Growing up in New York in the ‘50s I was naïve to scam artists. We knew to respect our parents and be helpful to our neighbors. The police were heroes we looked up to. At the same time we also knew that some things were sacred. I remember my mother preparing me a special lunch [...]

Was the Airplane Terrorist Brainwashed? By Rabbi BZ Kravitz Last week’s failed terrorist plot to blow up a Northwest Airlines flight has police and airline personnel beefing up security, and others wondering how this could happen. Umar Mutallab, the 23-year-old Nigeria born terrorist, was subdued by other passengers while trying to ignite an explosive device [...]

Skinheads Get Scammed Too. By Rabbi BZ Kravitz In July of 1993, the FBI arrested eight members of the Fourth Reich Skinheads. The group’s members had been plotting to attack several racially symbolic targets in Los Angeles, including a synagogue and the First African Methodist Episcopal Church. After sentencing, the U.S. District Attorney designed a [...]

What do Cults, Tele-marketers and Terrorist have in common? By Rabbi BZ Kravitz For years, religious cults have taken advantage of people who have given over their lives and fortunes to charismatic figures that prey on naïve individuals. People of different faiths usually disagree on theology, but theological differences are not necessarily the determining factor [...]

Why is Judaism passed down through the mother? I understand in olden times it was easy to know who your mother was and there was no way of proving fatherhood. But these days we have DNA testing, so why can’t someone be Jewish even if only their father is Jewish?