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Beep Beep: Israel’s Ingenious Attack on Hezbollah
Rabbi Shraga Simmons
The beeper attack highlights anti-Israel hypocrisy around the world.
The beeper attack highlights anti-Israel hypocrisy around the world.

Imagine presenting the following challenge to the international human rights community:

There are 5,000 terrorists spread over a wide geographic area. They are embedded into the civilian population and are difficult to identify.
Your mission: Eradicate these terrorists in the most ethical and efficient way possible, and with minimal damage to civilians and property.

After much debate, our team of human rights experts proposes an ideal solution:

Deliver 5,000 “mini-bombs” into the hands of each of the 5,000 terrorists.
Make the explosives small enough to wound the terrorists yet with minimal collateral damage.

Such a solution is clearly beyond the realm of reality.

Or so everyone thought – until last week, when Israel combined incredible ingenuity, technology and espionage to achieve precisely this result.

Even better, Israel got Hezbollah to self-identify each of the 5,000 terrorists.
Even better, Israel got Hezbollah to distribute the mini-bombs to all 5,000 terrorists.
Even better, Israel got the terrorists – Hezbollah and Iran – to pay for it all.

Imagine how Israel’s historic triumph over terrorism is now being celebrated by all humanity – praised by diplomats, academics, the media and “human rights advocates.”

Yet the reaction was far different:

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said he was “deeply alarmed” by the beeper attack.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, said the attack “violates international human rights law.”
NPR blared this headline: “Did exploding pagers attack on Hezbollah in Lebanon violate international law?” (Their answer: Yes.)
Josep Borrell, the European Union’s top diplomat, condemned the “indiscriminate method” used in the beeper attack.
CNN negatively portrayed the beeper attack by highlighting the (rare) civilian casualties.
Modern blood libel
It’s disturbing to see how deep antisemitism runs in the corridors of power. With Israel standing on the frontlines against the evil jihad, how much more clear proof does anyone need that those who frame Israel as the evil aggressor are on the wrong side of history – joined by a long list of antisemites who promote blood libels against the Jews.

“This is a seismic battle of civilization against barbarism, victim against oppressor, truth against lies,” Melanie Phillips writes. “Lonely Israel is leading the great fight of good against evil, while the so-called civilized world no longer knows what side it’s on.”

One thing is obvious: No matter what Israel does, nothing will silence the antisemites and their supporters. So instead of trying to satisfy the critics, let's say with full confidence: “The problem is not with us. The problem is that you are speaking falsehood, and are either antisemitic, brainwashed or being bought off.”

Phase 2: Missile launchers and weapons depots
The genius of Israel’s beeper attack achieved much more than the goals of eliminating Hezbollah terrorists and destroying their communications network. In the weeks prior to the explosions, the beepers also served as GPS tracking devices placed onto every Hezbollah terrorist.

This provided real-time intelligence on the precise location of every Hezbollah asset – rocket launchers, weapons depots, military camps, underground tunnels and network of contacts.

Israel is now using these same GPS coordinates to hit a vast array of terrorist targets with pinpoint accuracy.

The Jew who invented the beeper
The central character in this story – the humble “beeper” – was invented in the 1940s by a Jewish engineer named Al Gross. Gross, the son of Romanian-Jewish immigrants, grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. At age nine, he became fascinated with wireless communication technology, and by age 20 he’d invented the walkie-talkie.

Hired by the CIA during WW2, Gross created a breakthrough portable communication device that enabled American military intelligence to safely communicate, while doubling as a wireless intelligence-gathering device that saved millions of lives by shortening the war.

Al Gross
In 1946, Gross became immortalized in American pop culture when his visionary concept of combining a beeper with a wireless microphone (an early iteration of the mobile phone) became the iconic “wrist radio” in the Dick Tracy comic strip.

Gross’ beeper invention first came into use in 1950, as a life-saving way to communicate with doctors at New York's Jewish Hospital.

The first commercially available beepers were produced by Motorola, which in 1964 became the first U.S. corporation to have an R&D unit in Israel, helping pave the way for other tech companies to invest in Israel.

Ironically, Motorola’s office was located in Haifa, the capital of Israel’s northern region that today is the prime focus of many Hezbollah attacks.

Al Gross’s inventions were decades ahead of their time and he never got to cash in. His patents expired in the 1970s, just prior to the cellular explosion that has transformed global communications.

Gross passed away in 2000. He’d likely be pleased by Israel’s beeper attack, where after so many years, his ingenious device helped the Jewish state eliminate evil.
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https://aish.com/beep-beep-israels-ingenious-attack-on-hezbollah/?src=ac

https://aish.com/four-illusions-shattered-by-october-7th/?src=ac
Oct 7 Shattered 4 Illusions;
by Debbie Gutfreund
September 15, 2024 5 min read

 As we face the New Year, it’s time to embrace the sobering reality that October 7th brought home.

Last year, as Rosh Hashanah approached, none of us could have known the new year we’d soon be facing. We asked back then for what now seem like trivial things. A better job. For our children to be accepted to the right schools. A year of abundance and comfort. Of course, we also prayed for health and life, but most of us didn’t think about the actual possibility of death.

We say the words every year: “On Rosh Hashanah it is written and on Yom Kippur, it is sealed. How many shall pass away and how many shall be born. Who shall live and who shall die.” But we could not have imagined the horrific amount of untimely deaths that would follow. We could not have fathomed how so many families would be tragically submerged into grief and loss, and how the Jewish people would end up fighting an existential war while people around the globe cheered for our destruction.

October 7th shattered some common illusions that many of us hold onto. As we prepare to enter the new year, let’s keep our eyes wide open and embrace the sobering reality that October 7th brought home.

1. It could never happen to me.
Until we come face to face with our own mortality, each of us thinks it can never happen to me. In his new book, In My Time of Dying, journalist Sebastian Junger writes about his near death experience: “Everyone has a relationship with death whether they want one or not; refusing to think about death is its own kind of relationship. When we hear about another person’s death, we are hearing a version of our own death as well, and the pity we feel is rooted in the hope that that kind of thing—the car accident, the drowning, the cancer—could never happen to us. It’s an enormously helpful illusion.”

Many survivors of the attacks on October 7th spoke about how hard it was to understand what was happening that morning because of the disbelief that they had to overcome to realize that their lives were truly in danger. Innocent families sleeping in their beds on a holiday morning don’t hear gunshots and think that someone is actually coming to kill them.

Knowing that we are going to die motivates us to make the most of each moment. Cultivating the daily awareness that death can and will happen to us all motivates us to become the best version of ourselves because we do not know when we will no longer have the opportunity to change and grow.

2. I don’t need to know what I’m living for.
We often get lost often in the daily distractions and details of our endless to do lists. We strive to get through the day, the week or the month, far too busy to consider what we are living for or why we are doing what we do.

Knowing what we would be willing to die for gives us the profound knowledge of what we are living for. That is essential in our increasingly chaotic and confusing world.

October 7th and the subsequent battles and losses have forced many of us to think about what we are living for. When we hear some of the incredibly heroic accounts of commanders, soldiers and even ordinary citizens who ran back to the music festival to save their friends, we start to ask ourselves the crucial question, “What would I risk dying for?” It’s one of the most profound question a person can ask themselves.

Knowing what we would be willing to die for gives us the profound knowledge of what we are living for. That is essential in our increasingly chaotic and confusing world.

3. I can stay silent as a Jew.
In the immediate aftermath of Oct. 7th, so many people around the globe expressed support and solidarity for Hamas, who raped and murdered innocent civilians and took hundreds hostage. The utter lack of moral clarity shocked us to our core and reminded us how rampant antisemitism is across the world.

The visceral hatred toward Jews, erupting in the so-called elite campuses in North America, has forced on-the-fence Jews to take a stand and fight barbarism. We need to reaffirm our Jewish pride and Jewish values, and give our steadfast support for Israel to defend itself against the evil cruelty of Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran. We need to let go of this illusion that we can stay silent as Jews today. We need to keep speaking up until the world realizes Hamas is a terrorist organization that celebrates death and that Israelis want peace and celebrate life.

4. I have endless time.
We go about our days as if we’re going to live forever. We pretend that we won’t lose our loved ones, that everyone and everything we love will never change, that we have infinite days to accomplish our goals. This illusion shields us from pain but it also takes away the inherent urgency of what it means to be alive.

Those who lost their loved ones this past year remind us: We don’t always get a tomorrow. We may not have another chance to tell our spouses, our parents, or our children: I love you. We may not have another moment to forgive or to be forgiven. We may not have another day to become who we wanted to become. To accomplish what we wanted to do. To say what we wanted to say. To stand up for what we believed in.

As we face the coming new year and yearn to be signed in the Book of Life, let’s let go of these illusions. And let us pray for the peace and safety of the Jewish people. As the new year approaches, let us all remind ourselves that we may not have tomorrow to become who we wanted to become. The opportunity we have to grow is today.

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https://aish.com/four-illusions-shattered-by-october-7th/?src=ac

https://aish.com/the-creator-of-bisou-bisou-shares-her-secrets-of-success/

Bisou Bisou Creator Shares Her Secrets of Success
Michele Bohbot created an empire made with love.

Michele Bohbot attributes her success to immersing herself in her vision without neglecting family, wellness, or spirituality.

Michele Bohbot, the founder of the successful fashion brand Bisou Bisou, arrived in America with two suitcases and a dream. It was 1987, and Michele and her husband, Marc, secured a license to sell jeans. With high hopes, they rented a warehouse in Los Angeles and set up shop. They lost their entire investment.

Michele grew up in Paris, France, and had always dreamed of coming to America and making it. After losing everything, Marc wanted to return to his family in Europe. Michele didn’t. Business was difficult in Paris, particularly for a woman. “I refused to believe that America, a country that I loved so much, would not love me back,” she said in an Aish.com interview. “I had to try harder.”

Even though Michele had no money, she went downtown every day to find an office she could rent. While there, she bumped into a seamstress she had employed at the denim company. They had worked well together. “When the business went bankrupt, she had asked if she could purchase all the sewing machines. We told her to pay us whenever she could.”

When the woman heard Michele planned to start a new company, she got excited. “Let's do something together.”

Michele trusted her and felt their meeting had been orchestrated from above. “Plus, I found an office the same day.”

The office was a tiny room that cost $160.00 a month. She perused Michaels looking for material and created dress patterns on the floor of her office.

Eventually, she needed a label. “I didn’t have any money, so I thought, what can I do? I was always saying bisou, which means ‘kiss’ in French. So, I put some lipstick on my lips and kissed each garment with my mouth and sewed the words ‘Bisou Bisou’ on each piece.”

Now Michele had a product, but no buyers. “I was 28 years old and very naïve, but driven. I didn’t know the market. I had no clue what prices should be. I went to all the buildings downtown to try to sell. I knew in my heart that I could make a beautiful collection, but I didn’t know how to sell or manufacture them.”

Initially, her husband didn’t want to help. “He wanted to see me fail because he was eager to move back, but I told him, let me just do it step by step.”

Michele went to The California Mart and to corporate showrooms with her clothing. “I did my speech and I got rejected over and over again until I reached the 13th floor.” Fortunately, that’s where she met two salesmen who loved the collection and believed in it enough to invest.

Marc, who had been in the garment industry in France, came to introduce himself. Marc was surprised and thrilled by everyone’s positive reaction to her collection.

They closed a verbal deal and the two men asked, “Do you have a fax machine?”

“Yes, of course!” Michele responded. She dashed out to buy one. Within one week, they were brimming with orders — so many they didn’t have the manpower to fill them.

Michele met Mr. Winner, a banker, who connected her to people who could help her. Michele was willing to do whatever it took to keep her dream alive.

Marc decided join Michele to help grow the company. “Through highs and lows, we became a great team together and found the balance between personal life and business.”

Within their first sales year, Bisou Bisou moved offices and expanded. She sold her collection to Contempo, Nordstrom and stores all over the world. When she introduced stretch fabric, the feedback was tremendous. She even conceived of the stretch jean, stretch lace, slinky fabric, and other novelty fabrics. Her constant innovation put her on the map as a designer.

“Marc introduced me to some of his European friends who manufactured the fabric in France. It was a ton of work, but it paid off. We quickly made back our original investment. I suggested we stay longer and double our profit before moving back. When we achieved that goal, Marc suggested we sell the company.”

The banker insisted that they hold off and not sell the company. He was adamant. “Don’t sell this to anyone. This is going to be huge.”

Michele found herself stuck between the banker and her husband. “Even if you sell 5% of the value,” Marc told her, “it’s worth millions of dollars. Sell!”

Michele smiles as she remembers these conversations. “We never sold. I told Marc, ‘Let’s make the company that we came to this country to create.’ As we continued to grow, Marc’s love for the company grew as well.”

They opened retail stores all over the world and enjoyed success in the United States, Singapore, Japan, France and many more countries.

In 2002, Michele was given an opportunity to sign an exclusive contract with JC Penney. “I had just had my twins, my 6th and 7th children. I wanted to take care of my children, and this was the way to scale back…I was proud to bring luxury fashion to the masses at an affordable price point.”

Work-Home Balance
Michele has seven children, and when she was growing Bisou Bisou, she had to develop a strong sense of organization. She set firm boundaries to enable her to balance the intense workload and her home life.
“I prioritized my kids and made sure to spend quality time with them, and when I was with them, I was fully present. I never took a phone call when I was with them, and if my kids needed to talk to me, I stopped everything.”

