Category: Other

Rabbi Abraham ben Samuel Abulafia, founder of the school of “Prophetic Kabbalah”, was born in Zaragoza, in Aragon Spain, in 1240. In his book Sefer Mafeah HaShemot, Abulafia states that “all 3 (Abrahamic) religions will know the supreme…

There are moments in history—often tragic—when one event becomes emblematic of a long chain of preceding and forthcoming events. Such a moment occurred on the first day of Hanukkah at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, where an act of pure…

The Jewish community in general, and the Zionists among them in particular, are understandably high-strung right now. Political opposition to Israel and intellectual opposition to Zionism have morphed with old-school, publicly displayed…

Claiming that anti-Zionism is always antisemitism makes it harder to defend Zionism and harder to fight antisemitism because it muddles both terms. We need to understand anti-Zionism, antisemitism, and how to tell the difference.

I am a…

There are certain things that trigger me, that bring me back to those dark, fearful days at the beginning of the war. Two years ago, I bought Chanukiot for my soldiers from a fellow warrior. I remember looking at these gorgeous resin-created…

A year ago, a friend presented me with stories of small businesses in Israel affected by the October 7 attacks. There were so many—family-run cafés struggling to reopen, shops balancing daily operations with the aftermath of conflict,…

Most people assume peace fails because people don’t want it badly enough.
But the truth is more sobering—and more hopeful.

As Raphael Cohen-Almagor explains, peace between Israelis and Palestinians requires a rare convergence:
• An…

Despite recent criticism, Jewish philanthropy has largely been the envy of the philanthropic world. Indeed, for more than a century, Jewish giving has been amazingly successful, although its long-term future is uncertain given contradictory…

In the first century of the common era, a heathen queen converted to Judaism about the same time as an aristocratic Jew deserted his heritage; an acute crisis in Roman Judea would give both the opportunity to prove their priorities and…

In the aftermath of October 7, I began wearing a Jewish star. Not long after, I added dog tags calling for the return of the hostages and a small yellow pin.  Yet as a therapist, I never wanted my religion to play any role in the therapeutic…