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Category

moral

Is murder wrong?: Progressive dialogue

In my last column, I made the case that if there is no God who declares murder wrong, murder is not, in fact, wrong. While human beings can believe that murder is wrong, without God, right and wrong are our moral opinions, not moral facts.

Survey: Fewer Americans think Jews control Hollywood

The majority of Americans no longer believe that Jews control Hollywood. This is the news from a new poll released by the Anti-Defamation League that also suggests there remains a widespread conviction that there is an organized campaign by Hollywood and the national media to undermine religious values.

‘Munich’ Portrays Real World Issues

In recent days, several pundits have criticized \”Munich,\” the new film by director Steven Spielberg and screenwriter Tony Kushner, for drawing a \”moral equivalency between the Israeli assassins and their targets — both explicitly … and implicitly.\” Furthermore, they argue that it has inaccurately portrayed the Israeli avengers as morally conflicted about their mission to eliminate the perpetrators of the Munich massacre.

Dialogue of Truth

For many, perhaps most, American Jews today, the words that open this week\’s Torah portion stand at the center of the their understanding of Judaism.

Prisoners’ Release Faces Hurdle

Seldom can Israeli Cabinet ministers have faced a more acute moral and political dilemma than the current prisoner exchange deal with Hezbollah.

That proposal, which the 23-member Cabinet approved Sunday by a one-vote margin, forced ministers to weigh the conflicting interests of several Israeli families, put a price on the life of a kidnapped Israeli citizen and consider the long-term price that all Israelis may yet have to pay.

Now the government may have another decision to make: Hezbollah is demanding that those released include Samir Kuntar, the terrorist from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, who murdered an Israeli family in a 1979 attack that shocked Israel.

The Pacifist Who Fought Hitler

Early in the Nazi regime, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a rising young Protestant minister and theologian, was asked by his twin sister to speak at the funeral of her Jewish husband.\n\nBonhoeffer consulted his church superiors and refused. Later, tormented by his decision, he asked himself, \”How could I have been so afraid? I should have behaved differently.\”\n\nIt was perhaps the only time that Bonhoeffer\’s natural human fear trumped his moral courage in fighting the Nazi ideology, a stand for which he finally paid with his life.\n\nThe acts and religious beliefs of perhaps the most principled German Protestant voice during the Hitler era are woven together in the 90-minute documentary, \”Bonhoeffer,\” opening Oct. 10 at two Laemmle theaters.

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Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.

More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.

More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.