Michele created a schedule. “Every night we would bond over dinner, and we took wonderful family vacations together.”

When Michele created the brand XOXO, a junior-sized offshoot of Bisou Bisou, she felt overwhelmed with the workload. She was worried she would not have enough time with her children, but they all encouraged her to take the project on.

Michele explains that working actually helped her be a better mother and wife. Her job kept her mind sharp, positive, and increased her creative thinking. “I knew that if I didn’t work while taking care of the kids, I would focus on superficial pursuits or on negative thought patterns.”

Jewish Life
When Michele and her husband arrived in America, they were not Jewishly observant. When it came time to put the children in school, everyone told them it was important to place them in a Jewish school.

“They told us it was an investment. We put them in a Jewish Orthodox school, even though we didn’t keep Shabbat and kosher at first. I had to stretch the truth in order to get our kids in. We didn’t have much intention to become Orthodox ourselves, but when we saw the beauty that Orthodox Judaism had to offer, we slowly, slowly started eating only kosher food and observing Shabbat. We were alone here and we wanted to be part of the community. The community had very strong family values.”

As the Bohbots’ children studied and grew, Michele learned and grew, too. “I learned about the philosophy of Judaism, and all the questions I asked had beautiful, spiritual explanations that made sense. Everyone will embrace Judaism if you learn the way I learned: with love and joy and compassion.”

Her Biggest Challenges
Upon Michele’s arrival in America, people had a hard time understanding her. “To overcome that, I had to talk strong and use my hands to compensate.” People didn’t think she was intelligent simply because of the language barrier. “I found myself wishing I could tell people, just because I speak with an accent doesn’t mean I think with one!”

Another challenge was working alongside her husband and being together 24/7. “The hardest piece was working with my husband as a partner. I had to learn how to separate personal life from business life.”

Michele’s family at her son’s wedding

Michele believes that the secret to marital harmony is finding a passion that is yours and yours alone. “I discovered yoga and meditation, and this helped me succeed in all areas of my life. It was my outlet. Incorporate action into your daily life. As Rabbi Nachman of Breslov said, move the energy in your body! It’s food for the cells, and the cells give you the energy.”

Even when Michele’s children were young, she had a yoga instructor come to the house. And although the kids were often running in and out of the session, she committed to it on a consistent basis.

“My instructor pushed me to try different types of yoga. After learning different yoga approaches, Michele opened a studio called Namastday which boasted 20 teachers. “It wasn’t lucrative, but it was my passion. I did this for five years, but then Covid broke out. I had to close the yoga center, and it was not worth it to reopen afterwards.”

During the pandemic, the studio became a testing center for Covid, hosting 1,000 people every day. When Michele saw the massive lines of people, she realized there was a tremendous need for a change in healthcare and wellness. She decided to transform the yoga studio into a wellness center called Oxynergy 2, which is a hyperbaric oxygen center for longevity and recovery.

Before opening her center, Michele traveled to Germany to research the hyperbaric oxygen machine. When she saw how people were healed from using the machine, she knew she had found her next calling. “It was a great experience for me. I wanted to make a difference in people’s lives and reinvent myself. I was excited to start something new. I had a vision.”

Michele became a Certified Hyperbaric Director and built a medical team for her wellness center. She brought her daughter Cloe on as co-founder. Today, she loves what she has created and the help she is able to offer her clients. “There is nothing like a family business to make a mother happy and my greatest joy is seeing how much I am helping people today to live life to the fullest.”

Secrets to Success
Michele encourages those starting a new venture to completely immerse themselves in their vision. “You have to eat, dream, and speak your vision. Today, I’m dreaming of Oxyenergy. When I was in Bisou Bisou, it was the same. That’s the secret to longevity.”

Michele also embraces positive thinking. “See the good in everything, because even if it doesn’t look good, it’s going to end up being good.”

The overarching lesson that she wants to share is, “Don’t overthink too much. Just do. And don’t let fear stop you. You have to remove fear…I was so scared to speak with my accent, but I kept opening my mouth and speaking. I overcame my fear every time, and my life soared. Every time you start something there is fear, but if you decide that you want it, you can do it. That’s it.”

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https://aish.com/the-creator-of-bisou-bisou-shares-her-secrets-of-success/?src=ac



https://www.israelunwired.com/bennetts-priceless-response-when-an-abc-reporter-asked-about-a-two-state-solution/?
Bennett's Priceless Response When an ABC Reporter Asked About a Two-State Solution; Watch: The "Son of Hamas" Reveals Shocking Things You Never Knew; 90 Seconds That Proves Why Kamala Harris is a Disaster for Israel
There are reporters and networks who have trouble realizing that the world has moved on from outdated ideas that have proved to be non-starters. One of these is the notion that the State of Israel should be split into two countries – the State of Israel and a State of Palestine. Successive Secretaries of State have repeated endlessly that the United States remains committed to a two-state solution to the conflict. This is wrong on so many levels – especially as the “two State” idea purports to offer a solution when instead it is a critical part of the problem.  

The Israel news you need to know.
israelAM for Wednesday September 18, 2024
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In an operation taken straight out of a spy thriller, Israel remotely detonated thousands of pagers carried by Hezbollah operatives and related persons in Lebanon, Syria and Iran. The pagers were part of a 5,000 pager shipment ordered from a company in Taiwan months ago. Explosive material was embedded near the battery of each pager, with a remotely activated switch embedded to trigger the detonation. At 3:30 p.m., a message resembling a directive from Hezbollah leadership was sent to the pagers, activating the explosives. Around 4,000 Hezbollah terrorists were reportedly wounded, hundreds critically. Many lost eyes and fingers. Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, lost an eye and suffered severe injuries to the other.

Hsu Ching-kuang, the founder and president of the Taiwanese company Gold Apollo that reportedly manufactured the pagers, that his small company, which employs just 40 people in New Taipei, had produced the devices involved in the attack. He said that they were produced by a European company called BAC, which was licensed to use Gold Apollo’s brand. The company's website has been taken down. The sale was facilitated by a Hungarian company based in Budapest. Hezbollah used pagers to avoid its terrorists from being located. So much for that plan.

A Hezbollah spokesperson, speaking to the Hezbollah-affiliated Lebanese newspaper Al Akhbar, said, "Within a minute, the enemy dealt one of its worst blows to Hezbollah since the conflict began," adding that the operation showcased Israel’s technological and intelligence superiority, significantly disrupting Hezbollah’s communications. He said, "The enemy has pushed the resistance beyond the traditional rules of engagement that have held for a year. We are now facing a new reality."

The IDF is bracing for Hezbollah retaliation. The IDF is redeploying its elite 98th division from Gaza to the northern border.

Four IDF soldiers were killed in Gaza, when the building they were inside exploded:

- Cpt. Daniel Mimon Toaff, 23, from Moreshet, deputy company commander of the Givati Brigade's Shaked Battalion.
- Staff Sgt. Agam Naim, 20, from Mishmarot, a paramedic in the 401st Armored Brigade's 52nd Battalion.
- Staff Sgt. Amit Bakri, 21, from Yoshivia, serving in the Givati Brigade's Shaked Battalion.
- Staff Sgt. Dotan Shimon, 21, from Elazar, also in the Givati Brigade's Shaked Battalion.

In the same incident, an officer and two soldiers from the Shaked Battalion were seriously injured, while two others sustained moderate injuries.

The Israel Air Force struck Hamas terrorists operating from within a command and control center based in the Ibn Al-Haytam School in the Gaza City area today. Hamas terrorists were using the structure to plan and execute attacks on IDF troops and Israeli territory.

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Is Science Sacred?; Oldest Hebrew Book; Making Amends in Marriage
https://aish.com/sacred-science-judaisms-perspective-on-studying-the-natural-world/?src=ac
Sacred Science: Judaism's Perspective on Studying the Natural World
LATEST
Sacred Science: Judaism's Perspective on Studying the Natural World
https://aish.com/sacred-science-judaisms-perspective-on-studying-the-natural-world/?src=ac
Rabbi Joel Padowitz
Far from diminishing the wonder of our world, scientific knowledge amplifies it immeasurably.

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An Improbable Escape from the Nazis
Kylie Ora Lobell
Eighty Jews attempted to escape, only 12 survived. A new book tells their harrowing story.
In 2016, the University of Hartford’s Professor of Jewish History Richard Freund was digging at an archeological site in Lithuania. The professor, who studied the Holocaust, and his team made a shocking discovery: There was a 100-foot-long underground tunnel that 80 Jews dug by hand to try to escape the massacre site, in Ponar, where an estimated 70,000 people had been murdered.

After the murders, the Nazis wanted to hide their crimes, so they enslaved a group of Jews to exhume the bodies and incinerate them. The S.S. guarded the Jews day and night during this months-long nightmare.

At the same time, 80 Jews were hatching an escape plan. For 76 nights, these heroic Jews dug the tunnel with their hands, crude handmade objects, and spoons. Only 12 of them survived the ordeal.

Pit used to burn corpses that were exhumed to destroy evidence of mass murders. (Photograph by Gregor Jamroski, Wikipedia)

While the media extensively covered the story when it broke, the full scope of what happened wasn’t available – until now. Award-winning journalist Chris Heath has written a new book, “No Road Leading Back,” which is based on firsthand accounts of the struggle to escape and the bravery of those who survived, and perished, along the way.

Deciding to Write the Book
Heath, who isn’t Jewish but has Jewish family members, is a prolific journalist who wrote for GQ, The Atlantic, Esquire, and Vanity Fair. In the summer of 2016, when he read about the Jews who tried to escape, he said he, “imagined a book combining whatever could be told of this escape with the story of the archeological and geophysical work leading to this new discovery. But, as I tried to write that book, a wider, far more expansive story compelled me – about what had happened at Ponar, yes, but also about what had happened to these men afterwards, and about all the ways the story of Ponar had been told or mistold or ignored in the years since, and about what that tells us not just about what happened but about how such history is treated.”

Typically, stories about the Holocaust show Jews being victimized: forced to work in labor camps, unable to escape, experimented on, and murdered in cold blood. But “No Road Leading Back” is different. It shows the resistance and bravery of the Jews instead.

In the book, Motke Zeidel, the youngest of the Ponar escapees, arrives in Israel in the late 1940s, and meets with three historians at Tel Aviv University to talk about his experience.

“As he would later tell it, pretty much their first question was ‘How did you go like sheep to the slaughter?’” Heath said. “At this insult, he slammed his fist down on the table, shouted ‘Shame on you!’ and walked out. After that, it would be decades before he would consent to tell his story. Thankfully, that error of perception – confusing the often-impossible predicaments that were faced during the Holocaust with a kind of widespread passivity – has been rigorously debunked many, many times in the years since. No one reading this book could come away believing anything of the sort.”


Even though the story of the escapees of Ponar is inspiring after the fact, in the moment when facing certain death, it’s not clear which way to go.

“I’m not sure that when the real world turns upside down, the available options are always quite so obviously straightforward,” said Heath. “There’s a different kind of inspiration to be taken from the kind of bravery and ingenuity required in far more complicated and often seemingly intractable situations.”

Stories of the Survivors
READ MORE https://aish.com/an-improbable-escape-from-the-nazis/?src=ac

LATEST
Patterns of Jewish History: Examining the Jews of Spain

Rabbi Ken Spiro
The Ultimate Showrunner embedded repeating patterns throughout history. One place to see these patterns playing out is through turbulent history of the Jews of Spain. The Jewish People introduced the world to the transformative idea of a God who acts in history. The implications of this are huge. It means history is not random or endless. There is an overarching plot, with a beginning and an end, and a Writer, Producer and Director who is in control of the narrative.

Interestingly, the Ultimate Showrunner also embeds repeating patterns throughout history. One place to see how these patterns play out is the amazing roller coaster ride that is the story of the Jews of Spain.

Dramatic Expansion of the Jewish Population
Jews lived in Spain from the time of the Roman Empire and possibly before, but the population was insignificant. This changed dramatically in 711 CE when the Umayyad Moslems Dynasty conquered Spain from the Christian Visigoths. Jews followed close behind settling in Spain. From the Jewish perspective in the 8th century, Spain was an outlier outpost at the end of the world, far away from the center of the Jewish world which was Babylon, today known as Iraq.

The Umayyad Muslim conquerors of Spain were unusually tolerant of the Jewish and Christian minorities in Al-Andalusia (the Arabic name for Spain), allowing them a great deal of autonomy which enabled them to religiously, academically, economically and artistically operate freely within the larger culture. This created one of the most productive symbiotic relationships in the Medieval world, also known as The Golden Age of Spain from the 8th to 11th centuries.

Jews held significant positions in the government, economy, and academia. Prominent figures emerged during this time, such as Shmuel HaNagid, rabbi, poet, diplomat and commander of the Muslim army of Cordoba, Maimonides, the great rabbi, physician, philosopher, Judah Halevi influential scholar, poet and philosopher, and Hasdai ibn Shaprut, the physician and scholar.
READ MORE https://aish.com/patterns-of-jewish-history-examining-the-jews-of-spain/?src=ac

https://aish.com/i-no-longer-want-to-pass-as-a-non-jew/?src=ac
Passing As a Non-Jew; What Does Israel Mean?; 3 Ways to Do a Spiritual Accounting
I No Longer Want to Pass as a Non-Jew
Elana Rabinowitz September 10, 2024
I used to think it was cool that people thought I wasn’t Jewish. October 7th changed all that.
“No offense” is a common precursor to something you’ll likely find offensive. As if those two words give you permission to spew hate, like a childish “no backsies.”

