יום רביעי, א׳ אב תשפ״וWednesday, July 15, 2026
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Shoshanna Keats Jaskoll is cofounder of Chochmat Nashim, fighting the extremist trends that harm the community. Originally from Lakewood, she lives in Israel with her family.
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No matter who you are, no matter where you come from, it is a gift you can give to others. It's generosity, where one person sees what the other needs, and strives to provide it, and what is more G-dly than that?
Laura reinvented herself numerous times. She had careers as, among other things, a preschool teacher, makeup artist, marketer, and, of course, photographer, but no matter how she focused her time, she always stayed true to who she was: a lover of Israel, the Jewish people, justice, and her incredible family.
Rivka. The name of my grandmother. A Holocaust survivor, a partisan, and a rebuilder of worlds.
Since October 7/Simchat Torah, there has been no good morning, there has been only waking to realize that we are still in this endless nightmare of grief, pain, and uncertainty.
The cycle of life, the importance of difference and the seemingly incongruousness are there to contemplate. While there is timing to be respected, a consistency that lets you know what chag is before you simply by looking around you, there is also surprise and wonder.
We hear stories of those who lived there. How they died, but more importantly, how they lived.
Israel’s Ethiopian community is about 180,000 strong. Exiled from Judea before the Second Temple, and before Rabbinic Judaism, the Jews of Ethiopia suffered religious persecution, forced migration, forced conversion, and horrific trials before they could make aliyah to Israel.
In the end, we are all crafting our own puzzles, made up of the aspects of life that we have been gifted, that we have been challenged with, that we have chosen to try to achieve, overcome, create, and manifest.
Created as a way to eat warm foods while still keeping Shabbat, it speaks of home, it speaks of tradition…it speaks of connection.
Israel. Where every tiyul is something new. Where G-d shows all the colors, the vibrancy of life, the stark contrast between vast sea, open desert, and lush forest.
Gemara, where a statement made by one can and has affected millions, where a language of its own is needed to unlock millennia of history.
When we allow extremes to become norms, the community is not healthy. When we place one value over all others, the community is not healthy.
July 10, 2026 
