יום חמישי, ג׳ תמוז תשפ״וThursday, June 18, 2026
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Israel is not an idea I support from a safe distance. It is part of my life and my family’s story.
I was surprised that the most often cited reason to interact with non-Jews was civic, political, and legal issues affecting the community.
Dan Bilzerian, who has 30 million Instagram followers, is on the ballot as a Republican in Florida’s 6th Congressional District. While he has little chance of winning, as an extremist, vulgar antisemite, his mere presence on the ballot combined with whatever percentage of the votes he will get, is jarring.
Israel has consistently maintained that the blockade exists to prevent the importation of weapons and military materiel into Hamas-controlled territory, a claim that is strongly supported by the historical evidence.
Say what you will about a demagogic politician dedicated to reviving Marxism – one of history’s bloodiest and costliest failures – as if the catastrophic events and slaughter brought on by it never happened. But on this issue, at least he wasn’t a hypocrite.
He was among the first rabbis to embrace the internet as a platform for Torah, publishing responsa as early as the 1990s. But these were not ordinary responsa. Every ruling stood behind an idea.
In the wake of the Jewish people’s collective wedding anniversary on Shavuos, I offer five dating mindsets that I’ve gleaned from those summers – for those of us still on the journey toward our chuppah, and those genuinely offering support along the way.
By Brian Romick
The United States should absolutely use its leverage to advance peace. But that leverage should not be focused solely on Israel.
Ever since the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, the use of Holocaust inversion by enemies of Israel has gone from being used only by pariahs to becoming chic.
With most of its primary source of revenue cut off, the question remains: How did the PLO-P.A. continue financing terror payments?
Does Gere really object to the idea of Jewish families living in areas where ancient Jewish history is everywhere to be found?
Torah speaks differently to different souls. Every Jew has a unique relationship with Torah, a unique derech in serving Hashem, and a unique contribution to make to the Jewish people.
If our personal foundation isn’t all it can be at that time, regardless of how strong our spouse’s foundation is, our future together will be shaky; our weaker qualities will ultimately reveal themselves more clearly rather than improve.
Identity, in Ruth's case, is not something preserved through careful self-protection. It is something discovered through openness – through relationships, risks, and responsiveness to the unexpected.
The modern business of antisemitism begins, like so much else in modern Europe, in Paris.
By Jeffrey Lax
Those same union delegates and officers walk into our classrooms every day. Their attitudes don’t stay behind in the (largely Marxist) union halls – they shape how they teach, what they tolerate from students, and the messages they send about who belongs in American society.
American Jews did not respond to that freedom by standing apart from the country. They helped build it.
The most dangerous feature of the moment isn’t merely the resurgence of antisemitism. It is its reappearance from both ends of the political spectrum, simultaneously, and with increasing intensity.
By Avi Ciment
Whether it was lies about Jews poisoning wells, spreading plagues, or killing Christian children for their blood, we have always been the target of persecution.
By Rabbi Yehuda L. Oppenheimer
Between Yaakov and Avraham stands Yitzchak – often the least discussed of the Avot, but nevertheless the most relevant to us.
That the injustice was later recognized – and that his name is publicly honored – reflects a society willing to confront its grave mistakes.
After I spoke at my father’s memorial and received that feedback, I knew what I had to do: I was going to write his biography. Then, I could show my family members and future generations the full picture of who their Zaidy was. They would be able to learn from him and emulate his ways.
For me, the dissemination of conversation during services had not, in the past, been so much a violation of halachic decorum, but an annoying impediment to clearly hear the ba’al tefillah and ba’al koreh enunciate each and every word.
Nobody ever started keeping Shabbos because a rock was thrown at them or because they were told that if they do not, they are a bad Jew. People embrace Shabbos because they were lovingly invited to experience it, shown its beauty, exposed to its meaning. They were invited to learn about why it is important and right for them.
For all his caution, Pius XII never suggested that it was wrong to fight Nazi Germany; rather, he operated within a long-standing Catholic moral framework that recognized the tragic necessity of war under certain conditions: the “Just War Theory,” which does not glorify violence; it constrains it.
The most powerful lesson is the indestructibility of the Jewish spark. Even when wrapped in the garments of another faith, even submerged in silence and survival, the inner chamber or essence of the Jewish soul is preserved.
The outright wrongheadedness inherent in each of these statements needs to be exposed. Not just for Israel’s well-being, but for America’s.
Measured globally, the fleet is modest in size. Within the eastern Mediterranean, it ranks among the most capable forces, with clear advantages in technology, training, and readiness. Larger fleets operate in the region, yet Israel’s navy is structured for high-intensity missions and rapid response.