“No offense, but” is the trilogy of words I hear when someone says you are not who I thought you were, or more specifically, who I stereotyped or pigeonholed you to be. I always thought was a compliment, until now.

The performance by Vanessa Hidary -- aka the Hebrew Mamita -- seems to be making the social media rounds again (Google it but warning you there are expletives). I smiled in our similarity. Two outspoken Jewish poets people often mistakenly think are shiksas. Not in the blond-haired, blue-eyed way, but in the maybe-you-are-Latina-but-you-can’t-really-be-a-Jew kind of way.

I can pass as a non-Jew, I thought. I enjoyed that privilege.

Hidden identities play tricks on your mind. Having secrets do that. They seem precious at first, something you alone hold onto, but after a while they slowly chip away.

Passing as a non-Jew can be helpful. It saved my grandmother during the Nazi regime, and it allows me to enter certain circles for a time. But that gets shattered when they ask me to spell my name. Pronounce my name. It is not shortened or disguised. It is full-on semitic. But people look at my olive skin, my coloring, and think, she’s not Jewish.

I used to think this made me cool. For me, being Jewish always felt a bit nebbish, nerdy.

But this has changed since October 7th. A lot of things have.

I no longer want to pass or blend, even if it’s easier and more comfortable. As a people we’ve been doing this for far too long. Turning a blind eye, accepting the jokes, the commentary, and much worse.

Instead, I want people to know I am Jewish.


I do little things. I ordered silver chains from Israel with my Hebrew name written across it, took out the old Chai charm I purchased when visiting Jerusalem and wore it dangling from my tanned neck. Sometimes I catch people staring, and thinking, but they never say anything.

A few weeks ago, I walked proudly into a locker room in Upstate New York. My hair was in a bun with large hoop earrings. I was very tan and very free. As I walked into the stall, I heard two young girls laughing and speaking in Spanish or trying to anyway. It was clear in their words and mannerisms they were trying to mock me for being Latina. They’re not the first to think I was. But their hatred did not register right away. I forget that people think I am something I am not, even if they don’t accept it.

I wish it had registered in time, to say the things that needed to be said. Because not defending one minority is the same as being complicit. I wish I had on my large Jewish star and the chutzpah I have inherited to speak up. Just as I wish all those people would be speaking up for me, for my people, instead of tolerating racist jokes, allowing the hatred, ignoring our pain.

It’s almost a year since the brutal attacks on Israel. Over 1200 lives murdered, women and children, young men and old. Hostages that we cannot protect.

When I was in my early twenties, I graduated college, I was offered a job in the competitive field of advertising and I was about to set off on my path when something pulled me away. I chose Israel instead. I wanted to experience the Holy Land for myself. I was almost the same age as Hersh Goldberg was, living on a Kibbutz. I have no doubt I would have been at the music festival if I could have arranged it. Every life taken could have been mine. It still can be.

Yet, I continue to find ways to let people know who I really am. I am a Jew. And I am no longer concerned it makes me an outsider, or if it makes them uncomfortable.

Because saying “no offense” to me is offensive. I am Jewish. I’m still here. And I’m not going anywhere.
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During Israel’s Dire Need: Arming Israel in 1948
TRENDING
Middle Ages
Patterns of Jewish History: Examining the Jews of Spain
by Dr. Yvette Alt Miller
September 8, 2024
A motley group of Israelis and others defied global arms embargoes to save Israel.

In 1948, hours after Israel declared independence, the neighboring states of Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, and Iraq declared war on the nascent Jewish state. Israeli fighters desperately needed arms with which to resist the onslaught, but the world was silent. The United States and the United Nations imposed blanket bans on selling any weapons or military-grade equipment to Israel.

Golda Meir described the trepidation inside Israel after declaring independence on May 14, 1948:

“The Arabs had an absolute superiority of manpower and arms and had been given considerable help by the British in various ways, both direct and indirect. And what did we have? Not much of anything - and even that is an exaggeration. A few thousand rifles, a few hundred machine guns, an assortment of other firearms, but on 14 May 1948 not a single cannon or tank, though we had all of nine planes (never mind that only one had two engines!) …There were about 45,000 men, women and teenagers in the Haganah (the forerunner of the Israeli Defense Force), a few thousand members of the two dissident underground organizations and a few hundred recent arrivals who had been given some training - with wooden rifles and dummy bullets - in the DP camps of Germany and the detention camps of Cyprus….” (Quoted from My Life by Gold Meir. Futura Publications Ltd., 1975.)

In the face of Israel’s dire need for arms, most of the world turned its back. Although the United States voted in favor of the creation of Israel in November 1947, it immediately announced an arms embargo on the new state. This reflected deep divisions in the US government, with officials in the State Department remaining implacably opposed to warmer US-Israel relations. The United States’ arms embargo was later augmented by an even more draconian arms embargo by the United Nations Security Council.

In his diary, David Ben Gurion, Israel’s first Prime Minister, recorded the crippling blow these embargos dealt to the country: “The state of Israel was not established as a consequence of the UN resolution. Neither America nor any other country saw the resolution through, nor did they stop the Arab countries from declaring total war on us in violation of UN resolutions. America did not raise a finger to save us, and moreover imposed an arms embargo, and had we been destroyed they would not have resurrected us.”

David ben Gurion reading the Declaration of Independence
As Israel battled its enemies, supporters of the Jewish state scoured the world in search of weapons to purchase to ensure Israel’s survival. Many came from Czechoslovakia. These negotiations were conducted in the shadows; the names of many of those who purchased weapons for Israel are lost to history.

Here are a few who battled the odds, scouring Europe in the aftermath of the Holocaust to find nations and individuals who would help Jews.

Rabbi Victor Vorhand
Rabbi Zev Tzvi (Victor) Vorhand “knew how to get along with everyone,” explained his son, Rabbi Moshe Vorhand, in a recent Aish.com interview. Rabbi Zev Tzvi Vorhand served as Chief Rabbi of Prague from 1945 to 1949 and was a general “fixer,” helping Jewish refugees travel to the Land of Israel and arranging arms sales.

No stranger to activism, when World War II broke out Rabbi Vorhand was still a student, living in Slovakia. He tried to charter a steamer boat to take Jews from Europe to Palestine. Though his scheme tragically failed, he obtained a blessing from Rabbi Aharon Rokeach, a prominent pre-war Jewish sage, who told him in Yiddish: Di bist a baa’al chein. Di vest nosei chein zein. Lech v’hoshata. (“You are someone who possesses charisma. You will find favor with others. Go and be successful.”) In Israel’s hour of need in 1947, this blessing came true.

“He was good with everyone…he got along with every faction” Rabbi Moshe Vorhand recalls. “He sent illegal ships to Eretz Yisrael (the Land of Israel). He got Jewish survivors documents to Israel, Canada, Israel. He was very well liked and had a certain chein (charm).” Rabbi Zev Tzvi Vorhand’s close friendship with Jan Masaryk, Czechoslovakia’s Foreign Minister, helped him persuade Czechoslovakia to sell arms to Israel. Soon, Czechoslovakia became the primary conduit to send arms to the new Jewish state.

Israel’s “Team of the Highest Caliber”
Israel sent emissaries to scour Europe for help. “One thing is certain: we had a team of the highest caliber handling our affairs in Czechoslovakia,” Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres later recalled in his memoires.

Ehud Avriel
Israel’s team was led by Ehud Avriel, a Viennese Jew who helped his fellow Jews escape before the Holocaust to the Land of Israel. After Israel declared independence, Avriel traveled to Prague to serve as Ambassador. Shimon Peres, who would later go on to serve as Israel’s Prime Minister, noted that “Avriel was endowed with a brilliant mind, a creative imagination, great personal charm and urbane manners. He was appointed Ambassador to Prague at the age of 32, and won many Czechs to our cause - including communists. Avriel operated in Prague as though he were in Tel Aviv. All doors seemed to open before him. He issued documents, signed them, and handled himself with Daring and aplomb.” (Quoted in Battling for Peace by Shimon Pered. Orion: 1995.)

It’s difficult to know the monetary value of arms that Israel purchased from Czechoslovakia in 1947 and 1948; estimates range from $15 million to six times that (quoted in Peres 1995).

David Ben Gurion later declared, “Czechoslovak arms saved the State of Israel, really and absolutely. Without these weapons, we wouldn’t have survived.”

Struggle Against Imperialism
Israeli historian Dr. Uri Bialer has documented the secret arms trade in Israel’s first crucial years and believes that ideology, not only money or personal connections, motivated some European sellers.

Yugoslavia secretly shipped arms to Israel. “This situation was the result of the special relationship which the Yugoslavs had developed in the course of the Second World War and thereafter with representatives” of the nascent Jewish country. “After the war, it seems to have been buttressed by ideological perceptions. As one of the Mossad emissaries in the Balkans phrased it: ‘The Yugoslavs saw in the (Mossad) and embodiment of the struggle against imperialism….moreover, as former partisans, they felt an emotional affinity for the small nation struggling against an enemy that vastly outnumbered and overpowered it.’” (Quoted in Between East and West: Israel’s Foreign Policy Orientation 1948-1956 by Uri Bialer. Cambridge University Press: 1990.)

Al Schwimmer, American Hero Averting a “Second Holocaust”
Al Schwimmer was born in New York in 1917 to Jewish immigrant parents. After serving in the US Air Force in World War II, he led a group of former American servicemen in fighting in Israel’s War of Independence. These experienced pilots wanted to use their flying skills to build up Israel’s air force, but found the new Jewish state had nearly no aircraft.

Al Schwimmer in 1955
Schwimmer set up two different companies in the US to purchase and refurbish old airplanes, including many World War crafts. He recruited other Jew’s who’d served in the US Air Force to help repair them and restore them to fighting condition, then flew them from Florida to Czechoslovakia, where his airplanes were loaded with weapons, and from there flew to Israel.

The FBI grew suspicious of Schwimmer. It was illegal for American citizens to send military equipment to Israel. Schwimmer evaded arrest in the US several times, then was finally charged in 1950 with violating the U.S. Neutrality Act. He was convicted by a court in Los Angeles but avoided prison time. (He was pardoned in 2001 by President Bill Clinton.) After his conviction, Schwimmer left the US and moved to Israel. He founded Israel Aerospace Industries, now valued at over $15 billion, and established the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering at the Israel Institute of Technology.

Later in his life, Schwimmer explained what led him and his friends to send military equipment to Israel. “A few years after the end of the Second World War, we thought that the 600,000 Jews who lived in Israel were going to die and it would be a second Holocaust. We could not allow it.”

Wining and Dining a Polish Count
Yet more arms were procured in Poland, thanks to an Israeli spy named Yehud Arazi. In 1947, Arazi gained global fame as the captain of the ship Exodus, which staged a hunger strike to force the British to allow it to leave Europe. Afterwards, Arazi searched Europe, befriending people in places high and low who were willing to sell him boats, ships, and armament.

Yehud Arazi
One of his greatest sources was a grand Polish count, Stefan Czernitsky. Shimon Peres recalled that Count Czernitsky “supplied us with arms for a 10 per cent commission. Stefan was the brother of the Polish commander whose forces were swept aside by the Nazi blitzkrieg in 1939. From that day on, Stefan always wore a black tie as a sign of mourning” (Peres: 1995). In his memoirs, Shimon Peres describes Count Czernitsky being incredibly close with Arazi and admiring the Israeli's derring-do.

Count Czernitsky lived in a lavish chateau outside Paris which was first built for Napoleon. He hosted lavish dinner parties and cultivated a wide circle of friends, including businessmen and military officials who were willing to help Israel. For a time, the count was one of Israel’s principal sources of connections in Europe.

A major challenge was not buying the arms, but reconditioning it so it could be useful. In one cable, Arazi told his handlers back in Israel that he was able to “‘supply any British ammunition needed” and that “there is more 75-mm, 6-Pounder and 20-mm shells on sale, than money can buy.” He also “found half tracks, armored cars…Spitfire aircraft…you name it.” Azari’s task - and that of his fellow Israeli operatives - was finding engineers who could restore this materiel to working order, then obtain export licenses and transportation to Israel. All these were gargantuan tasks. (Quoted in The Origin of the Arab-Israeli Arms Race by Amitzur Ilan. Palgrave Macmillan: 1996.)

Elusive Peace
Israel’s War of Independence ended with a ceasefire in 1949. Though the United Nations in 1947 had voted to create two states - one Jewish and one Arab - by the end of the war, Jordan and Egypt had seized all of the territory that had been designated as an Arab state. (Jordan controlled the West Bank and Egypt took Gaza; no Arab nation or organization so much as suggested that they establish an independent country, as the UN had mandated.)

