יום ראשון, כ״ז תמוז תשפ״וSunday, July 12, 2026
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By Jewish News Syndicate (JNS)
“Senator Graham’s family appreciates prayers at this time and asks for privacy during this incredibly difficult period,” according to his office.
From the land mines and border infiltrations of the 1950s, to the suicide bombings of the 2000s, to the slaughter of October 7, 2023, Palestinian Arab terrorism has made a deliberate science of murdering civilians.
It is impossible to look honestly at such sacrifice and claim that military service and greatness in Torah are incompatible.
Political extremism rarely emerges in a vacuum. People turn to radical solutions after years of watching institutions disappoint them and their economic opportunities grow increasingly out of reach.
Israel already existed when that vote was taken. Not yet as a sovereign state – that would come the following May – but as the living substance of a nation: its land, its cities, its farms, its schools, its university, its courts, and its militia and underground armies.
By Dovid Hirsch
It is estimated that at the time of the American Revolution, there were merely 2,500 Jews in the entire 13 colonies, most of them women and children. From that period, we have over 100 confirmed names of Jews who served the Patriot cause in uniform.
There is a unique grief that belongs to an in-law child. It sits quietly in the back seat, in the shadows; it knows its place.
It is not widely known that Netanyahu was a hero long before he commanded the Entebbe operation. He played a key role in many crucial Israeli security operations, exhibiting courage and valor in the most dangerous of circumstances.
Run the test in good faith and Israel is the hardest state on his list to convict. Yet it is the only one he convicted.
By Alan Zeitlin
Kiros campaigned with streamer Hasan Piker, who has said that America deserved 9/11, ultra-Orthodox Jews are inbreds, and anyone who ever had a positive feeling for Israel should not even be able to be a dog catcher.
Neutrality “is not an option,” the Argentinian president said.
We feel guilty and want to help them, but we also feel frustrated because we might know that their pattern is self-destructive or that somehow, they’re doing this to themselves.
It strains our credulity to imagine that such tremendous tzaddikim, especially after everything they have already seen and led us through, would be in any way lacking in belief.
By Jonah Halper
Many fundraisers struggle to build lasting donor relationships and feel as though they are constantly chasing donors. Often, what separates them from those who succeed is the ability to reveal the emotional truth of the mission in a way the donor can feel.
Are you embracing time, letting each stage of life arrive and do its work? Or are you trying to freeze yourself, forever reaching back toward a younger version of yourself that is not coming back?
Aliyah is not only about leaving. It is also about carrying. And there are gifts from chutz la’aretz that I very much hope to bring with me.
President Trump’s “Memorandum of Understanding” with Iran and his reprimand to Israel for attacking Hezbollah and Vice President Vance’s increasingly regular threats to cut off weapons to the Jewish State, seems to vindicate Kissinger’s words.
One of the most common financial mistakes people make is allowing the opinions and behaviors of others to influence their own decisions.
Vance has publicly condemned antisemitism and rejected anti-Jewish hatred... Yet he has often appeared remarkably tolerant of antisemitic and anti-Israel voices when they emerge from the populist right.
By Alan Zeitlin
In Mamdani’s mind, AIPAC is a group of monsters, and someone who protested against Israel the day after October 7 is a person of conviction. Yes, it is madness, but it is working.
By Mendi Glik
Every time Levine composed a song, he wanted people to be comfortable with it right away. The tune should seem a little familiar, but with a chidush (something new).
I recommend establishing a longer-term investment account focused primarily in equities. If an institution does not need the funds for many years, the stock market can allow those assets to appreciate meaningfully over time, potentially outpacing inflation and helping offset adverse currency fluctuations.
Stripped of slogans and emotion, his statement invites a serious historical question. If Palestine was a country, when exactly did it exist? This is no mere rhetorical trick. Countries leave records, they have governments, capitals, rulers, borders, laws, armies, currencies, and diplomatic relations.
