Hundreds of rockets, fatalities, injuries, homes severely damaged, and entire cities shut down. Palestinians in the West Bank, and Israeli Arabs throughout the country, are beating and stoning Jewish civilians, attacking police officers, attempting to shoot and car-ram soldiers, and…
My grandfather, back in Belarus, was a very religious man. When I was a child, he would often tell me about Jerusalem. Even though I was only five or six years old then, I vividly remember the emotion in his…
“No calamity comes to the world but for Israel.” These poignant words of our sages (Yevamot, 63a) capture the reason for all the tragedies that afflict us. Not only the Talmud warns about the reason for Israel’s blows. The Book…
This week Human Rights Watch (HRW), an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, was “the latest watchdog to accuse Israel of perpetuating a version of the racist legal system that once governed South Africa,” according to The New…
This Thursday evening, we will celebrate LAG ba Omer, the 33rd day of the Omer count, which begins the day after Passover and ends forty-nine days later, on the eve of the holiday of Shavuot. The 33rd day is very…
On every aspect we can examine, life is better today than it ever was: We have more food than ever, even too much; we have better health care; we live longer; and we have freedom of speech, at least compared…
As of Sunday, April 18, 2021, wearing masks in open spaces is no longer mandatory in Israel. For some time now, new cases have been dropping and hospitals are growing emptier as more patients leave for home and far fewer…
The Holocaust left a strong mark on me from an early age. I was born in Belarus, in the same place where horrible atrocities were perpetrated by the Nazis against Jews. Particularly in Vitebsk, the city of my childhood, there…
On Passover night, traditionally everyone sits with their loved ones at a festive table to read about freedom and the sufferings of slavery and plagues, and the desire for liberation. For a second consecutive year in the US, and most…
There are many ways to think of the drama that took place between Pharaoh and Moses in Biblical Egypt. Some think of it as history; others see it as folklore, and still others see it as an allegory to teach…
Recently, six of the popular children’s books author Dr. Seuss were banned from Amazon for ostensibly containing “racist” content. As a child, Dr. Seuss, who came from German descent, was himself a victim of prejudice after suffering from anti-German…
To: The International Criminal Court (ICC) Subject: The Court’s announcement that it will open a formal probe against Israel concerning alleged “war crimes” during the 2014 Operation Protective Edge military campaign. The ICC Prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, recently stated that “The…