יום ראשון, ו׳ תמוז תשפ״וSunday, June 21, 2026
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When one commits murder, the killer realizes that he has sinned and he can do teshuvah. But when someone causes another person to be embarrassed, he often doesn’t realize he has done anything wrong. He may never do teshuvah and will die guilty of this sin.
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.
By bolstering Israel’s ability to defend itself, the U.S. enhances overall regional stability and reduces the likelihood of larger conflicts that would demand direct American military intervention.
A celebrity video that reassures – and misleads – New York’s Jewish community.
The Bondi Beach shooting was the worst terror attack in Australia’s history, and it was also the deadliest terror attack against Jews since October 7. Still, for those who have been studying the sharp rise of antisemitism in Australia over the last two years, the attack wasn’t entirely shocking.
Israel successfully lobbied to exclude Turkey from a Doha summit discussing the proposed multinational force for Gaza. Israeli leadership also is reportedly very determined to prevent Turkish military boots on the ground, viewing Ankara as a hostile force.
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.
The problem, many argue, is the need to go beyond platitudinous sentiment and take decisive action against the root cause: the incitement of hate against Jews.
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?
Tomorrow, I am going to a shiva here in Jerusalem... I am going soon with my daughter-in-law who is related to them. Yet at this particular shiva… we all are... Their son was one of those massacred in the Bondi Beach attack. And I have to tell you that I am more than angry that this shiva and the other fifteen are happening. I am in fact furious.
It is worthy of note that specific individuals, such as a UNRWA school principal who was identified as a politburo member and a Hamas commander in Lebanon who was identified as an UNRWA employee.
By Aryeh Werth
Surveillance footage captured by aircraft showed the suspects unloading materials from vehicles and arranging bomb-making components on folding tables beneath a tent.
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.
As we look back over the past 50 years, we feel enriched that the Almighty has given us this opportunity to provide something that has proven to be so successful and so influential.
While this is surely an issue for Israelis to decide, we are also constrained to note that we think the pardon proponents have the better argument. A nation’s stability and strategic necessity must take precedence over what is largely esoteric conjecture about respect for the rule of law.
In recent years, antisemitism and anti-Zionism have increased dramatically, as has the debate about which side is more antisemitic: the Left (Liberal Progressive Democrats) or the right (Ultra-Nationalist Republicans).
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.
The prevailing opinion among legal experts is that, as mayor, Mamdani would lack the authority to order an arrest and any attempt to do so would be a legal and practical impossibility. The principal arguments against his authority are straightforward.
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.
These groups openly seek to build a “south Lebanon-style resistance model” in Southern Syria, creating a second front of conflict aimed directly at Israeli population centers.
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.
The federal rules of criminal procedure explicitly state that after a federal grand jury votes a “true bill” of indictment, it “shall be signed by the attorney for the government.” But the thing is, this signature is a ministerial act that ensures the authenticity of the document and the government’s intention to proceed with the prosecution based upon the grand jury’s finding.
A key challenge for our community is finding more people in various fields who are willing to chip in. If more attorneys and others would step up, they would end up leading a much more fulfilling life. Countless hours can lead to countless lives being saved.
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.
Although not widely known, there is very little a NYC mayor can do respecting most of them in terms of new programming and tax revenues without specific authorization from the NYS government.
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).
The Har Hazeitim Visitor Center is a 25-million-shekel project with the goal of drawing as many people as possible to the site – students, tourists, soldiers, and people of all ages and backgrounds.
By Alan Zeitlin
I think people see who I am and what I stand for, and I hope it gives others the confidence to serve.
Predictably, Mamdani’s statement became the subject of intense scrutiny with critics alleging that his response was weak and equivocal – saying only that he “discouraged” the language the protesters used rather than unequivocally condemning it as the antisemitic incitement that it was.
The central engine behind this effort is Iran, the only UN member whose leaders declare openly that another member state must be wiped out.
Then there is the potential for enhancing Israeli security, which continues to be a key objective for U.S. policy in the Middle East.
Our isolation stems from the unique responsibility we have been given in this world.
By Aaron Oppenheim and Yosef Baker
In your pocket or purse, you may be carrying the modern descendant of that ancient Jewish coin, still copper-colored, still the smallest denomination, still somehow essential despite all logic.
By Shlomo Greenwald with Ziona Greenwald
My first and foremost priority as an elected official is to deliver for my Constituents, which means fighting against Mamdani’s radical policies – but it also means working with him on a wide variety of local non-partisan issues, such as quality of life.