The deal’s apparent long ceasefire also only plays into the Iranian regime’s delaying tactics. We’ve repeatedly seen that “ceasefires” with the Iranian regime and its proxies mean “we cease and they fire.”
The damage that Israel and the United States did to the Islamist terror regime was undone by an agreement that rewards Tehran and vindicates former President Barack Obama.
Russia had its own reasons for opposing a complete Iranian collapse. Moscow values Iran as both a partner and a counterweight to American influence.
By Raffi Crouse
Albo insists that the highest form of divine service is performed from love rather than fear, and that even the commandments the mind resists should be done with joy, the way a person digs gladly through hard ground for a buried treasure.
While we hope and pray for continued miracles, we of course have to do all in our power to make miracles unnecessary, and one way is to do a better job explaining to the world which people are interested in genocide and which people are interested in preventing it.
The words are brief, but they open a window into the inner world that shaped everything that followed. The land had not diminished them. The giants had not diminished them. They had diminished themselves.
Israel is not an idea I support from a safe distance. It is part of my life and my family’s story.
When struck with a crisis, I turn to the writings of America's greatest crisis manager, Abraham Lincoln.
I was fortunate enough to be the high bidder of the item, and thought little of it over the years.
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.
By Mendi Glik
At his parents’ home, everyone sang – not professionally, but they all loved to sing. He has bli ayin hara 11 siblings, so you can just imagine their Shabbat table when they were growing up. Not only did everyone sing, but every sibling wanted to be the lead singer.
I wonder how many stood there, opening up their hearts and souls. How many knew that this would be their final prayer and yet they called out to Avinu Shebashamayim, ‘bring us home to Yerushalayim!’
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.
When it comes to the technologies, medical breakthroughs, surgical innovations, and companies that have most shaped modern life since the 1990s, two countries stand out above all others: the United States and Israel.
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.
By Mendi Glik
Over the years, Cohen was in close contact with his uncle. He used to send him songs and consult with him. Shloime taught him that to sing is to pray.
It begins with counting. Order. Structure. Arrangement. But almost immediately the parsha shifts into the unpredictable terrain of human emotion.
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?
By Jessica Russak-Hoffman - JNS
The buffer zone would be twice the size of the one Mamdani vetoed earlier this year.
The question now is, at what point does the spread of the disease become so bad that the only solution is to flee.
Imagine what another decade of inaction would have produced.
By Ben Rothke
The topics are all real, important, and relevant in this significant work.
From a philosophical perspective, many Jewish thinkers have focused on the unique role of speech as a defining element of humanity. Speech, at least in its fully realized form, distinguishes Man from the animal; for humans, speech expresses thought, making this distinction especially profound.
Throughout the narrative, Horowitz points out examples such as this, where things in her life could have been so much worse, and woven throughout the entire sefer is evidence of the incredible gratitude she has to Hashem for the many gifts she has received that help her navigate through a world without sound.
By Alan Zeitlin
The play presents Dahl as a man in physical pain, desperate to secure his marriage to his second wife, and increasingly cornered by public backlash.
Ruth’s story is not about conversion as a moment. It is about covenant as a life. Her geirus is not described as a ceremony. It is described as a relationship.
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.
It is surprising, then, that this practice is so entrenched, especially since it has no basis in Chazal or the Rishonim. … In the late 16th century, however, two Eastern European authorities record a tradition not to recite Kiddush on the first night of Shavuot until nightfall.
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.
By Shlomo Greenwald and Joey Aron
The key question is not whether the conduct hides behind the veil of political language. As we mentioned, antisemitism almost always borrows the respectable vocabulary of its time. The question is whether Jewish students are being treated equally.
By Adina Broder
People may have varied religious practices, ideologies, or political views. They may come from different backgrounds, affiliations and persuasions. But this doesn’t mean that there needs to be strife between us.
By Alan Zeitlin
“So, we are here today not to accommodate, not to give permission, not to bow our heads,” Louis-Klein said. “We are here today to say no. To say that we, as Jews and as Israelis, will not be erased from this society. We will not countenance a racist hate movement. We will not accept antizionism...