In Israel, the war came at a terrible cost. Golda Meir, who later went on to serve as Israel’s Prime Minister, recalled how unequipped the Jewish state was in its early years. The “only option available to us, if we didn’t want to be pushed into the sea, was to win the war. So we won it. But it wasn’t easy, it wasn’t quick and it wasn’t cheap. From the day that the UN resolution to partition Palestine was passed (29 November 1947) until the day that the forest armistice agreement was signed by Israel and Egypt (24 February 1949), 6,000 young Israelis were killed, one per cent of our entire population, and although we couldn’t have known it then, we haven’t even bought peace with all those lives” (Meir: 1975).

As more and more Eastern European countries fell under the sway of the Soviet Union, Israel’s supply of arms from Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia dried up. Today, 99% of Israel’s military imports come from the United States and Germany (quoted in The Economist September 7-13, 2024).

In Israel’s hour of need in 1948, a few brave individuals risked arrest to help the Jewish homeland. Without their actions, Israel would not have survived.

Those who advocate for boycotts against the Jewish state today are threatening to return us to the dire years when Israel’s very survival was in doubt.

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Gang Member and Convict Turned Orthodox Jew
by Kylie Ora Lobell
September 8, 2024
9 min read
Yehudah Pryce spent 16 years in prison, underwent a personal and spiritual transformation, and decided to become a Jew.

Yehudah Pryce had just spent three years in county jail. The 22-year-old gang member was involved in an armed robbery, where he robbed some drug dealers with the help of an accomplice. The accomplice turned him in for a plea deal and Pryce ended up behind bars.

After being in jail, he was set to receive his sentencing: 24 years in prison. The court gave him four years for robbery, 10 years for a gang enhancement, and 10 years for a gun enhancement. He was promptly sent to Pelican Bay State Prison, a maximum-security prison in California.

“I thought prison was cool,” Pryce said in an Aish.com interview. “I understood what it meant to be a gangster and a thug and in this sort of environment. It made sense to me. I was aggressive and confrontational. I felt like I could outsmart my adversaries. And I didn’t care if I lived or died.”

Becoming a gangster
Pryce grew up in Orange County, California, a sunny SoCal enclave. He is the son of a Sri Lankan mother and a Jamaican father. His parents were divorced, so his mother and Caucasian stepfather raised him. He felt out of place because in his neighborhood, he was a minority.

Yehudah Pryce

“Before I turned 8, my identity crisis started,” he said. “If I got into an argument with a friend who was black, he’d bring up my family. I viewed it as my Achilles heel. Everyone what super invested in race and what I looked like. I couldn’t enjoy my life.”

Pryce didn’t fit in at school, and he didn’t feel like he belonged at church, either.

“We only went on specific holidays,” he said. “When my biological father took me to church, we’d try to get there late and leave early.”

By the time Pryce was a teenager, he was lost – until he discovered the gang lifestyle. He started selling drugs, stealing, and carrying guns at 13.

“I wanted to take control and belong to something,” he said. “I was living the way I wanted and not being weighed down by my family’s or society’s ideas of what I should or shouldn’t do. I was not excited by the idea of going to work every day, getting married, and having kids. It wasn’t enough for me. I was trying to actively avoid that.”

He didn’t have a role model, so he admired the gang members.

“I didn’t look up to anyone or see myself in anyone,” he said. “Once I got connected to the gang members – who were violent and sold drugs – I looked up to and respected them.”

When the teen became a gangster, he didn’t belong to any one gang, and that was on purpose.

“That’s how I could gain notoriety amongst a multitude of gangs and in the subculture generally,” he said. “Your reputation precedes itself when you go from gang to gang.”



Pryce was sent to juvenile hall a few times for robberies and selling drugs. When he was 16, and his entire family was at home, his house was shot up. No one was hurt, thankfully. The dramatic event didn’t stop him from leaving the gang lifestyle, either.

“I felt like I belonged,” he said. “There was a camaraderie. When you are doing crimes together, it builds a bond among people. No one questioned my identity, either. Maybe it was out of fear. Beyond that, I loved having guns. There was a sense of power, where you controlled life and death. It solidified me in this world. I liked being feared and respected.”

When Pryce legally became an adult, he decided he’d rob drug dealers, since he thought they wouldn’t call the cops. He’d be less likely to get arrested. But after his robbery at 19 – when his accomplice turned on him – his days on the streets were over.

He was now facing over two decades behind bars.

Finding his faith in prison
At Pelican Bay, where prisoners spend all day in their cells and are rarely allowed to go outside, Pryce suddenly had a lot of time to fill. He picked up some books on Christianity, Buddhism, and Islam, but didn’t connect with any of them.

And then, Pelican Bay brought in a rabbi to speak to the prisoners. The rabbi came during lockdown and was there to meet with a few incarcerated individuals. The prison offered him a chair, but instead, he sat on the floor with the prisoners.

“It wasn’t meant to make a statement of any kind,” Pryce said. “His natural character traits stood out to me.”

That rabbi was only temporary; Pryce would go on to form a six-year relationship with the next one who came in.

He’d argue with the rabbi about organized religion, calling it the opiate of the masses. One thing that stood out about the rabbi’s talks was he said that to be a good person, you didn’t have to be a Jew.

“That made so much sense to me,” Pryce said. “My problem with religion was people saying their religion was the only way. I thought, how could you claim that?”

He also learned about discrimination towards the Jewish people throughout history.

“The Jews were persecuted wherever they lived, and they thrived,” he said. “This, to me, was evidence that God existed. I wanted to be more connected to it.”



After reading books on Judaism, Pryce turned to the prayer book, which resonated with him. He memorized the silent Jewish prayer, the Amidah, by heart.

“I wanted to be able to pray by heart in case we went into lockdown,” he said. “Then, I could daven three times a day.”

Pryce’s fellow inmates were anything but encouraging. Race and identity meant everything behind bars; Pryce was once stabbed simply because he’s black. Once they saw him learning about Judaism, they taunted him.

“They told me the Jews wouldn’t accept me,” he said. “They said I wouldn’t fit in.”

Still, Pryce had to follow his heart. He got ahold of a smuggled smartphone and read up on Judaism as much as he could. He also ordered a tallit and tefillin and put them on every day, and met a Jewish woman named Ariella on Instagram. He started keeping kosher in prison and observing Shabbat on his own. He became a Jewish chapel clerk and ran Jewish groups.

After two years of studying Judaism, he decided he was going to convert and do an Orthodox conversion – even though he’d never met an Orthodox Jew.

When he was in his thirteenth year in prison, there was a legal ruling in California that because the prisons were overrun, inmates who were convicted prior to the age of 23 could become eligible for early parole.

Three years later, in 2018, after spending 16 years total in prison, Pryce got out. He was now dating Ariella, who had grown up in an Orthodox family but had strayed from practice, and he had applied for his conversion. When he met the Orthodox rabbi who performed conversions, he was taken aback by the response.

“He didn’t judge me,” Pryce, who is covered in tattoos, said. “He told me, let’s give it a try. My experience has been one of full acceptance.”

Living as an Orthodox Jew
Pryce joined the Orthodox Jewish community in Irvine and converted in 2020. He then married Ariella, who moved from Canada to California to be with him. His family accepted his decision.

“My mom converted from Islam to Christianity, and my dad is a Baptist, but both of them have respect for Judaism,” he said. “They saw me as a fully committed gangster and criminal, and now they see me living this wholesome life. They’re super appreciative of Judaism and supportive of me.”

Now, Pryce is a father of four and lives in Los Angeles with Ariella, in an Orthodox Jewish community. He earned his doctorate and is a clinical social worker at Chabad Treatment Center. He has a large following on his Instagram, where he shares videos about his life and combatting antisemitism, and he posted up multiple photos and videos of his powerful post-Oct. 7 trip to Israel.



He also posts about his personal life, letting his followers know about what’s going on with his family. Recently, he celebrated his son Yochanan’s upsherin, the haircut boys get when they turn three, along with tzitzit, a kippah, and a prayer book. This milestone was a miracle: When Yochanan was four months old, he was close to death and rushed to the hospital.

“My wife and I agonized as doctors struggled to figure out how to treat him,” said Pryce.

But with the help of their fellow Jews, they and their beautiful son pulled through.

“It was my Jewish community, family, and friends, and Chai Lifeline that enabled my wife and me to weather the storm,” said Pryce. “After five months, my son was released from the hospital and now he has completely recovered.”

Looking back on his life, Pryce can see that he is blessed. And if he could tell anything to his younger self, it would be this: “You’re facing challenges and tough situations and making poor choices. How do you want the next chapters to unfold? You need to create a story that matters. You do matter, and you only have one life to live.”


With every moment, Pryce is using his platform to be a proudly visible Jew, and constantly working on his mission in life: to cultivate a strong relationship with God.

“I want to continue to grow my connection to God,” he said. “The more I draw closer to Him, the clearer everything becomes.”

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An Open Letter to Hersh Goldberg's Parents
https://aish.com/an-open-letter-to-hersh-goldbergs-parents/?src=ac

Oy Vey: The Deeper Meaning of This Common Jewish Phrase
6 min read
by Rabbi Shraga Simmons
September 8, 2024
Today, as you get up from sitting shiva, we bless you to stay strong and survive. We pledge to never lose focus that what unites us is greater than what divides us.
Dear Jon and Rachel,

It’s been one week since the crushing heartbreak of Hersh’s murder.

Day after day, throughout this 11-month nightmare, you shared with us your slow-motion torture – likened to getting hit by a truck, while every minute of every day the truck is still crushing your chest.

You wanted to lie on the floor, curl up in the fetal position and weep hysterically. But you realized that won't help Hersh. So rather than sink into despair, you chose the path of courage. “Hope is mandatory,” you declared.

Despite the anguish and uncertainty, you mustered superhuman strength to form “Team Hersh,” a public advocacy campaign with professional strategy and staff, its mission to keep Hersh and all the hostages at the forefront of our collective consciousness.

Day by day, in hundreds of media interviews and dozens of trips to the global halls of power, you devoted every moment and every possible resource toward rescuing Hirsch – leaving no stone unturned.

As Hersh himself testified in the recently-released video: “I know you’re doing everything you can, out in the streets trying to bring me home.”

Day by Day
Throughout this ordeal, one constant has been the piece of masking tape on your shirts: a new number every day, corresponding to the days of hostage captivity. An emblem of pain over your hearts:

Day 39 at the mass rally in DC; Day 47 meeting with the Pope; Day 67 addressing the United Nations; Day 98 on the cover of Time magazine; Day 131 in the Wall Street Journal; Day 184 on Face the Nation; Day 186 at White House with the President; Day 320 speaking to audience of millions at the Democratic National Convention.


On social media, the “Bring Hersh Home” campaign acquired hundreds of thousands of followers. Around the world, Hersh’s photo was posted everywhere: bright red "Bring Hersh Home" stickers on lamp posts, banners hanging from apartment balconies and store windows, graffiti and t-shirts.

In the process, you helped unite the Jewish people and became an international symbol of hope. Every night before getting a few restless hours of sleep, you could honestly say, “We tried deeply and desperately every single thing possible today to bring Hersh home.”

Moral Clarity
Beyond any politics and media hype, you spoke with a universal humanitarian message that advocated for all the hostages: Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists, from dozens of countries.

From the steps of the U.S. Capitol, you showed humanity how to fight evil with resilience, projecting a voice of moral clarity: “Why is the world accepting this [hostage situation]?” you shouted. “What will your excuse be?”

Long Distance Blessings
As observant Jews, your faith and relationship with God was the anchor to guide you through this extraordinary challenge. You spoke with God throughout the day, showing us how all life is really a dialogue with God.

Amidst constant torment, you refused to succumb to grief and sorrow. Your constant mantra of “Stay strong and survive” enabled you to maintain a degree of mental and emotional stability.

You tapped into the power of Psalms, drawing wellsprings of strength from ancient words where, from a deep, dark cave, King David cries out to God amidst pain and despair.

Your dignity, poise and eloquence penetrated our hearts and gave us an anchor to survive.

You showed the world what it means to be Jewish parents: unconditional love for Hersh that has grown and developed even in his absence.

You displayed fierce maternal identification with Hersh’s plight, eschewing socializing, sweets and music. You consumed one bland meal a day.

On Friday evenings, you’d stand on your apartment balcony in Jerusalem, face south toward Gaza, and scream out to Hersh the traditional blessing over children.

It was a blessing you recently repeated at the gates of Gaza, on what would be Hersh’s last day.

At the funeral, you showed the power of gratitude by publicly thanking God for the privilege of being Hersh’s parents. You wish it could be more, yet grateful for the precious gift you had.

Jewish Family
Through your relentless efforts, Hersh became our brother, son and friend.

Beneath the surface, all Jews – regardless of age, gender, politics, ancestry, wealth or beliefs – are one interconnected family.

We are a nation in mourning, our hearts shattered into pieces. Your pain is our pain, because the Jewish people are one family. Like a single body, an attack on one Jew is an attack on us all. When one limb hurts, we all feel the pain.

In Jerusalem, thousands of people lined the streets as you went to the funeral

Throughout the shiva, thousands of people waited in line to offer you words of comfort. You greeted everyone with a warm and friendly smile, and a reassuring pat on the shoulder.

Blessing Forward
Today, as you get up from sitting shiva, we bless you to stay strong and survive. We pledge to never lose focus that what unites us is greater than what divides us.

Thank you for the privilege of inviting us to be part of your extended family. The heart of our nation is now linked with yours forever.

May you be comforted among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.