Ellen was great fun to be with, but my sister and I could also share troubling situations with her. She was wise beyond her years. If she could help in any way, she was right there.
AI can generate, summarize, and analyze. But it cannot become you. It cannot build your character.
In both cases, a fanatical regime chose to double down on ideology, sending its own youth to die.
There’s no good reason for any Jew who is pro-Israel to resist using the term Zionist to describe themselves. Zionism is a team sport, and the object of the game remains what it has always been: the saving of Jewish lives.
For what it’s worth, there are people who are honest about the use of AI.
Carter’s handling of the Iran hostage crisis was the defining culmination of an administration that never understood the revolution it was appeasing, epitomized by his own U.N. ambassador Andrew Young, who in February 1979 was still serenely predicting that Khomeini would be hailed as “a saint” once everyone “got over the panic.”
Critics of circumcision frequently frame the issue as one of children’s rights or bodily autonomy, but this framing overlooks the reality that parents routinely make irreversible decisions on behalf of their children in many contexts, including vaccination, medical treatment, and education.
By Alan Zeitlin
While at the height of his powers as the host of his top-rated Fox News show, Carlson brought on rapper Kanye West, who said some questionable things about Jared Kushner, but Carlson deleted a portion where West said that he’d prefer his children celebrated Chanukah instead of Kwanzaa for “financial engineering.”
Traditionally, we are supposed to limit eulogies in the Hebrew month of Nissan, as it is the season when our people’s liberation from slavery in ancient Egypt was brought about by G-d.
As slaves to Pharaoh, our time was not our own. The gift of freedom also granted us the gift of time, and our very first commandment shapes that gift by giving us the Jewish calendar, a framework for our days.
If the Temple Israel shooting isn’t a wake-up call to Congress to get its act together, I don’t know what is.
Before Mamdani’s meteoric ascent to power, October 7, 2023, tore away the last pretense. Hamas named its massacre Al‑Aqsa Flood and proclaimed it a religious war – a summons to Muslims in all Arab and Islamic countries to join the battle.
Other challenges in life can pass through us with resilience, but nothing can replace those we love and can no longer see. The pain remains; we simply get better at carrying the broken pieces of ourselves.
The critique is not merely legal but civilizational: instead of producing, building, or creating, the gambler sits passively, hoping that chance will deliver profit.
By Alan Magill
It wasn't the best time for me to give, as I would have to take my gloves off and reach into my wallet through many layers. But when it was a much better time to give, I always found reasons not to, so I decided this was the day.
The current war has inflicted some of the heaviest damage yet, destroying missile factories, launchers, storage depots, and command infrastructure. Large quantities of rockets and missiles have been eliminated. But analysts believe substantial forces still remain.
Every Jew, regardless of ideology or level of religious observance, is part of this collective project. Continuing to rely on abstract terms such as Knesset Yisrael or Klal Yisrael can lift Jewish peoplehood out of lived reality and recast it in theoretical terms.
This arc – frank acknowledgment of failure, followed by unconditional reaffirmation – is not incidental to the haftarah. In truth, it is one reason the whole institution of the haftarah exists.
By contrast, the more nebulous offense of fraud and breach of trust, which sits at the heart of the charges in Cases 1000 and 2000, has long been criticized by legal scholars for its vagueness.
From a pro‑Israel standpoint, the danger is not only that Gaza has turned the party leftward; it is that the moral and political reflex to stand with Israel under fire has been replaced by a posture of suspicion, apology, and punishment.
Alongside true nuclear explosives, there is also the radiological category – dirty bombs or radiological dispersal devices. Iran’s 60‑percent uranium could be fashioned into several such weapons, dispersing uranium dust or fragments over a city with conventional explosives.
Iran’s enemies feared not open confrontation, but stalling tactics. An agreement that would relieve pressure, allow Iran to regroup, and perhaps wait for a weaker American administration in a few years. From a cold political perspective, buying time was the obvious move.
That outside-the-pale groups Jewish Voice for Peace and IfNotNow would attack Israel and America for bombing Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s regime should come as no surprise.
By Alan Zeitlin
Even more bizarre is that both The New York Times and The Washington Post referred to Khamenei as avuncular. Normal people rarely use that word. I’ve heard it uttered less than 10 times in my life.
By Avi Ciment
If we only look through life seeing the bad without bringing into account G-d’s infinite goodness, then our perception and understanding of life and of G-d – not to mention our ability to grow – is limited.
