At a time when fundamentalist religious fringe groups are doing their best to bring on the next world by destroying this one, it’s thrilling to see a bigger, more powerful movement of interfaith and progressive religious communities engaged in making the world a better place to live and raise our future generations. Survival does not depend on being the fittest or strongest, but on being the cleverest, most persistent, determined and lucky. Up to now, this column has concentrated almost excl...

I MARVEL at how many brilliant Jewish finance minds have significantly contributed to the meltdown and resurrection of the US economy. While the Boeskys, Milkens, Madoffs, Frankels, Bear Stearns, Kolberg Kravitzs and Goldman Sachs speculated and crashed, the Summers, Bernankes, Geitners and Krugmans advised and manipulated money supplies and structures to, ironically, set the stage for more worldwide financial speculation, manipulation and crashes. Nearly all of these restlessly competitive pl...