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https://aish.com/palestine-10-facts-to-know-about-this-highly-contentious-word/?src=ac
Palestine: 10 Facts to Know About This Highly Contentious Word
by Dr. Yvette Alt Miller
September 1, 2024
11 min read
Setting the record state about this confusing term.

Palestine is a confusing term these days.  A Vox news article is a recent example of the way the word Palestine is erroneously used when it opined that Palestine is an alternative name for Israel and that Palestinians are a distinct group of Arabs who are “occupied” by Jews. Or take Palestinian National Council President Rawhi Fattouh, who asserts Palestinians are a distinct people who’ve been living in a national called Palestine for one and half million years.  Or US Representative Ilhan Omar, who’d retweeted the false assertion that Jesus was “a Palestinian man.”  The United Nations echoes this view, asserting that the area of present-day Israel has been called “Palestine” from time immemorial.

All of this is fundamentally flawed. It erases the thousand-year history of the Jewish kingdom of Judea. It ignores the fact that for generations Jews called themselves Palestinian. It completely erases the fact that Palestine has been ruled by many groups through the ages. Or that for generations Palestine was part of Syria.

Here is a description of these and other little-known facts about the term Palestine to help set the record straight.

1. The “Plishtim” were an ancient Greek people and a major enemy of the Jews.
Pharaoh Ramses III ruled over Egypt approximately 3,000 years ago. Inside the walls of his mortuary temple are a series of carved pictures showing wave after wave of Greek invaders who tried to conquer Egypt. “They were coming forward towards Egypt,” the tomb records; one of these groups was known as Peleset (Philistines).”

Depiction of the Philistines at Medinet Habu.
These fearsome Greek warriors had already attacked and despoiled cities in modern-day Turkey, Cyprus, and Syria.  Ramses III managed to defeat them and encouraged them to settle in a coastal area near Egypt, in present day Gaza. The Philistines established five towns and used these as a base from which to attack Jews living in next-door Judea.  For generations during the Biblical era, the Philistines were seen as the primary enemy of the Jewish people. The Torah describes how Philistine fighters stole the Ark of the Covenant, fought their Jewish neighbors, tortured captives, and mutilated the bodies of those they killed.  They were finally defeated by King David around the year 1000 BCE.

The Philistines came to an end in the 7th century BCE. Babylonian King Nebuchadrezzar II (605-562 BCE) conquered the Philistine cities as well as the adjacent Jewish kingdoms of Judea and Israel, killing untold numbers of people and forcibly transferring much of these societies into exile in Babylonia, to the north. There are no records of Philistine civilization after his brutal conquest.

2. Thousands of years later, Roman Emperor Hadrian resurrected the name of the Plishtim.
Fast forward a few centuries. The Plishtim (Philistines) had long ago disappeared, as had the Jewish society that once lived in the Jewish kingdom of Israel. Jews from the ancient kingdom of Judea, however, retained, under Babylonian control. Within a generation, the Persian king Cyrus (590-529 BCE), whose kingdom displaced Babylonia as the major power in the region, allowed Jews to return to Judea; tens of thousands of Jews did so.

The Jews rebuilt Judea. With the Plishtim long gone from Gaza, Jewish communities sprung up in this neighboring area as well. They rebuilt the Jewish Temple on the very spot in Jerusalem where the first Temple had once stood.

What happened next is a tragedy: the Jews of Judea became divided, riven by internal divisions which weakened them. With the Jews disunited, Romans were able to crush the kingdom of Judea. They destroyed Jewish cities and towns, then in the year 70 CE, destroyed Jerusalem. Jews remained in Judea and tried to resist Roman rule. (The fortress of Masada was one such holdout, falling in 73 CE).

Jews continued to try and resist Roman rule. After an escalation in Roman repression, a major Jewish revolt broke out in the year 132 CE, led by a Jewish leader named Shimon ben Kosiba. His followers renamed him Bar Kochba - “Son of the Star.”  After two years of fighting, Roman Emperor Hadrian succeeded in brutally putting down Bar Kochba’s revolt.  To emphasize his total victory over the Jews, he renamed Jerusalem Aelia Capitolina, in a nod to Hadrian’s clan name (Aelia) and to the god Jupiter (Jupiter Capitolinus) and erected a temple to Jupiter where the Jewish Temple once stood.  Hadrian changed the name of the ancient Jewish kingdom Judea to “Syria Paelaestina.”  Syria referred to the seat of local government in the province; “Paelaeastina” invoked the name of the Philistines, the most fearsome enemy of ancient Judea.

3. The Jerusalem Talmud is also called The Palestinian Talmud

Compiled in the aftermath of the Roman destruction of Jerusalem, the Jerusalem Talmud elucidates the Oral Law, which was given to Moses on Mount Sinai, alongside the Written Law, the Five Books of the Hebrew Bible.  There are two versions of the Talmud: the Babylonian Talmud, written in Babylonia, and the Jerusalem Talmud, which is called the Palestine Talmud, compiled in the land that was formerly known as Judea.

4. There’s always been a Jewish presence in Palestine.
Some narratives these days falsely assume that the region was Jew-free for millenia. In reality, Jewish towns and communities endured in the region after the Romans renamed it Paelaestina.

In his master work about Jewish communities after the end of the Judean kingdom, historian Gedaliah Alon traced the lives of Jews who remained in the area.  Lod, a suburb of modern-day Tel Aviv, is best known today as the home of Ben Gurion International Airport.  In ancient times, after the destruction of Jerusalem, however, Lod emerged as a major center of Jewish life: “It seems that many towns in that area – and perhaps also the coastal cities of Jaffa and Caesarea – received an access of Jewish inhabitants at that time….  The fact that a number of new synagogues were built in Lod…and a number of old ones refurbished, may be due to this internal migration.”  Jewish communities also expanded in the Galilee and other regions that today make up northern Israel.  (Quoted in The Jews in Their Land in the Talmudic Age by Gedaliah Alon, translated and edited by Gershon Levi.  Harvard University Press: 1989.)



Jews remained in the region as Roman rule gave way to Byzantine domination, then the Umayyads a Muslim dynasty who gained control of much of Syria Paelaestina in 638 CE.  (They were followed by dynastic rulers including the Abbasids, Fatamids, Tulunids, Seljuks, and others.)  These new Muslim rulers divided areas in present day Israel, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria into regions with names such as Jund Filastin (Military District of Palestine), Jund Al-Urdunn, (Military District of the Jordan River).

5. Christians called the area the “Kingdom of Jerusalem,” not Palestine.
When Christian Crusaders conquered the region in 1099 they rejected the name Palestine and dubbed much of present-day Lebanon, Syria, Israel and Jordan the Kingdom of Jerusalem. It retained this name for 200 years.  (Some British churches include prayers about “Jesus, the Palestinian carpenter” in their Christmas liturgy, but when Christians ruled the Holy Land, they never used the term.)

6. Palestine was historically part of Syria
The Ottomans conquered much of present-day Israel, Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan in 1516.  (They displaced the Mameluks, another Muslim empire.)  Far from reverting to the Roman name Palestine, the Ottomans assigned rule over modern-day Israel, the West Bank, Gaza, and much of Lebanon and Jordan, to Syria, and called the entire region Esh Sham.

For over hundreds of years – the Ottomans ruled the area until 1918 – people living in today’s Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza considered themselves Syrian. In fact, it was the Balfour Declaration – a British government document issued in the midst of World War I – which introduced the term Palestine into the region when it called for the establishment of a Jewish state in the ancient Kingdom of Judea.  Arabs opposed the plan, and were also angered by British suggestions that they were “Palestinian” instead of Syrian.

After World War I concluded with an allied victory, France made it clear they were to govern territory in present day Syria, while Britain claimed present day Israel, Jordan, the West Bank, Gaza, and other lands. Britain imposed the name Transjordanian Palestine on this area, a move that caused bitter resentment amongst Arabs in the region. “We consider Palestine as part of Arab Syria,” a group of local Arabs declared in an official resolution during post-war negotiations; “as it has never been separated from it any time.  We are connected with it by national, religious, linguistic, natural, economic and geographical bonds.”  “Palestine” was seen as an imported European term.

7. In the 1800s, “Palestinian” meant “Jewish”
In the years before Israel’s establishment in 1948, it was Jews, not Muslims, who were called Palestinians. Historian Farid Georges Kassab noted in his 1909 book Palestine, Hellenism, and Clericalism that “Palestinian Ottomans call themselves Arabs.”

As Jews moved to the region in greater numbers in the 1800s, they called the institutions they established there Palestinian. The Palestine Post was a Jewish newspaper which today is known as the Jerusalem Post. The Palestine Symphony Orchestra was established in 1936 by Jewish musicians; today it’s called the Israel Philharmonic.

8. The United Nations voted to create a Jewish and an Arab state in Palestine.
Britain tried to negotiate the creation of Jewish and Arab states in Transjordanian Palestine. Debates were bitterly acrimonious, with Arab leaders objecting to a Jewish state in the region.

In 1946, Britain gave all of Palestine east of the Jordan River to the Hashemite dynasty to rule; the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in 1946 declared independence on May 25 that year. The issue of what to do with Palestine west of the Jordan River was much thornier; in 1947, Britain turned the matter over to the United Nations and asked them to come up with a solution.

After much debate, the UN came up with a partition plan that divided the land between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River into two states: Arab and Jewish. The Jewish leadership in Mandatory Palestine welcomed this plan; instead of building an independent Palestinian state, Arabs rejected the proposal. Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Egypt declared war on Israel the moment the fledgling Jewish state was declared, on May 14, 1948. In the subsequent fighting, Egypt seized Gaza and Jordan took the West Bank: both the areas that the UN had designated for a Palestinian Arab state.

9. Arab nations didn’t create a Palestinian Arab state when they had the chance.
For two decades, Arab countries controlled Gaza and the West Bank. They could have established a Palestinian state, but did not.

Egypt seized Gaza City in May, 1948 and turned it into a military base. Egypt controlled Gaza with a brutal military occupation for the next 19 years; Arabs living there were not permitted to enter Egypt or to use Egyptian schools, hospitals or social services. A few miles away, Jordan annexed the West Bank and the Old City of Jerusalem in 1950. They barred Jews and Muslims from Israel from visiting holy sites and stationed soldiers on the Temple Mount, where the Dome of the Rock is located, and persecuted local Christians. At no point was there an international outcry calling for Egypt or Jordan to set up the Arab state the UN had envisioned in Palestine.

10. Leadership in Gaza and the West Bank seem more interested in battling Israel than establishing a Palestinian state.
In 1965, instead of calling for a Palestinian Arab state, the Arab League set up the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Its stated goal was the “liberation of Palestine,” though it was clear that the PLO had no designs on territory held by Jordan or Egypt, only Israel.

After Israel captured Gaza and the West Bank in the 1967 “Six Day” War, the PLO amended its charter to formally call for Israel’s destruction. Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007, also calls for an end to Israel. Both have embarked on campaigns of terror which have killed tens of thousands of Israelis and others through the years. Both groups have saturated their schools, media, mosques, and civic dialogue with bitter hatred for Israel, naming roads and parks after terrorists and paying pensions to the families of suicide bombers.

In 1996, PLO leader Yassir Arafat declared: “We plan to eliminate the State of Israel and plan a purely Palestinian state.” That was while the PLO and Israel were formally committed to negotiating a “two-state solution” and the establishment of a State of Palestine. Today, relations have become even worse. Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who rules Gaza, stated in August 2024 that he aims for “the eradication of Israel.” Leaders of the Palestinian Authority, which governs the West Bank, have offered Sinwar and other Hamas leaders their full-throated support. The dream of a “two state solution” with an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel isn’t dead, but few believe current conditions are favorable for such an outcome.

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Rachel Goldberg-Polin Says Goodbye to Her Son; We Are Not Each Other’s Enemy; Life’s Most Important Question
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The heartbreaking eulogy of Hersh Goldberg-Polin's mother.
An Open Letter to Rachel Goldberg-Polin
by Rabbi Menachem Lehrfield

I joined thousands of people across the globe watching what we hoped and prayed would never come to be.

As you stood at the podium, your voice charged with an emotion that seemed almost too immense to contain, I was so profoundly moved to hear you begin, with the most essential Jewish trait - gratitude.

You expressed such deep gratitude to God for the privilege of being Hersh's mother. How you felt profoundly blessed to have had the opportunity to nurture, love, and guide such an extraordinary soul. Even during the most challenging moments, you turned to gratitude and sensed God's presence and guidance, recognizing the immeasurable blessing of having Hersh in your life.

Your ability to find light even in the most profound darkness, is what has given so many of us strength during this horrific time.

Once again, at the end of this heart wrenching goodbye, you turned to gratitude thanking everyone who had held you and your family. Those who cared for you and prayed for you and cooked for you and carried you.

You said, “I’m so sorry because we have given you nothing and you have already given us profoundly and completely.”

For the past 332 days you have been a pillar of strength, a beacon of hope, and a voice that carried the weight of the entire Jewish people. You have been the strength the Jewish people needed to survive. Your resilience, unwavering commitment to Hersh and all the hostages, and your relentless advocacy were the lifelines that so many clung to in the midst of despair. You gave us a sense of unity, a shared purpose, and above all, the strength to endure.

Rachel, you gave us everything.

Now it is our turn to give that strength back to you, to Jon, and to your family.

And we will. We will stand with you, just as you stood with us.

