Avraham Infeld, the Chairman Emeritus of Hillel, is known as a giant in Jewish circles. My friend, mentor and hero Rabbi Brian Lurie (I’ll tell you about him another time) introduced me to Avraham earlier this summer. I was struck by his passion for Israel, and corollary passion for a Two-State-Solution, with the passion emanating [...]
When fighting nihilistic, authoritarian, repressive, totalitarian and/ or fundamentalist movements or governments, those on the side of freedom need to keep in mind the big picture: no such negative structure has ever withstood the test of time or can compete in a clean race against liberty of thought and expression. Acts of terrorism and sabotage [...]
Tom Friedman has turned into a global icon by taking complex matters, synthesizing them, and explaining them in easily understood sound-bites that everyone can relate to. He is excellent at creating clear contrasting images and analogies to our daily experience. While in the process he often over-simplifies an issue and turns it into pop, this [...]
It is not PC to admit that Anglo-Americans often have problems distinguishing Asian faces (or for that matter, any other ethnicity). But from China Southern Air comes some comforting confirmation that for the Chinese, the opposite is true – Americans (or Westerners) all seem to look alike to them. On the plane on the way [...]
One of the most stimulating meetings I had at the YGL conference was with Arthur Mutambara. I had not gotten the chance to connect with him during the conference, until I heard him ask a question at a session with the CEO of China Mobile, Wang Jianzhou. China Mobile is the world’s largest and [...]
At the concluding session of the Young Global Leaders, a group of YGLs from all over the world provided a very powerful paradigm contrast as to leadership styles and life styles: of love vs fear. “There are only 2 things in the world: love and fear. If you don’t love it, you fear it.” “Fear [...]
This last Friday, Gazans organized a protest against Hamas. They called on people to pray outside the mosques. The background to this is that Hamas has seized total control of the mosques, banning any Imam who does not follow the party line, and using the pulpit for their political and ideological propaganda. Needless to say, [...]
Doing something out of ‘self-interest’ but defining self-interest in a broad enough and sufficiently long-term &/or sufficiently consequential way that bears in mind societal impact. Example: working to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not ‘altruistic’ at all. It is based on the imperative to prevent a tragic world for our offspring. It is based on [...]
Just saw the provocative and extraordinary documentary, Deliver Us From Evil. It documents the pathological institutionalization and cover-up of sexual abuse and rape of children by priests in the California Diocese of the Catholic Church. What is most infuriating is the well-documented cover up of these crimes, motivated by the desire of higher-ups to safeguard their [...]
It struck my mind as I heard a Muslim chant, Alahuh Akbhar, (God is Great) that it is truly beautiful artistically, yet I am pretty certain it evokes the worst images among much of the Western world, because of the association with terrorists that many have. It struck me how much harm terrorism has caused [...]