hatred, and hatred to antisemitism. “The rise of a selfish indifference in many parts of the world is worrisome, by which people are only interested in what makes them comfortable: life is good if it is good for me and when something goes wrong, it unleashes anger and malice,” the pope began. “This is the...

2600 years ago the Jewish prophet Ezekiel predicted an unlikely coalition of nations that would rise in the last days and make a push to control the Middle East and destroy the regathered nation of Israel. The leading nation of this coalition is Russia (Land of Magog, Meshech (Moscow), and Tubal (Tobolsk)). I will talk about the Iran and Turkey in forthcoming articles... Ezekiel 38:2 "Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him, 3 And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against...

This Jewish festival takes place in winter, usually December, and lasts for eight days...It is not one of the major feasts of the Lord that was given to Moses for the Jewish people to keep as part of their covenant with God. The reason it is not in the Jewish Bible? It occurred during the intertestamental period—the 400 years between Malachi and Matthew, the old and new covenants, when the heavens were silent. God’s chosen people had become idolatrous and rebellious which led to both Israel and Judah going into captivity to the Assyrians and Babylonians. About halfway through this...

Five victims were stabbed by a black man armed with a machete who walked into Rabbi Rottenberg’s Shul in the Forshay neighborhood of Money and began stabbing people at random. Eyewitnesses tell YWN that the suspect fled in a vehicle and did not say anything before going on his rampage. Hatzolah transported the victims to the hospital – one of them is in critical condition with a stab wound to the chest. At around midnight, the vehicle was located in Harlem, NY, and a suspect was taken into custody.

I explore Surah 61 of the Koran, differentiating between the sacrificial love exemplified by Jesus and the distorted concept embraced by Muhammad and Islam. I also use the premises of Islam in order to demonstrate how orthodox Muslims should be Ahmadiyya, if they took their Koran seriously, which they do not.

At the White House Chanukah party, Mayor Michael Wildes approached President Trump to thank him for his support after the massacre at a Kosher market in Jersey City by two black nationalists."Thank you, Mr. President for your extraordinary work today," the Englewood mayor told Trump in a video posted on Facebook. "Standing up to anti-Semitism has been in your DNA. Why is that so natural?"“It's always been the way I felt," President Trump replied. "As you know I have a son-in-law, daughter, and three magnificent children. Jewish. And what happened in New Jersey was horrible.""I can't tell you how much...

The Church of England has received praise from the Jewish community for its major statement repudiating anti-Semitism in Church history. At the same time, “While Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis welcomed the report in the main, he simultaneously launched a blistering reproach of Anglican leaders for failing to disavow their institution with those who still seek to convert Jews to Christianity.”Personally, as a Jewish believer in Jesus, I’m thrilled to see this statement, since many Jews have a terrible view of Jesus due to centuries of mistreatment at the hands of professing Christians. In fact, Church history is one of the...

Centuries of Christian anti-Semitism led to the Holocaust, a landmark Church of England report has concluded. In a foreword to the report, published today, the Archbishop of Canterbury said that Christians cannot challenge and reflect on the past honestly, “until we have felt the cruelty of our history”. The document, which has been three years in the making, was prepared by the Church’s Faith and Order Commission and entitled: God’s Unfailing World: Theological and practical perspectives on Christian-Jewish relations.It urges Christians to not only be repentant for the “sins of the past” against Jews, but also to challenge active attitudes...

Late last month, Pope Francis received a local gift from New York that served as a goodwill gesture to promote greater understanding among people of different faiths. Pave the Way Foundation — a Wantagh, L.I.-based organization whose mission is to “end the malevolent use of religion” — organized a trip to Rome to present the pope with a copy of a Jewish sacred text for use in the Vatican Library. The document was a replica of the English translation of the “Tikkunei Zohar,” an ancient sacred text of the Jewish Kabbalah, a mystical movement that interprets the Bible. The Tikkunei...