The modern business of antisemitism begins, like so much else in modern Europe, in Paris.
Seventy-eight years ago this week, on May 14, 1948, the State of Israel was established. To celebrate this monumental event in Jewish history, here are some related medals from my personal collection.
The midbar is often imagined as a place of danger and emptiness. The Torah presents it differently. The wilderness is not chaos. It is unwritten space.
Religious perfection requires transcendence, an encounter with the Ribbono Shel Olam, a presence that does not conform to human categories.
Although as a festival, Rosh Chodesh is not dressed in much external pomp and circumstance, it determines the timing of all the other festivals in our calendar and thus enables our annual spiritual and ritual rhythm.
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.
Left-leaning opposition has argued that school choice programs divert funds from and thereby harm public schools.
American Jews did not respond to that freedom by standing apart from the country. They helped build it.
At a time of rising antisemitism and deep polarisation, Rabbi Goldstein, who serves as the Chief Rabbi of South Africa, believes the proclamation offers a rare opportunity for national unity: "Shabbat is above politics. Whatever our differences, whatever our background, whatever our level of observance, Shabbat belongs to all of us."
By Mendi Glik
For thousands of years, throughout the long years of exile, the Jewish people have never forgotten Jerusalem. And indeed, after two thousand years in the Diaspora, Hashem performed a huge miracle and returned Am Yisrael to the land of Israel, and to Jerusalem.
A healthier approach is to adopt a strategy both partners can live with emotionally. The mathematically optimal portfolio is irrelevant if it creates stress or conflict.
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.
Rising antisemitism from both the left and right (we can argue which is worse, but there is widespread understanding that it emanates from both), fear of danger, and uncertainty about long‑term safety in the U.S.
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.
Financial research shows that wealth, even when substantial, rarely survives more than three generations. What seems permanent in one era often fades in the next.
By Alan Zeitlin
Lebowicz performs across the country for synagogues and organizations that want clean, kosher comedy that still makes them laugh. His comedy is easily accessible, drawing from Jewish laws and customs as well as from some popular culture that everyone is familiar with.
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 editors made one decision and held it absolutely: not a single word was changed, misspellings included, half-finished sentences included.
There is something uniquely powerful about the prayers of a child. Watch a young child daven, and you will see a kind of purity that is difficult to replicate in adulthood.
The outright wrongheadedness inherent in each of these statements needs to be exposed. Not just for Israel’s well-being, but for America’s.
By Alan Zeitlin
Reactions were swift, with some saying it was an offense to our community to no longer have a Jewish Heritage Day and others saying it was not a big deal and there could be innocuous reasons.
Avodas Hashem is shaped not only by obligation, but also by how we understand the human being, by the moral awareness embedded within us and by the way we see the world and our place within it.
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.
Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik famously began his work The Lonely Man of Faith with the stark words, “I am lonely.” He wasn't talking about a lack of friends. He was talking about the inherent loneliness of a person of faith, the realization that your deepest commitments might never be fully understood by the world around you.
It was at that Chabad in North Brooklyn, on Bedford Avenue, where I experienced the kindness of the Jewish community and, during dinner, felt a warmth in my chest that I immediately knew was G-d.
AI can generate, summarize, and analyze. But it cannot become you. It cannot build your character.
Now that he had served out his time and would soon be eligible to rejoin the world, why was he not eager to undergo the purification ceremony to be administered by the kohen which would be his ticket back to freedom?
In both cases, a fanatical regime chose to double down on ideology, sending its own youth to die.
We have just emerged from our shelters, literally and figuratively, after six weeks of war. The air is heavy with mixed emotions shaping how we approach this moment. There is relief, but also grief. Pride, but also fatigue. Nothing feels simple or settled.
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.”
Since October 7, hate crimes against Canadian Jews have skyrocketed. In recent weeks, shots were fired at area shuls in two separate incidents. Police have now banned pro-Palestinian protestors from demonstrating in Jewish areas.
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.
July 10, 2026 
