Joshua Z. Rokach

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Nov 8, 2024, 8:54 AM

Lessons for Israel

Hand putting vote into ballot box on table outside.

By the time Israel holds its next elections for the Knesset, the swarm of US consultants descending on the country will have forgotten the mistakes the center-left in the US made in this week’s presidential election. The Democrats failed...

Aug 30, 2024, 11:53 PM

The Kennedy-Trump election we needed

September 2, Labor Day, unofficially opens the US election season. The upheavals of the preceding six weeks underline the political whirlwind ongoing since 2016.. Vice President Kamala Harris replacing President Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee and Independent Robert...

Jul 8, 2024, 9:44 PM

The same old Joe Biden

We US voters and, indeed, the rest of the world, rightly focus on Joe Biden’s discombobulated performance at his presidential debate. Biden's responses to that disaster, more than the debate itself, highlight worrisome issues beyond age. Those of us...

Mar 19, 2024, 6:41 PM

Ignore Sen. Schumer at your peril

biden hugs netanyahu 2023/www.gov.il

Last week, Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-NY), the majority leader of the US Senate, caused a stir with his speech on the Gaza War. For a little over 45 minutes, Sen. Schumer laid out his vision for the future...

Jan 28, 2024, 1:36 PM

Saving US democracy, Israeli style

Hand putting vote into ballot box on table outside.

With the Republican presidential nomination contest all but over and the Democratic never in doubt, the US faces a potentially grave threat to its constitutional system. Enough progressive voters may abstain or vote for third-party candidates to defeat Joe...

Nov 3, 2023, 5:47 PM

Overreacting to October 7

Israel and United States flags together realtions textile cloth fabric texture

Hamas’s attack on October 7 galvanized the Jewish world. Practical steps – raising funds, procuring supplies and offering comfort and sanctuary to the afflicted – deserve our admiration. Also, we tip our hats to those undertaking a spiritual response...

Aug 30, 2023, 5:10 AM

The cloud over US Jewish child placement

Two recent US Supreme Court cases and a new lawsuit in Massachusetts cast doubt on the role of religion in US child placement. State laws operate under the principle of the best interest of the child. In applying that...

Jun 20, 2023, 11:15 PM

No-go for Oklahoma religious charter school

school building/pexels-pixabay.com

Oklahoma gave a Catholic diocese taxpayer funds for a religious charter school. Believers in the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause shuddered. Two days later, in Allen v. Milligan, the US Supreme Court, by 5-4, held that a racial gerrymander in...

Jun 6, 2023, 5:36 PM

Biden’s debt deal, a failure of leadership

Last Friday night in an address to the Nation, President Joe Biden celebrated the agreement he succeeded in pushing through Congress to enable the US to borrow enough money to pay its existing obligations. He portrayed his handling of...

Mar 19, 2023, 4:21 PM

Israel’s Judicial Selection Crisis

President Isaac Herzog’s publication of his compromise judicial overhaul plan created an opening for serious discussion of issues at the core of a thriving democracy, including how to choose judges. The Government’s instant rejection exposed its lack of serious...

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About Me

Joshua Z. Rokach is a retired appellate lawyer and a graduate of Yale Law School.