At 6:47pm on the first night of Chanukah, Bondi Beach felt unrecognizable. For a moment, it recalled something far darker, a modern-day Port Arthur. A day off the eleven year anniversary since the Lindt Café siege at Martin Place, something…
Category: Other
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When Chanukah Light Meets Australian Darkness
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When Hanukkah Stops Trembling
When Hanukkah Stops Trembling There is a question that is rarely asked with real honesty: What is truly lost when a tradition is absorbed by a total system? Not what is distorted. Not what is betrayed. Not what is forbidden. But what stops…
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Germany and the Germans — Thomas Mann
On May 29th 1945, three weeks after the surrender of Nazi Germany but before the nuclear bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the world-famous German author Thomas Mann (1875-1955), Nobel Prize laureate in Literature, gave a lecture at…
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Lighting the Menorah After Bondi Beach
There are moments when history intrudes upon the calendar, when the gentle rhythm of sacred time is pierced by events that leave us shaken and searching for words. The attack at Bondi Beach on the first night of Chanukah is such a moment. As these…
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Piers Morgan’s Gift to Nazi-Loving Fuentes
Inviting Nick Fuentes—an unabashed admirer of Hitler and Stalin—onto popular podcasts is not “free speech in action.” It is a direct affront to the victims of 20th-century totalitarianism. From a Polish perspective, treating this as just…
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What is Hanukkah Really About?
The popular explanation of Hanukkah centers on the miracle of the oil. According to the familiar tale, the Greeks desecrated the Temple and outlawed Jewish religious practice. Outraged, Mattathias and his sons launched a revolt. After their…
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Preserving the Carcasses of Dead Houses
The devastation was devastating. Block after block stacked with the carcasses of dead houses. Walls punctured by bullet holes and living rooms strewn with debris. Bathrooms with the pipes pulled out, and silent bedrooms filled with broken toys….
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We just went to the beach to celebrate Hanukkah…
They say you never know when it’s going to be your last. It’s 8:07 p.m. The hell began apparently just one hour ago, but it feels like a lifetime ago. I am writing on my sister-in-law’s iPad because I don’t have my phone, I don’t…
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Hanukkah – The Battle Is Not Yet Over
Tonight, Sunday, Jews around the world will once again light the 1st candle of Hanukkah, the holiday that marks the victory 2,200 years ago of the Jewish Maccabees against the Selucid Greeks. Each evening, we will add one more candle during the…
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*The Sufganiyah and the Dreidel: How to Look at Life*
Hanukkah teaches us to look beyond what is on the outside and to focus on what is inside. Two familiar symbols—the sufganiyah and the dreidel—offer a clear lesson about life, guided by HaKadosh Baruch Hu. The Sufganiyah By way of derash,…
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