And now we have Hersh to be our light, our support and our guide. Hersh’s legacy is not one of mere tragedy, but of enduring strength, unbreakable hope, and a unity that would carry on for generations.

His memory will be our guide, our inspiration, as we move forward. In the words Jon quoted, “His memory will be a revolution.” One that brings an end to this misery and suffering we find ourselves in. A revolution where we come together as a People and a family to love one another and bring peace to the world.

Whenever I saw you speak, I could not help but think of Mama Rochel (Rachel, our matriarch) whose cries for her children echo through time. Like Rachel our matriarch, who wept for her children and refused to be comforted, you too have done everything to protect and save Hersh.

Now it’s time for Hersh to take over that role. We need him to cry incessantly for the Jewish People like you cried for him. We need him to advocate for us in the heavenly realm. To storm the heavens to bring us peace and unity. To give you and your family and the Jewish people strength.

And I know that Hersh will help all of us stay strong and survive.

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Broken Hearts: Six Hostages Murdered
Debbie Gutfreund
There are no words to describe the searing pain and loss.
After 330 days of tirelessly advocating for their son Hersh’s release from Hamas captivity, Jonathan Polin and Rachel Goldberg-Polin received the heartbreaking news that their 23-yaer-old son was brutally murdered by Hamas. Hersh Polin-Goldberg was found alongside five other murdered hostages – Ori Danino, Carmel Gat, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarusi, and Eden Yerushalmi – in a tunnel under Rafah, found two to three days after they were murdered in cold blood.

Since October 7th, Jon and Rachel have been heroic warriors who fought for the release of all of the hostages as they spoke all over the world, inspiring all of us with their strength and courage in the face of unimaginable suffering. Just two weeks ago, Rachel and Jon gave a powerful, emotional speech at the DNC as they continued to lobby to bring their son home: “This is a political convention. But needing our cherished son and all the hostages home is not a political issue. It is a humanitarian issue…There is a surplus of agony on all sides of the tragic conflict in the Middle East. In a competition of pain, there are no winners.”

Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Ori Danino, Eden Yerushalmi; from bottom left, Almog Sarusi, Alexander Lobanov, and Carmel Gat (The Hostages Families Forum via AP)

Jon and Rachel spoke about the last moments before Hersh was kidnapped from the Nova music festival. Hersh had been drawn to the festival whose purpose was to celebrate peace, love and unity. He was also celebrating his 23rd birthday with his best friend, Aner Shapiro. They were hiding in a bomb shelter when terrorists began throwing grenades into the shelter; Aner was able to fend off seven of the grenades before the eighth one killed him. Hersh’s left forearm was blown off before he was loaded onto a truck and taken into Gaza.

But Jon and Rachel also spoke about Hersh’s childhood, how he loved soccer, music and geography. How he was curious, good-natured and respectful to everyone he encountered. “Hersh, Hersh, if you can hear us, we love you. Stay strong. Survive,” his parents pleaded at the end of their speech.

There are no words to describe the grief that the Jewish people are feeling now that we know that Hersh and five other innocent hostages will never be returning home. The anniversary of October 7th is drawing closer, but it feels like October 7th never ended. Every day a new wound is re-opened as another life is lost and another family is left broken-hearted.

Rachel and Jon pleaded at the DNC, “In our Jewish tradition, we say: Kol adam olam umlo’o – every person is an entire universe. We must save all these universes.” The Jewish people have not just lost another son; we have lost an entire universe. Six universes! There are no words to describe the 330 days that many of us have spent since October 7th praying, pleading, advocating and crying for the hostages and their families.



The Polin-Goldbergs were a beacon of hope for so many of us. They lobbied, they spoke, they never gave up hope. On the Gazan border two days ago, Hersh’s mother stood with a microphone calling out to her son: “Hersh, it’s Mama. It’s day 328 and we are all here. All the families of the remaining 107 hostages. Hersh, we are working day and night, and we will never stop. I need you to know that I am giving you now the blessing that I give you every single morning when I pray for you and every Friday night I go out on the porch and I put my hands up toward Gaza, and I give you the Kohanic blessing. May God bless you and keep you. May God shine His face upon you and be gracious to you. May God give you peace. And may God bring you home to us.”



There are no words to describe what it feels like to listen to Rachel's words now in the terrible silence of Hersh’s death. How the loving blessing of a parent who waited every morning and night in the hope that her son would come home can now only be said beside his grave.

In one of the videos that the Polin-Goldberg family posted during the 330 days of torment, all of Hersh’s siblings and his parents sing to him: Home is wherever I’m with you. There are no words to describe the anguish of each of Hersh’s family members who will feel a gaping hole in their home forever. There are no words to describe the despair and the helplessness we feel as we continue to pray for the remaining hostages. For the men, the women, the elderly and the children who are still stuck in tunnels of darkness and terror.

Jon and Rachel at the border of Gaza on Aug. 29, 2024

The Polin-Goldbergs fought for the lives of the hostages and for their son in the face of unimaginable anguish. They carried hope and light and strength for so many of us who were in awe of how they were able to speak so powerfully and eloquently across the world, despite everything they were going through. Let us join together now to be with them in their sorrow and offer them our words of comfort and support. May God bless you and comfort you. May you be comforted among all of the mourners of Zion. May Hersh’s name be remembered as a blessing. May all of your tireless work and support for the hostages continue to bring light into the darkest of places.

May God bring peace to the Jewish people and bring the rest of the hostages home now. And know that we are praying for you as you prayed. That we are sending you strength the way you sent your strength and courage into the world. That we are crying with you the way that you have cried for the Jewish nation. That we know there are no words for the grief that you are feeling. But there are tears, and we cry with you today. We cry with you for Hersh and for all the lives that we have lost since October 7th. Whole worlds destroyed before our eyes.

May Hersh’s soul hear your blessing and feel your incredible love and strength. And may his memory inspire us all to be as strong and courageous as you have been for the Jewish people.


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Being Called Hitler’s Accomplice; Jewish Women at the Ottoman Court;
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Influential Jewish Women at the Ottoman Court
Yehudis Litvak September 1, 2024
At the height of the Ottoman Empire, behind the scenes Jewish women yielded great power.
The extravagant harem of the Ottoman sultans, with its tall decorated ceilings, exquisite fountains and luxurious baths, was a gilded cage for its occupants. The women, usually captured as slaves in distant countries and brought to the harem by force, were not permitted to interact freely with anyone outside of it. And yet, some of the women managed to acquire power and influence over the sultans, to the extent that historians named the time period between 1534 to 1683 the “Women’s Sultanate.”

The women, either queen mothers or the favorite wives of the current sultan, accomplished this feat with the help of their kyras – the eastern equivalent of ladies in waiting, a female personal assistant. Due to the restrictions placed on women in the Muslim society, it was convenient for an Ottoman queen to employ a kyra who was not Muslim. Thus, a number of these kyras were Jewish, since Jewish women were able to interact with the outside world and serve as a bridge between it and the harem’s residents.

Imperial Hall in Harem of Topkapı Palace in Istanbul, Turkey. A.Savin, FAL, via Wikimedia Commons

Esther Handali
Perhaps the most famous Jewish kyra was Esther Handali. Though not much information is available about her early life, historians presume that her parents had been exiled from Spain. She was married to Rabbi Eliyahu Handali, who traded in jewelry, cosmetics, and various trinkets. During the reign of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, Esther began visiting the harem and selling these items to its residents on her husband’s behalf.

Unfortunately, her husband died early and Esther was left to fend for herself and her three sons. She continued her ventures into the harem, becoming friendly with the influential women there. Besides her merchandise, Esther brought them news from the outside world, stimulating conversation, and warm companionship. With time, she became indispensable to the women of the harem. Her duties varied from assisting them in childbirth to writing letters on their behalf and delivering them to the intended recipients.
In 1539, when Esther must have been still in her twenties, Sultan Suleiman officially recognized her services and issued a firman, a royal decree, exempting her and her descendants from taxes and granting them other special privileges.
With time, Esther’s power and influence grew. A contemporary Hebrew chronicler writes1, “All the officials bowed down and prostrated themselves before her, and all those who desired aught from the sultan came and went forth at her bidding.”
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Other kyras
Other Jewish kyras are mentioned in various correspondence, but their names are not known. In 1622, a Jewish kyra promoted a certain candidate for governor of Moldavia. In 1709, another Jewish kyra facilitated the communication between the Jewish physician Daniel de Fonseca and the mother of Sultan Ahmed III, bringing about the Ottoman Swedish alliance against Russia12.
Likely, there were other Jewish kyras, whose names and deeds are not preserved by history. The kyras used their considerable diplomatic talents to promote the interests of the Ottoman Empire, while at the same time they took advantage of their positions of power to help out their Jewish brethren.

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Deeper Meaning of Tallit Prayer Shawl; Oct 7 Kaddish Ends; Increase Your Emotional Intelligence
The Deeper Meaning of Tallit, the Jewish Prayer Shawl
Exploring the mystical significance of this iconic Jewish emblem.

The Jewish prayer shawl, tallit in Hebrew, is one of the most iconic Jewish objects. When we think of Jewish prayer, we think of people praying wrapped in their tallit. Many works of art depict the devout Jew praying and studying, enveloped in it. Many use the tallit as a huppah at their wedding. The tallit is so symbolic of Judaism, the founders of the State of Israel based the design of the Israeli flag on it.

The tallit is a woven piece of cloth with square corners. On each corner are tassels, called tzitzit. The Torah writes1 that blue strings should be included in the fringe, which the Talmud says must come from a specific sea creature called the chilazon, a type of snail.2 The identity of this creature was lost for centuries, which is why only white strings were used in the tzitzit tassel. Much effort has been made in recent years to correctly identify this animal, and some people have once again started to wear white and blue tassels.

Clothing the World
Every element of the tallit is rich with deeper symbolism. Mysteriously, the cloth is used as a metaphor for creation. The verse in Psalms3 writes, “You (God) cover with light as with a garment; stretch out the heavens as a carpet.” The Midrash4 comments that God, so to speak, wrapped Himself as one does with a garment during the act of creating the world and allowed the shine of His splendor to fill the world. What is the meaning of this metaphor?

To answer, let’s continue with another, equally puzzling teaching. The Talmud5 writes when God created the world, existence was expanding and growing like a cloth being woven on a loom, until God stopped this growth. The great Talmudic sage Reish Lakish taught, “This is the meaning of the name of God Sha-dai, from the Hebrew word dai, or enough. For God had told the world enough.” This is another reference to cloth being used as an allusion to the creation of the world. What is its deeper meaning, and what are the limits God imposed on creation that the text indicates are so fundamental that the word “enough” becomes a name for God Himself?

Clothing conceals but also allows the shape of the person to be discernible.

The meaning of these sources is as follows.6 Clothing is used to conceal one's body and provide modesty. However, because of its non-rigidity, clothing also allows the shape of the person to be discernible.

God created His world in a manner in which He is concealed and His presence isn't obvious. If God’s existence were to be too obvious, human beings would have no choice but to follow God’s dictates. This would uproot free will, condemning man to a meaningless, robotic existence. By masking His existence, God creates the space for human beings to have moral choice, to build an ethical and Godly life. The opportunity to choose good, rather than being compelled to do so, engenders the immeasurable satisfaction of self-discovery and self-development and allows man to resemble God Who is wholly free and unhindered.

Therefore, the Midrash uses the metaphor of clothing to describe the “shine of God's splendor,” meaning the conspicuousness of his presence, because although one can see the form of the person wearing the clothing if one chooses to, it is concealed from a perfunctory glance. Similarly, one can ignore the reality of God, but this reality is visible if one puts in the effort to see it.

The Talmud’s description of God halting the expansion of the fabric of existence with the command of “Enough!” means God's presence was becoming more and more obvious in existence until God limited the realization of His presence to those looking for it. This signifies the creation of free will, which grants humanity the ability to create one’s spiritual self. In essence God left the world incomplete, making the human being His partner in completing the goal of creation. This act of God limiting His prominence is so fundamental to our existence that the Torah uses the Hebrew word Sha-dai – Enough – as a Name describing our relationship with God.

Partners with God
Let’s now see how this idea is connected to the tallit. When wrapped in a tallit, one is enveloped by a large piece of cloth. The cloth represents the reality of our existence, with God somewhat obscured behind the contours of the fabric of creation.

This cloth has tzitzit tassels tied onto all four corners. These tassels are made by inserting four strings through a hole near each corner. These strings are tied with a series of knots near the hole, and the remainder hangs loose.7 The knots represent a partial completion, the loose strings represent the remainder of a task. This describes the world we live in, a world infused with spirituality by God, improved upon by previous generations, and with much work left for us to do. The tassels on the corners of the tzitzit remind us of our responsibility to improve the world and make it a better place. They are the unfinished part of creation that we will do our best to complete.

The corners of the garment are squared, which represents human achievement, because as the Talmud8 states, “The square shape is not of nature.” The right angle is almost always something created by a human being. Natural forces typically produce objects with rounded shapes and edges. If one were to find a cube or item with squared corners (like the monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey), people would naturally assume it was manufactured, not randomly made.

Wrapping oneself in a tallit reminds one to recognize his responsibilities to make the world a better place, as indicated by the tassels, and apply one’s human ingenuity to modify and manipulate existence, as indicated by the square corners of the garment.

