Category: Other

Parshat Ki Tissa discusses the sin of the Golden Calf. This sin that took place only forty days after the revelation at Sinai, caused irrevocable damage to the Jewish people.

After the entire nation heard G-d speak, Moshe Rabbeinu ascended…

On February 28, 2026, the United States and Israel launched a joint military operation against Iran that killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and struck nuclear facilities, missile bases, and military infrastructure across the…

The Law of Self-Defense and the Iran Conflict
In moments of crisis, the international legal debate often begins with a simple question: who started the war? But that question can obscure a more important one: is the use of force part of an…

ECHOES OF SEPHARAD

A TALE OF TWO PASSOVERS:
CELEBRATING FREEDOM UNDER CAPTIVITY c. 1500

Passover, the Festival of Freedom, in 1497 and 1506, was marked in Portugal by serious tragedies for the Jewish people. In 1497, Jews suffered spiritual…

The violence that swept Syria’s coastal region in March 2025 marked one of the deadliest episodes of sectarian bloodshed since the beginning of the Syrian conflict in 2011. Concentrated in the provinces of Latakia, Tartus, and parts of…

California Gov. Gavin Newsom provided sharp criticism of the Israeli government during an interview this week, suggesting that he agreed with claims that it is an “apartheid state” and questioning U.S. military aid to…

When we talk about trauma in a clinical setting, we often get stuck in the biology of it all. We talk about the amygdala, the nervous system, and cortisol levels. And while that’s all true because the brain is an organ that bears the brunt…

The sinking of the Iranian frigate Dena by a U.S. Navy nuclear attack submarine is the first such instance since 1945 only because America has been very reluctant to use its enormous naval power in the eight decades following the end of…

“A home is a… stronghold amid life’s storms and stresses, a refuge… a sanctuary.”

–Letters and Papers from Prison, Dietrich Bonhoeffer (written 1943-45)

“Sanctuary” has two meanings, a religious edifice, or a safe…