I always feel sorry for Jews I know and like when I see them trying to disprove or convince people on social media that Israel did not commit genocide in Gaza or starve Palestinian babies. This is a fruitless exercise. There is simply no point at all in trying to offer rational arguments to an irrational mind.
It is still not clear where exactly the Saudi deal fits in but it plainly needs some oversight.
Every map needs margins. The halachic imagination admits this with elegant honesty. It names the unknown – safek, doubt – and gives it rules of its own.
Kazakhstan’s joining the Accords has real benefits for Israel. And it is the same for the U.S. which reportedly anticipates that current bilateral trade and other cooperation amongst the three nations will be substantially enhanced.
The idea that religion is a personal choice that can be separated from every other identity marker in your life is a fundamentally non-Jewish way of seeing the world.
Requiring an end to all city contracts with companies doing business with Israel and to institute other BDS (Boycott, Divestment Sanction) policies would likely make the city’s investment climate highly uncertain.
By Alan Zeitlin
They were sure Trump’s political career was done after 2020, and his improbable return to the White House felt like an impossible betrayal by voters. With Mamdani positioning himself as an anti-Trump candidate, they felt that a vote for Mamdani was a vote against Trump and this could be a beginning of a reversal.
He is an unabashed anti-capitalist who will be the chief executive of the city that is the center of the nation’s financial industry – and for generations has symbolized Jewish success and civic influence.
To be sure, Hamas and Hezbollah justify their political power and arsenals as necessary for defending against Israel. But as we all know, their weapons and desire for “a state within a state” have generally been the triggers of the violent confrontations with Israel.
Any doubt about the direction of Democratic Party discourse has been removed by the current New York City mayoral campaign in which Mamdani has been largely embraced by the Democratic establishment, despite his vocal antisemitic stands, not to mention his Marxist economic program.
Repeating a falsehood again and again doesn’t make it true.
Mamdani will have to face reality even before the get-go. Hopefully Mamdani will abandon ideology and embrace things as they actually exist and not how he would wish them to be.
For a nation its size, Israel’s medical innovation is breathtaking – and deeply moral in its reach, extending humanitarian aid and expertise to developing countries, disaster zones, and conflict areas worldwide.
In fact, Vance’s performance even drew the ire of Jewish conservatives who, increasingly of late, have been warning of rising antisemitism on the right.
In the U.S., both the Orthodox Union and the Agudath Israel of America put out statements that sounded defiant, even somewhat hopeful notes.
Mamdani has never managed a business, run a municipal or state agency, or held a position that demanded accountability for budgets, payrolls, or public safety. His resume reads more like that of a campus activist than a leader.
By Alan Zeitlin
People test the waters to see what they can get away with in the world of public opinion. Be sure there are bots praising both Carlson and Fuentes. But there are real people also, posting antisemitic things.
Nichum aveilim is indeed a mitzvah, but it is not like eating matzah or shaking a lulav, where the mitzvah is fulfilled through contact with an object.
Issues like antisemitism, contempt for law enforcement and disrespect for the rule of law, promotion of racial politics and delegitimizing American traditions, history and achievement thus undermining the glue that keeps us together as a country.
By Rabbi Shlomo Brody and Rabbi Aaron Glatt
The National Council on Disability published a study that detailed the dangers of assisted suicide laws to people with disabilities. It found that safeguards in these laws are ineffective and often fail to protect patients.
As The Wall Street Journal reported, as Israeli troops pulled back to facilitate the deal’s freeing the living hostages still held in Gaza, Hamas surged security forces in behind them – a public assertion of authority intended to make clear the group remains the enclave’s governing power.
New York City will be facing enormous governmental, fiscal and social challenges in the next four years and we believe that the former governor, who to be sure, brings a lot of baggage to his candidacy, is without question still the best suited among the three major candidates to get his arms around them.
What stood out for my mother, as relayed to me, was how difficult it was for Gretel to heal from the assault on her integrity and character by a Nazi regime that discriminated against her because of their unbridled hatred for Jews.
Before you study, clarify your question. As you study, speak the words. After you study, note one connection to something you've learned before.
By Jeff Cohen
Rabbi Hauer epitomized loving every Jew and making everyone feel like the most important person in the world when he spoke with you.