The European response underscores something deeper about NATO’s structure. Its collective‑defense clause – Article 5, so often invoked as sacred text – is riddled with escape hatches.
Yet a motley crew on the left and right are not happy about the idea that national decline is a choice the president firmly rejects.
The removal of Maduro, who personally anchored the Iran–Venezuela axis and defended Hezbollah’s presence, abruptly deprives Iran of a loyal partner at the apex of this system and signals to other leaders in the region that acting as a host for Iranian and Hezbollah activities can end in arrest, indictment and loss of power.
This sort of technology unlocks immense potential in many fields – for its ability to increase efficiency, to handle menial tasks, and even shortcut the difficult work of creative synthesis, what we would call chiddush. It is no wonder then that the public has been engaged in a frenzied adoption of AI in nearly every field of activity.
Thankfully, the U.S. ambassador to Israel is a closer friend to the Jewish state than anyone who has ever been in the very sensitive role. Mike Huckabee recently told a delegation of more than 200 American lawmakers that Israel is akin to the “wife” of the United States.
Thankfully, the U.S. ambassador to Israel is a closer friend to the Jewish state than anyone who has ever been in the very sensitive role. Mike Huckabee recently told a delegation of more than 200 American lawmakers that Israel is akin to the “wife” of the United States.
In the beginning, we were summer friends. Possibly we exchanged a letter or two during the year, but when summer came, we embraced each other, so happy to be together again.
There is a categorical difference between criticizing a government and singling out the world’s only Jewish state for obsessive denunciation while displaying indifference toward, or even apologetics for, far graver abuses elsewhere.
When Israel is viewed as the outcome of national liberation and survival after catastrophe, support feels natural. When Israel is cast primarily as an aggressor or colonial anomaly, support must be defended constantly.
Priesthood is hereditary, only allotted to a few individuals. Holiness, by contrast, is applicable to, and attainable by, each of us.
By Alan Zeitlin
Qatar has already spent an estimated $6.5 billion to brainwash college students to hate America and Israel, while Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens seek to make Christians feel that support for Israel is a yogurt that has now soured.
A sizable number of Israel’s supporters still call themselves Zionists. That includes many people who will never seriously consider making aliyah, let alone do it.
New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch is the one holdover from the former administration who seems to be motivated by a real desire to hold the line against Jew-hatred in law enforcement, as well as to possibly further her personal future political ambitions.
The speech sparked excitement and inspiration. It provided something rare: a vision of Jewish strength rather than just a lamentation about the hatred Jews face.
What if the time we spend caring for our parents is not deducted from our lifespan but added to it? What if G-d is granting us additional years precisely for this purpose?
Liberal media in the West mostly treated this not as a revolt against Islamist rule but as an “economic protest,” a spasm of hardship and inflation, as if the central fact – that millions of Muslims were openly rejecting political Islam – was too impolite to honestly report.
A democracy that bans some anti-system actors while indulging others ceases to defend principle and begins to enforce raw political preference.
Chazal teach us that tree planting is the best way to emulate and draw close to G-d (V”R 25:3). Hashem planted trees when He created the world, and we are commanded to do so upon entering Eretz Yisrael.
By Alan Magill
I didn’t want her to hurt herself, but sometimes it hurts more to be denied opportunities for enjoyable, meaningful experiences.
Size matters, more than even many of Israel’s friends and supporters appreciate. To describe Israel as a small country is to understate the issue. The Jewish State is about the same size as the state of New Jersey. The West Bank is a little smaller than Delaware. Gaza is roughly twice the size of Washington, D.C.
A lecturer defending Israel isn’t seen as an opponent to be debated but a blasphemer to be silenced or prevented from speaking in the first place, even violently, if necessary.
By Ruthie Blum
Predictably, the tragedy has become yet another bone of political and cultural contention, since the people involved are charedim. Never mind that disasters of all kinds have occurred in both licensed and unlicensed daycare centers, in various socioeconomic areas with no particular religious affiliation.
The idea of the book is to show exactly how to identify and then run a business in the field of your dreams. I show readers, based on my own experience as an entrepreneur, how they can master the mindsets and skill sets of successful small businesspeople.
There is no ambiguity here. No mistranslation. No context that softens the meaning. This is not the rhetoric of a partner for peace or the language of a movement committed to a peaceful future. It is a declaration of intent – one that mirrors, almost perfectly, the genocidal aims openly proclaimed by Hamas.
Instead of establishing a state commission of inquiry under the existing legal framework, one in which the president of the Supreme Court appoints the commissioners and defines their independence, the government has opted for a politically constituted body.