The word tzitzit itself indicates this theme. The Hebrew word maytzit means to peer. This means God is watching us through the fabric of creation, and we can feel this reality if we choose to do so.9

The white and blue colors of the tzitzit strings are also significant. Every individual has responsibilities and opportunities to make a positive impact on society. The color white, which indicates purity of intent, sets the tone for this idea.

Just as important, one needs to refrain from doing that which is incorrect and immoral. The Talmud writes10 that the dye extracted from the chilazon sea creature looks like the blue of the sea. The blue of the sea faces the blue of the sky, which draws our attention heavenward to God. Using this as an analogy to train ourselves to constantly see that everything ultimately leads to God, we will have the presence of mind to take note of the repercussions of our actions and hopefully attain the self-discipline to not engage in destructive behavior.11

Another approach to the allegorical representation of the colors blue and white is offered by Rabbi Meir Leibush (1804-1879),12 known as the Malbim. White light, which is the combination of all color wavelengths, represents the comprehensive positive energy needed to accomplish good deeds. The color black would then indicate a cessation of energy, representing total repression of impulsive and instinctive desires. However, because Judaism frowns upon ascetic behavior, which the color black would represent, we pull into the color spectrum for our discipline metaphor and use the color blue. This tells us that while self-control of instinctive desires is necessary, abstinence and withdrawal from pleasure are not.

Universal and Particular
All the symbolisms mentioned above are broad, universal ideas of human ability and responsibility. Yet for an individual to lead an impactful life they must find a way to express their unique talents and personality in their spiritual accomplishments. This additional component is seen in the Torah’s stated goal for one wearing a tallit: “These shall be your tzitzit, and when you see them, you shall remember God's commandments. You will then not explore after your heart and eyes, which in the past have led you to immorality” (Numbers 15:39).

The Sifrei13 offers the following explanation for the admonition to “not explore after your heart and eyes” which would seem to refer to someone acting lustfully or impulsively.

The verse in Ecclesiastes14 states, “Rejoice, young man, in your childhood, follow the path of your heart and the sight of your eyes.” In this verse the phrase “following the heart and eyes” is clearly being used in a positive connotation. The message is that a young person, seeking to discover their personal identity and focus in life, needs to follow the calling of their heart. There is no cookie cutter definition of the perfect Jew. The best person that you can be is the best version of you. To find out the life mission best suited to oneself, one must see what calling talks to their heart and their perspective with the clearest and truest meaning. The Jewish people needs scholars, activists, and leaders. Just as importantly, simple, ethical, and honest individuals.

However, when seeking a lifestyle that will allow for individual expression, the Torah gives certain parameters. When expressing the goal of the tallit the Torah writes “remember God's commandments” and then you won't “explore after your heart and eyes” to the point of immorality. By following the moral guidelines of the Torah one can safely discover their uniqueness, which is the meaning of “exploring after one’s heart and eyes,” without fear of crossing an ethical red line. Observing the Torah can be done without any compromise towards one’s individuality. This foundational message expresses to the wearer of a tallit that the complete actualization of a desire to improve the world will take place only after a journey of self-discovery.

The message of the tallit, which defines our responsibility to improve the world, the means of accomplishing this by energetically pursuing positive goals and developing the discipline to avoid negative behavior, and lastly the message that an individual can truly express their inner selves through their Judaism, is certainly impactful enough to be an emblem of Judaism itself.
Numbers 15:38
Menachot 44a
104:2
Bereishit Rabbah 3:4
Chagigah 12a
This explanation is based on Meshech Chochmah Bamidbar 15:40
Ideally one third knots and two thirds loose string. Menachot 39a Remah Orach Chaim 11:14
Yerushalmi Nedarim 3:2, Rav Hirsch collected writings volume 3 page 152
Rashi Shelach 15:38, Gra Orach Chaim 24:8, Kad HaKemach page 348. Rabeinu Bachya also explains the origin of the word tallit.
Menachot 43b
Maharal, Chiddushei Aggados Sotah 17a
Chukas chapter 19, essay titled “Ner Mitzvah”
As explained by Ha’amek Davar, end of Parashat Shelach. The basis for the understanding of the Midrash is the Torah’s use of the word תתורו, which means explore, rather than תלכו, which would mean stray. Many translations use the word stray, which the Netziv writes is incorrect.
11:9
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The Deeper Meaning of Tallit, the Jewish Prayer Shawl
Rabbi Meir Bier
Exploring the mystical significance of this iconic Jewish emblem.
The Deeper Meaning of Tallit, the Jewish Prayer Shawl
by Rabbi Meir Bier
August 25, 2024
Exploring the mystical significance of this iconic Jewish emblem.

The Jewish prayer shawl, tallit in Hebrew, is one of the most iconic Jewish objects. When we think of Jewish prayer, we think of people praying wrapped in their tallit. Many works of art depict the devout Jew praying and studying, enveloped in it. Many use the tallit as a huppah at their wedding. The tallit is so symbolic of Judaism, the founders of the State of Israel based the design of the Israeli flag on it.

The tallit is a woven piece of cloth with square corners. On each corner are tassels, called tzitzit. The Torah writes1 that blue strings should be included in the fringe, which the Talmud says must come from a specific sea creature called the chilazon, a type of snail.2 The identity of this creature was lost for centuries, which is why only white strings were used in the tzitzit tassel. Much effort has been made in recent years to correctly identify this animal, and some people have once again started to wear white and blue tassels.

Clothing the World
Every element of the tallit is rich with deeper symbolism. Mysteriously, the cloth is used as a metaphor for creation. The verse in Psalms3 writes, “You (God) cover with light as with a garment; stretch out the heavens as a carpet.” The Midrash4 comments that God, so to speak, wrapped Himself as one does with a garment during the act of creating the world and allowed the shine of His splendor to fill the world. What is the meaning of this metaphor?

To answer, let’s continue with another, equally puzzling teaching. The Talmud5 writes when God created the world, existence was expanding and growing like a cloth being woven on a loom, until God stopped this growth. The great Talmudic sage Reish Lakish taught, “This is the meaning of the name of God Sha-dai, from the Hebrew word dai, or enough. For God had told the world enough.” This is another reference to cloth being used as an allusion to the creation of the world. What is its deeper meaning, and what are the limits God imposed on creation that the text indicates are so fundamental that the word “enough” becomes a name for God Himself?

Clothing conceals but also allows the shape of the person to be discernible.

The meaning of these sources is as follows.6 Clothing is used to conceal one's body and provide modesty. However, because of its non-rigidity, clothing also allows the shape of the person to be discernible.

God created His world in a manner in which He is concealed and His presence isn't obvious. If God’s existence were to be too obvious, human beings would have no choice but to follow God’s dictates. This would uproot free will, condemning man to a meaningless, robotic existence. By masking His existence, God creates the space for human beings to have moral choice, to build an ethical and Godly life. The opportunity to choose good, rather than being compelled to do so, engenders the immeasurable satisfaction of self-discovery and self-development and allows man to resemble God Who is wholly free and unhindered.

Therefore, the Midrash uses the metaphor of clothing to describe the “shine of God's splendor,” meaning the conspicuousness of his presence, because although one can see the form of the person wearing the clothing if one chooses to, it is concealed from a perfunctory glance. Similarly, one can ignore the reality of God, but this reality is visible if one puts in the effort to see it.

The Talmud’s description of God halting the expansion of the fabric of existence with the command of “Enough!” means God's presence was becoming more and more obvious in existence until God limited the realization of His presence to those looking for it. This signifies the creation of free will, which grants humanity the ability to create one’s spiritual self. In essence God left the world incomplete, making the human being His partner in completing the goal of creation. This act of God limiting His prominence is so fundamental to our existence that the Torah uses the Hebrew word Sha-dai – Enough – as a Name describing our relationship with God.

Partners with God
Let’s now see how this idea is connected to the tallit. When wrapped in a tallit, one is enveloped by a large piece of cloth. The cloth represents the reality of our existence, with God somewhat obscured behind the contours of the fabric of creation.

This cloth has tzitzit tassels tied onto all four corners. These tassels are made by inserting four strings through a hole near each corner. These strings are tied with a series of knots near the hole, and the remainder hangs loose.7 The knots represent a partial completion, the loose strings represent the remainder of a task. This describes the world we live in, a world infused with spirituality by God, improved upon by previous generations, and with much work left for us to do. The tassels on the corners of the tzitzit remind us of our responsibility to improve the world and make it a better place. They are the unfinished part of creation that we will do our best to complete.
The corners of the garment are squared, which represents human achievement, because as the Talmud8 states, “The square shape is not of nature.” The right angle is almost always something created by a human being. Natural forces typically produce objects with rounded shapes and edges. If one were to find a cube or item with squared corners (like the monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey), people would naturally assume it was manufactured, not randomly made.

Wrapping oneself in a tallit reminds one to recognize his responsibilities to make the world a better place, as indicated by the tassels, and apply one’s human ingenuity to modify and manipulate existence, as indicated by the square corners of the garment.

The word tzitzit itself indicates this theme. The Hebrew word maytzit means to peer. This means God is watching us through the fabric of creation, and we can feel this reality if we choose to do so.9

The white and blue colors of the tzitzit strings are also significant. Every individual has responsibilities and opportunities to make a positive impact on society. The color white, which indicates purity of intent, sets the tone for this idea.
Just as important, one needs to refrain from doing that which is incorrect and immoral. The Talmud writes10 that the dye extracted from the chilazon sea creature looks like the blue of the sea. The blue of the sea faces the blue of the sky, which draws our attention heavenward to God. Using this as an analogy to train ourselves to constantly see that everything ultimately leads to God, we will have the presence of mind to take note of the repercussions of our actions and hopefully attain the self-discipline to not engage in destructive behavior.11

Another approach to the allegorical representation of the colors blue and white is offered by Rabbi Meir Leibush (1804-1879),12 known as the Malbim. White light, which is the combination of all color wavelengths, represents the comprehensive positive energy needed to accomplish good deeds. The color black would then indicate a cessation of energy, representing total repression of impulsive and instinctive desires. However, because Judaism frowns upon ascetic behavior, which the color black would represent, we pull into the color spectrum for our discipline metaphor and use the color blue. This tells us that while self-control of instinctive desires is necessary, abstinence and withdrawal from pleasure are not.

Universal and Particular
All the symbolisms mentioned above are broad, universal ideas of human ability and responsibility. Yet for an individual to lead an impactful life they must find a way to express their unique talents and personality in their spiritual accomplishments. This additional component is seen in the Torah’s stated goal for one wearing a tallit: “These shall be your tzitzit, and when you see them, you shall remember God's commandments. You will then not explore after your heart and eyes, which in the past have led you to immorality” (Numbers 15:39).

The Sifrei13 offers the following explanation for the admonition to “not explore after your heart and eyes” which would seem to refer to someone acting lustfully or impulsively.

The verse in Ecclesiastes14 states, “Rejoice, young man, in your childhood, follow the path of your heart and the sight of your eyes.” In this verse the phrase “following the heart and eyes” is clearly being used in a positive connotation. The message is that a young person, seeking to discover their personal identity and focus in life, needs to follow the calling of their heart. There is no cookie cutter definition of the perfect Jew. The best person that you can be is the best version of you. To find out the life mission best suited to oneself, one must see what calling talks to their heart and their perspective with the clearest and truest meaning. The Jewish people needs scholars, activists, and leaders. Just as importantly, simple, ethical, and honest individuals.

However, when seeking a lifestyle that will allow for individual expression, the Torah gives certain parameters. When expressing the goal of the tallit the Torah writes “remember God's commandments” and then you won't “explore after your heart and eyes” to the point of immorality. By following the moral guidelines of the Torah one can safely discover their uniqueness, which is the meaning of “exploring after one’s heart and eyes,” without fear of crossing an ethical red line. Observing the Torah can be done without any compromise towards one’s individuality. This foundational message expresses to the wearer of a tallit that the complete actualization of a desire to improve the world will take place only after a journey of self-discovery.

The message of the tallit, which defines our responsibility to improve the world, the means of accomplishing this by energetically pursuing positive goals and developing the discipline to avoid negative behavior, and lastly the message that an individual can truly express their inner selves through their Judaism, is certainly impactful enough to be an emblem of Judaism itself.

Numbers 15:38
Menachot 44a
104:2
Bereishit Rabbah 3:4
Chagigah 12a
This explanation is based on Meshech Chochmah Bamidbar 15:40
Ideally one third knots and two thirds loose string. Menachot 39a Remah Orach Chaim 11:14
Yerushalmi Nedarim 3:2, Rav Hirsch collected writings volume 3 page 152
Rashi Shelach 15:38, Gra Orach Chaim 24:8, Kad HaKemach page 348. Rabeinu Bachya also explains the origin of the word tallit.
Menachot 43b
Maharal, Chiddushei Aggados Sotah 17a
Chukas chapter 19, essay titled “Ner Mitzvah”
As explained by Ha’amek Davar, end of Parashat Shelach. The basis for the understanding of the Midrash is the Torah’s use of the word תתורו, which means explore, rather than תלכו, which would mean stray. Many translations use the word stray, which the Netziv writes is incorrect.
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Kahina: The Jewish Warrior-Queen of North Africa
Avi Abrams
By the late seventh century, the only thing standing between the Arab forces and the Atlantic Ocean was a Jewish warrior-queen.
Before the existence of Islam, North Africa and the Middle East were home to diverse cultures, languages and religions. The indigenous peoples of these lands included Phoenicians, Assyrians, Kurds, Chaldeans, Coptics, and Berbers, all of whom had been there since the Biblical period and even back to pre-historic times.

