Rabbi Shmuley Unleashed

For the first time in his presidency Barack Obama has, according to a Gallup poll, fallen below a fifty percent approval rating. It's not hard to see why. No, it's not because he's spending too much money. There seem to be many Americans who want him to boost social programs. Less so is it because people perceive him as accomplishing little because if he pulls off health care reform that is a big thing indeed. No, the principal reason Obama, who became President by electrifying the electorate, has fallen to earth is that he has become boring. Humdrum. Can anyone recall any important line the President has uttered since assuming office or a single dazzling speech?

Every once in a while a story comes along so jolting that it is scarcely believable. One such story was that which appeared in the New York Times of all places this past Sunday about how the Jews' Free School in London has been ordered to admit a child whose mother had a non-orthodox conversion after the child's parents sued. I will not here enter into the ongoing and bitter divide in England between orthodox and progressive Jews. It was a battle that I witnessed and worked hard to mend through countless essays and public forums over the eleven years that I lived in the UK.  Less so will I here address the very pressing questions of Jewish status as determined by conversion on the part of Judaism's three major branches. I am a passionately orthodox Jew who is equally passionate about Jewish unity. Our divisions must indeed be addressed and healed. But this shocking story in Britain raises something far more pressing that is of equal concern to orthodox and non-orthodox alike.

The single greatest injustice facing American parents today is that they are financially forced to send their children to schools not of their choosing. If you want to understand the level of unfairness you need look no further than my home state of New Jersey. Saturday's Wall Street Journal reported that our state's Supreme Court has "taken control of the $11 billion Property Tax Relief Fund," funded by our astronomical, highest-in-the-nation, property taxes. The Journal reports, "The court sends more than half of the state aid to 31 largely urban "special needs" school districts with the remaining 554 largely suburban towns fighting over the rest."

Want to know how badly abused our tax dollars are in the State's education system? A single community, Asbury Park, gets thirty thousand dollars per pupil - enough to send them to the country's best prep schools - and still "they produce dismal test results."

This Sunday I'm going to be conducting an intimate conversation with Jon Gosselin at the West Side Jewish Center in Manhattan.

America has to start having serious conversations about fame. 

Over the weekend I read Startup Nation, the new book about why Israel has emerged as an unlikely global leader in high-tech. Even if its authors Dan Senor and Saul Singer were not my friends and, in the case of Saul, my editor at the post I would still say that it's the best advertisement for Israel to come out in recent memory. Foregoing the usual discussion of Israel as an embattled nation whom everyone hates and seeks to destroy, it focuses instead on the ingenuity and invincibility of the Israeli people and their vast technological contribution to the global economy. Where the Israeli army is discussed its focus is not on soldiers chasing down terrorists but on how the Israeli military serves as a future commercial networking tool for soldiers who served in the same unit. You can see why the book both informs and inspires.

Last night our organization, This World: The Values Network, hosted a fascinating discussion entitled, "Values to Heal America" featuring Prof. Elie Wiesel, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, Dr. Mehmet Oz, America's doctor, and Mayor Cory Booker of Newark....

I just returned from Houston, Texas, where I gave three lectures. Place was hot as a tamale. When I returned I heard from several people that Tracy Morgan had mentioned something about me on 30 Rock on NBC. I had...

By now we've all heard the criticisms of President Obama receiving the Nobel Peace Prize just a little too early. But Judaism and Jewish values offer a unique perspective on the controversy that others have missed. Let me explain by...

America continues to be gripped by Jon and Kate Gosselin whose marriage has now gone belly up and whose TV show seems to be following suit. After TLC informed Jon that he will no longer play a significant role in...

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach was online with WashingtonPost.com readers on Friday, Oct. 2, at 1 p.m. ET to discuss his book, The Michael Jackson Tapes, which is an account of his recorded conversations with the pop star as his spiritual...