Everyone is elderly, and most have gray hair, but their eyes shine, especially when they speak of their past.
There is an even more remarkable – and troubling – fact than the election of a 34-year-old radical left-wing Assemblyman with no executive experience to manage America’s greatest city. According to exit polls, Mamdani, an avatar of the far-left Democratic Socialists of America, received roughly one-third of the Jewish vote.
The issue at hand – Israel’s recognition of Somaliland – was itself revealing. Rather than treating Israel as a sovereign state exercising normal diplomatic judgment, the United Nations inexplicably escalated the matter into an emergency session, underscoring the very double standard Bruce later chose to address.
By Nathan Lewin
Hundreds will – or should – write about the astounding accomplishments of Julie Berman during his life.
Thanks to the efforts and sacrifices of generations, and with some caveats, a realistic conduct of its affairs, the Jewish state today stands as the military and economic superior of all its rivals, and therefore as a worthwhile and powerful ally in the eyes of those of its neighbors not hostile to it for religious or ideological reasons.
Their aim isn’t to reduce Israel from the size of New Jersey to that of Rhode Island, say, but to cut the state out of the Middle East entirely.
While I do not know what is truly the biggest issue facing Klal Yisrael – what about the intermarriage and apathy consuming the majority of American Jews, the crisis between charedim and the rest of Israeli society, or the frightening rise of antisemitism on both the right and the left? – one cannot deny the corrosive impact of this financial culture.
In my view, far too many valuable resources and an extensive amount of energy were spent in generating votes for the American portion of the World Zionist Congress elections. And I say this as a delegate to a previous congress.
Now that our grandson is three, it’s easier – not totally possible, but easier – to imagine him as the beneficiary of our legacy. Often, though, it is impossible to imagine myself as the guardian of a legacy since I am still processing the legacy that has been left to me.
Many American rabbis and other leaders at the time encouraged people to pray for Israel, to pay for Israel, and even to make aliyah, but relatively few did more than preaching, praying, and donating.
The EU–Israel Association Agreement of 2000 cast the Jewish state as a close political and economic counterpart. Over time, EU institutions subordinated that relationship to backing the Palestinian cause.
A celebrity video that reassures – and misleads – New York’s Jewish community.
Just as we gradually educate our children in bite-size pieces of knowledge and wisdom as they develop through life and before they come of age, so too did G-d bring this holy light into this lower realm before its time.
It is far too soon to truly process or respond to such a heinous crime. But anyone with a sensitive soul cannot avoid the question that rises unbidden in the heart. How do we light candles, gather with family, sing songs of gratitude, spin the dreidel, and eat latkes in the shadow of such devastating loss and tragedy?
By Avi Ciment
After parents spend hundreds of thousands of hard-earned dollars, a large number of our kids don’t really believe the Torah is the written word of G-d. Schools don’t teach it. They either assume that kids already believe it, or more than likely, it doesn’t fit into their curriculum.
Halachic authorities caution against overburdening mourners, and many contemporary guides acknowledge the legitimacy of firm visiting hours or limited access based on the mourner’s needs. Yet even these measures do not always suffice.
Hungary is one of Israel’s closest allies in Europe. It consistently supports Israel’s right to use force in Gaza, regularly blocks or dilutes EU and UN statements critical of Israeli actions, and has initiated a withdrawal from the ICC after its obscene attempt to issue an arrest warrant for Netanyahu. When the pullout is completed, Hungary will be the first EU country to have left the Israel-bashing kangaroo court.
One of the overarching themes in Sefer Bereishis is sibling rivalry. The outcome of each successive conflict propels the narrative forward, shaping our destiny through events that are sometimes confusing and surprising – especially since the reason why the Torah doesn’t begin with mitzvos and laws is so that we can learn from the actions of our forefathers.
What was sold in the late 1970s and ‘80s as “playing the Islam card” – treating Islamist insurgents as potential partners and aligning with them to weaken the Soviet Union – produced a recurring cycle of blowback that neither the U.S. nor its allies have been able to escape.
Yitzchak was not universally loved – but he was respected. He was not a trickster or fugitive; he was prosperous, assertive, blessed, and openly acknowledged as such by his neighbors.
Our public square has shifted to social media platforms built to amplify outrage, not accuracy. TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and X reward emotional impact over context, speed over verification, and frictionless sharing over reflection.
For the Orthodox Jew, Thanksgiving presents a rare opportunity. It is not a religious holiday. It does not ask us to compromise halacha or identity. Instead, it calls us to practice something Jews know almost intuitively: gratitude (hakarat ha-tov).
