When I received the message from the Standard’s assistant editor Josh Lipowsky that the headline for the article on our conference March 7 would read “UJA…” instead of “UTJ Holds Conference on Independent Minyanim,”, my heart sank — a wonderful opportunity to bring people would now be missed simply because of a typo.

Or would it?

I was once characterized as having become very right-wing because another Jewish periodical mistakenly identified me as the executive vice president of an Israeli Haredi organization with the identical initials of the UTJ (we are the Union for Traditional Judaism).

So, if I have to choose with whom our organization will mistakenly be identified, I suppose I’d have to say UJA, rather than a different UTJ. I have been a giver to UJA for many years and support their good works, and our UTJ has even received the occasional grant from UJA for our outreach work.

In the end, the Standard committed an accidental error that could happen to anyone. And it’s even possible that someone who might otherwise have missed it, read the very well written article about our program because of the mistake.

I am upset each time I read another article about the rights of women in the haredi areas of Israel.

How much more can the rabbinical decisions of Israel push back into primitivity our sisters in Israel?

In the March 5 Jewish Standard, you reprinted an article from Tablet by Adam Kirsch. In the very beginning of this article, Mr. Kirsch presents an expression of Jew-hatred in the quotation, “The prophet, prayer and peace be upon him, said: ‘The time will not come until Muslims will fight the Jews (and kill them); until the Jews hide behind rocks and trees, which will cry: O Muslim! there is a Jew hiding behind me, come on and kill him.’”

On Sunday, March 14, the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company would have performed as part of our community’s celebration of 100 years of the kibbutz movement, co-sponsored by the UJA’s Israel Programs Center and Partnership 2000. The event should have been held at the Kaplen JCC on the Palisades, but because of the severe weather and power outages, this wonderful opportunity to engage with Israel had to be canceled. I know many people planned to attend this event and we will try and reschedule a performance later this year. Many thanks to all the people who invested time to organize this event, especially my partners at the Kaplen JCC, the host families, and the local community cantors scheduled to sing at this event.

This past week we joined the millions around the world whose lives have been usurped by forces beyond our control. In the context of a horrific storm — or, as in Haiti or Chile, an earthquake — free will seems almost irrelevant. After all, does one small personal choice really matter when the ground is literally pulled from beneath your feet?

Interviewed for this week’s cover story, area rabbis waxed philosophical about the mysteries of life. But whether God works in our lives directly — through a plan we can only vaguely discern — or God’s presence is reflected in the way we live our lives and treat others, each of these rabbis was clear in affirming that what we do matters.

In its determination to prove it is not the Bush administration, the Obama administration has gone out of its way to curry favor with the Arabs and criticize Israel. Having succeeded in alienating most of the Israeli public, the administration sent Vice President Joseph Biden to Jerusalem to convince Israelis they have a friend in the White House, but Biden couldn’t stick to the script and managed to reinforce their fears rather than reassure them.

Biden was prepared to say all the right things, and did say many of them, but when he decided it was necessary to publicly blast Israel for announcing the construction of more homes in its capital, he frittered away any chance he had of accomplishing his objective. This is not to defend the Israeli decision, which substantively may have been justifiable, but could not have been publicized at a worse moment. Still, Biden could have just as easily told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu behind closed doors that this was an embarrassing and stupid announcement. Friends keep their disagreements private as much as possible, a lesson Obama could learn from Bill Clinton’s stewardship of U.S.-Israel ties.

The world,” said the Baal Shem Tov, “is full of miracles, but man takes his little hand and covers his eyes and sees nothing.”

How true this is. God created nature and nature abounds in miracles — especially at this time of year, as we emerge from the dark and dreary days of winter. Doves return to backyard decks; crocuses begin to show on front lawns; buds appear on once barren branches. It is beautiful to behold, even awe-inspiring, and we do behold it and we are awed.

It’s traditional to ask the four questions at Passover, and it’s becoming quite common to add a fifth (besides “When do we eat?”).

A fifth question tends to rise in relation to needs. During the Soviet Jewry movement, it was often asked, “Why is this land different from other lands?” Or it might have been phrased, “Why is this night no different from other nights?” And the answer would be: “Because on this night millions of human beings around the world still remain enslaved, just as they do on all other nights.”