Libi BaMizrach

    In my work as an attorney I have been privileged to help families with estate planning, a process by which people plan for eventualities that will happen  after they live a good, long and healthy life.  In doing so, I have to raise issues and ask many questions, some more welcome than others.     These include questions that they would rather not ask themselves, such as: What if you are not healthy as you grow older; who will make your health care decisions for you (Health Care Proxy)?  Who will handle your financial and legal affairs (Power of Attorney)?   While unsettling, those are the relatively easy questions.     The hard questions are the ones that force the client to consider the possibility that disaster will strike. What if your intended beneficiaries predecease you?   What if the person that you are sure will be there for you when you need them will be no longer available?  Who will take ca...

I am proud to the have the honor of being a semi-regular columnist at the Queens Jewish Link , and have come to really love this publication. It is a breath of fresh air as compared with many other Orthodox publications, as below. When the editors of the QJL and I were contemplating this arrangement, we struggled somewhat with what my byline should be. Ultimately we came up with “ Middle of The Road ”.  That is because perhaps my greatest passion as a writer and speaker on Jewish topics is on a re-assertion of what, in my view, used to be mainstream values in the Orthodox community – neither “Ultra-Orthodox/Chareidi” nor “Religious Zionist/Mizrachi/Modern Orthodox” – but rather what used to be the predominant “Middle Path”, now seemingly absent from the public square of Jewish Thought and Practice.  (I have written about this at length) . I continue to believe that the silent majority out there still identifies with this point of view, although it is sadly shrinking due...

There are some problems that cry out for a solution  – that tug at the heart of any decent person who cares about justice and compassion for victims of abuse – that have defied resolution and thus cause much frustration and heartache.  Well-meaning people long for a magic wand that will finally solve the problem, restore justice, peace and sanity and end the power of the abusers, and thus understandably continue to try to find novel solutions.  A solution, however, that causes even worse problems than the one it comes to solve, is worse than no solution at all.   Unfortunately, it appears that the new “ International  Bet Din for Agunot ” that has been publicized recently is just such a non-“solution”. The distressing problem of Agunot – commonly referred to as “Chained Women” – is one of the most vexing in the observant Jewish world. It is much publicized, and – contrary to those who consider it a “women’s issue” – it is a problem that inflicts suff...

As I write these words, I am enjoying the wonderful Chag of Chanukah, and hope that it will remain as it ought to be, consisting of warm, fun-filled evenings in front of the Menorah, armed with our dreidels and feasting on latkes, enjoying spending quality time with our family and friends. Lonni & I are enjoying it this year in a very special way – we traveled to Israel and are spending Chanukah with our children. It should be a completely joyous and wonderful time. But, unfortunately, just under the surface, it is not so. In fact, first among the gifts that I brought for each of my children is a can of mace/pepper spray. Much like it was many years ago, בימים ההם בזמן הזה, Yerushalyim Ir Hakodesh has become a battlefield of late. We, the Jewish people, are under attack. We are being run over at bus stations, stabbed while waiting for rides, having our children kidnapped and killed, knifed while shopping in supermarkets, shot at with thousands of missile, narro...