He gave perspective without minimizing pain – seeing the larger story when the rest of us saw only fragments. That was his essence: he saw the good, spoke the good, and brought out the good in others.
Before his national acclaim as a leader within the Orthodox Union, Rabbi Hauer built something enduring here in Baltimore – a model of what a synagogue rabbi could and should be.
We were all still in euphoria from Hoshana Rabbah, and the return of the hostages, so we went into the holiday in a very happy frame of mind.
An important figure on the postcolonial left for decades, Mahmood Mamdani has called Israel an apartheid state, championed the BDS movement, and portrayed America as the fountainhead of global evil.
This, even though in the course of her campaign for Attorney General, Ms. James – who was a leader in the legal assault on Trump – herself declared that she was running in order to bring Donald Trump down.
We coronate Hakadosh Baruch Hu and ask for His forgiveness together, not as individuals. Hashem is truly king only when we coronate Him together.
The reason that the Left needs to promote the lie of Israeli genocide is that it absolves Hamas of the guilt of their actual genocide and it justifies their pledge of repeating it.
The revenues that Hamas controlled were large enough to transform Gaza into a thriving Mediterranean enclave – a model for Palestinian society. But the Islamist group chose a different path. Prioritizing terrorism and military spending, it invested staggering sums in tunnels and weapons, including rockets and rocket factories.
While we can appreciate their dilemma, it is nonetheless dismaying that they have failed to distance themselves from some of his beyond the pale positions.
One widely made anti-Israel argument is that its alleged withholding or conditioning aid to Gaza as part of its war against Hamas amounts to collective punishment because it impacts negatively on the innocent as well as the guilty. But the thing is, the same collective punishment argument has not been directed at Hamas where it actually does apply.
Throughout history, Torah has at times stood as a Divine, untouchable document, and at other times woven into the currents of Jewish experience, carried and shaped by the people of Israel. Its dual nature – both Divine and national – has been reflected in every generation’s approach to learning, observance, and communal life.
Both the letter and resolution stipulate a demilitarized state with Hamas playing no role, but as noted, that is a pipe-dream and essentially just a wave to political correctness.
By Zvi S. Rosen
One would have to be a moral idiot to think the death of 60,000, many of them fighters, is worth comparing or mentioning in the same breath as the industrial murder of 6,000,000 based on ethnicity.
It was especially haunting to see this image: Rabbi Daniel Walker, who valiantly protected his synagogue and tended to his congregants amidst the horrific violence, wearing his traditional white kittel, stained by blood at the bottom. And yet, in the face of this terrible destruction, we see another model of holiness. Sometimes, when the evil cannot be banished, the High Priest must deal with it directly, even if he gets bloodied in the process.
For decades, Britain opened its doors to mass migration from Muslim-majority countries. Many of these immigrants have become part of the national fabric, however, successive governments refused to build an integration strategy. Instead, they embraced a shallow multiculturalism, encouraging communities to live side by side, rather than together.
To be sure, we continue to believe Hamas perpetrated the Oct. 7 massacre primarily to derail the Abraham Accords.
The late Rabbi Dr. Lord Jonathan Sacks, during Germany’s attempted ban on brit milah in 2012, pointed out the root of the problem. He deemed the move to be an attack on the Jewish people.
Like the other peace initiatives, the Palestinians have been offered over the past decades, the problem is that it’s by no means clear that they regard a chance to end their long war against the Jewish presence in the land of Israel or even the latest chapter of it that began two years ago as a desirable outcome.
While there may have been some apparent or technical irregularities on Trump’s part, they never rose to the level of violations about which anyone makes into a federal case.
That history is worth remembering now. It is what happens when leaders handcuff the police and abandon law-abiding citizens. And it will happen again if Mamdani wins the mayoralty. The cycle will repeat, and more brutally than before.
To the extent that the so-called “moderate” Palestinian Authority can be trusted – not an easy notion to accept – it is the implacable Hamas enemy that will soon resume being in charge of compliance, whatever it is that will be required of the Palestinians and there is no doubt about their untrustworthiness.
Some will argue that silence is cowardice, that in critical times rabbis must declare who to vote for. That is nonsense.
Mamdani’s primary win has alarmed many in part because it was also unexpected, with nearly every major poll predicting a Cuomo victory in the weeks leading up to the primary.
His anti-Israel outrages including sympathy for Hamas are in a special category and a special concern for our community. It’s time we all wake up to what would be coming with a Mamdani victory.