After Muhammad united the tribes of Arabia under Islam, his successors embarked on a massive military campaign to spread the new religion by conquest, northwards into the Levant, eastwards towards Persia and India, and westwards into North Africa. After capturing Egypt, the Arab armies continued marching westwards towards the Maghreb (modern day Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco).

The Berber tribes who were the original inhabitants of the Maghreb actively resisted the Arab advance into the Sahara for decades. By the late seventh century, the only thing standing between the Arab forces and the Atlantic Ocean was a Jewish warrior-queen known as the Kahina. This begs the question, how did Jews, and to a greater extent a Jewish woman, become so influential among the Berber tribes? What did she do that posed such a strong military challenge to the invading Arab armies? Furthermore, how did Jews even get to North Africa in the first place?

Jews in North Africa
The famous Jewish historian Josephus Flavius, who lived through and documented the First Roman-Jewish War (66-73 C.E.), reported that 97,000 Jews were deported from Judea (ancient Israel). While the majority were enslaved and forcibly relocated to Italy by the Roman navy, 30,000 Jews were also deported to Carthage in modern day Tunisia, which was the largest Roman city on the North African coast at the time. While the 47,000 Jews who landed in Italy became the progenitors of the Ashkenazi community who later spread across the European continent, the group of 30,000 Jews in Carthage became the progenitors of the Sephardic community who later spread across North Africa and into Spain.

The deportees were Zealots, captured soldiers from the Jewish rebellion that attempted to regain political independence of Judea from the Roman Empire. As such, the vast majority of these Jews who had arrived in Rome and Carthage were male. This posed an obvious problem, as large Jewish communities didn’t yet exist in these regions. In order for this population of Judean ex-soldiers to persevere, they needed to find wives among local Berber women, who converted to Judaism and passed down Jewish identity to the next generation.

Jews therefore became part of the fabric of North African culture as Jewish communities spread further westwards throughout the realm of the Berber tribes in the Maghreb regions. These communities were reinforced by waves of Jewish refugees who fled Judea following further failed rebellions against the Romans in the second century. In addition to the Israelite community (descendants of Jews from Judea), it seems that conversion to Judaism was popular amongst several Berber tribes throughout the Roman-Byzantine period.

“Al Kahina” – The Sorceress
One of the powerful Jewish Berber tribes was known as the Jarawa who inhabited the Aures mountains of present-day northeastern Algeria. In the mid-seventh century, a princess was born into the royal family of the Jarawa. Although her birth name was Dihya (meaning “the beautiful gazelle” in her local Berber language), she would be remembered in later centuries as “Al Kahina” (“The Sorceress” or “The Witch” in Arabic), a name ascribed to her by her enemies.


According to some historians, “Al Kahina” is a corruption of the Hebrew “HaKohenet” meaning “the priestess” or someone who descended from the Israelite priestly class. There is one tradition that describes Kahina as a descendant from a priestly family forcibly deported from Jerusalem by Pharaoh Necho in the days of the Biblical King Josiah.

Kahina was the daughter of Tabat, chieftain of the Jarawa tribe, and grew up in a world of diversity, prosperity, and peace. During her youth, the Maghreb was a semi-autonomous region known as the Exarchate of Africa, which was governed by the Byzantine (formerly Roman) Empire. Kahina would have had extensive contacts with a variety of ethnic and religious groups that included both local residents and foreign merchants. The cosmopolitan environment included Berbers, Romans, Vandals, Visigoths, black Numidians, Jews, Christians, and pagans. The Jarawa and many of the Berber tribes lived in the border regions between the Exarchate and the Sahara Desert, kind of like the suburbs, but freely entered the coastal cities of the Exarchate, especially Carthage, to exchange goods at the seaports, which facilitated international trade across the Mediterranean and beyond.

Kahina had a unique appearance and personality. With her long black hair, large black eyes, unusually tall height, intelligence, wisdom, alertness, and charismatic personality, she sometimes intimidated her male counterparts. One of her suitors was a chieftain from another local tribe. When his request for her hand in marriage was refused, he exerted pressure on the Jarawa through raids and thievery. Kahina went into hiding for a certain period of time, but she eventually agreed to his proposal. Legend has it that on their wedding night, she pierced her new husband’s skull with a nail.

While she was a fierce leader, her followers also attributed supernatural powers to her. She had incredible foresight and some even described her as a prophetess. She had the habit of communicating with animals, especially birds, and was strongly connected to nature.

Warrior
After the death of Muhammad in 632 C.E., the newly united Arab tribes of the Rashidun Caliphate conquered most of the Middle East from the Byzantine and Persian empires within less than a decade. The campaign across North Africa, however, was much more challenging for the Arabs and took more than half a century to accomplish after many attempted invasions and military defeats. Although the Byzantine navy was not able to send reinforcements to their far-off colony in the Maghreb, the Exarchate of Africa relied on auxiliary troops of Berber tribes to exert military pressure on the invading Arabs and keep them as far as possible from its borders.

During the 680s, Kahina learned the art of war from her uncle, the great Berber chieftain Kusaila who fought off several Arab invasions. Kahina participated in these battles as a warrior and eventually took a command position. She was said to have been an excellent horse rider, fast with her sword, and never missed her target as an archer.
By 697 C.E., the forces of the Exarchate and their Berber allies were exhausted and diminished after decades of conflict. The Arab general Hassan Ibn Numan of the Umayyad Caliphate advanced against Carthage (the capital of the African Exarchate) with an unprecedented 45,000 well-trained Arabian foot soldiers. Before reaching the city, the people of Carthage, most of whom were of Roman origin, fled to Sicily off the Italian coast. The following year, the Byzantine navy reemerged to liberate Carthage and called for its population to return home. After the city was repopulated, Hassan’s forces returned and faced fierce resistance from the locals. To avenge his losses, Hassan massacred the people of Carthage and ordered the full demolition of the city.

The destruction of the great city of Carthage sent shockwaves through the tribes of North Africa. Kahina used this event to rally and unite all the Berber chiefdoms into a singular confederation with one common cause, to fight off the Arab invaders and liberate their homeland.

Beginning with guerilla warfare, Kahina and her forces eventually confronted the Arab armies in open warfare on the battlefield with stunning success. Encouraged, survivors of the Exarchate’s army and some Visigoth tribes joined the confederation under Kahina. General Hassan, frustrated by local resistance, inquired about Kahina’s whereabouts and planned to attack her on her home turf in the Aures Mountains. Anticipating this move, Kahina led her forces into strategic hiding places in the mountains where she grew up. As Arabian soldiers entered the area, they were ambushed and thoroughly defeated. With no other choice, Hassan withdrew his surviving forces and returned to Arab occupied Egypt.

After succeeding to oust the invaders, Kahina ruled over the region as the uncontested warrior-queen of North Africa for several years. Had she succeeded in the long term, it’s likely that the Maghreb and West Africa would never have become Arabized and Islamicized. Likewise, Arab-Muslim forces never would have reached Europe (the Iberian Peninsula). History as we know it would have been quite different.

I Shall Die as a Jew
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The Great Kosher Meat Boycott of 1902

Dr. Yvette Alt Miller August 20, 2024
How a group of Yiddish-speaking women forced monopolists to lower beef prices.
Over a century ago, The New York Times cautioned its readers about a “dangerous class” of women who were “very ignorant,” who “mostly speak a foreign language,” and who were stirring up trouble in the city, protesting the status quo.

These “dangerous” women were Yiddish-speaking, penniless Jews who lived in cramped tenements in New York’s Lower East Side and other poor quarters. They were desperate and staged one of the United States most effective – and least well-known – boycotts, protesting companies gouging the price of kosher meat in 1902. Before long, their efforts spread across the country. The resulting “Great Kosher Meat Boycott” of 1902 was one of the most colorful episodes of American Jewish history, and an early example of the power of Jewish women.

Precarious Jewish Life in the Early 1900s

Facing violent pogroms and wretched poverty in eastern Europe in the 1800s, Jews began leaving in massive numbers in the late 1800s. A wave of pogroms, in particular, targeted Jews in southern and western Russia following the assassination of Czar Alexander II in 1881 and convinced many Jews that they had no future in Europe.

Lower East Side

Bustling Lower East Side in New York
Some Jews dubbed the United States the goldina medina, the “golden land;” hopeful would-be immigrants said the streets in America were paved with gold. Jewish immigrants poured into American cities, transforming cities such as Baltimore, Chicago, Boston, and Philadelphia. New York received the most Jewish immigrants. Numbering just 80,000 in 1880, by 1920 New York was home to a million and a half Jews.

The epicenter of Jewish New York at the turn of the last century was the Lower East Side. The US Library of Congress describes daily life there in the late 1800s and early 1900s:

When a new Jewish immigrant first set foot on the Lower East Side, he or she stepped into a Jewish world. The earliest Eastern European Jews to settle there had quickly established synagogues, mutual-aid societies, libraries, and stores. Every major institution, from the bank to the grocery store to the social club to the neighborhood bookmaker, was Jewish-owned or Jewish-run, and everyone a Jewish immigrant might speak to in the course of daily business would likely be Jewish.

Conditions for most of these immigrants were wretched. Families crammed into tiny tenement apartments with no running water and few latrines for thousands of people. Disease was rampant. Immigrants worked in sweatshops or spent all day working at home, sewing “piece work” orders for the larger factories. Many mothers and fathers stayed up all night, sewing by the light of a flickering candle as their children slept nearly. In the early 1900s, fully half of all fires reported in New York City broke out on the Lower East Side. In 1900, the social reformer Jacob Riis described his visit to a Jewish family’s home on the Lower East Side: “I have found in three rooms: father, mother, 12 children, and six boarders. They sleep on the half-made clothing for beds. I found that several people slept in a subcellar four feet by six, on a pile of clothing that was being made.”

Outside Butcher ShopA group of Lower East Side women talk with a potential buyer outside a butcher shop.
Though many families could barely afford to feed their families, impoverished immigrants tried to save each week to buy food for Shabbat. While they might subsist on bread and potatoes all week long, many bought enough beef to make cholent, the classic Shabbat lunch stew, kreplach (stuffed dumplings), tzimmes (a traditional dish of carrots, prunes and beef), or other Yiddish meat dishes. At the beginning of 1902, beef in New York City cost 12 cents a pound. (For a rough comparison to today’s prices: 12 cents in 1913 was equal to $3.82 today.)

At the turn of the 20th century, the price of beef - as well as many other foods - was controlled by a small handful of Trusts, which set the price of many of the most commonly used household items. In 1902, America’s Beef Trusts decided to radically raise the price of beef.

Beef Trusts and Kosher Housewives

In 1888, the largest beef companies in the country entered into a secret arrangement, fixing the price of beef and preventing competition. Though they denied the very existence of a “Beef Trust,” as the arrangement was known, a series of muckraking articles investigated the Beef Trust’s horrendous safety standards, terrible worker relations, and price fixing and gouging. Journalists Charles Edward Russell, who wrote The Greatest Trust in the World in 1905 and Upton Sinclair, who wrote The Jungle in 1906, lifted the lid on the Beef Trusts’ terrible practices. Together, the beef companies in the Beef Trust controlled over three quarters of all beef - and also chicken and port - in America, and kept prices artificially high. Representatives met weekly in Chicago to set each week’s new inflated price.

Kosher consumers faced even higher prices. Some cattle and chickens were slaughtered by kosher slaughterers - called shochets - in Chicago, the heart of the Beef Trust; this kosher meat was sold in Chicago and other Midwestern cities. Yet the bulk of America’s Jewish population lived in New York and elsewhere on the East Coast. Cattle and chickens were purchased from the Beef Trust and brought to New York, where they were slaughtered according to Jewish law and distributed to the city’s kosher butchers, adding to the cost. In 1902, the majority of the estimated nearly 600,000 Jews who lived in New York City kept kosher: each of these often-penniless families faced exorbitant prices
Inside a kosher butcher shop in New York City
“The conscience of an Orthodox Jew is absolute when it comes to meat,” explained a kosher butcher on First Avenue in New York to the New York Tribune. Kosher chicken cost between 18 and 25 cents a pound in 1902, out of the reach of most families, who reserved it as a special treat on Shabbat and Jewish holidays. (Quoted in The Great Kosher Meat War of 1902: Immigrant Housewives and the Riots That Shook New York City, by Scott D. Seligman. Potomac Books: 2020.)
Kosher Butchers Resisting Price Gouging
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Finding My Bubby in Auschwitz
Slovie Jungreis-Wolff
I visited Auschwitz for the first time, where my bubby walked into a gas chamber with her youngest grandchild in her arms. What would I find there?

I’ve just returned from a trip to Auschwitz. We were 70 women strong on a journey to this surreal planet of death and devastation. I was asked to lead a group to this place where man descended to the darkest abyss, even though I had never set foot here before. How would I feel? What would I think?

I was born upon the ashes of the Holocaust. I carried the name of my grandfather’s mother, my bubby, Rebbetzin Slova Channah. I never got to listen to her sing me a lullaby, feel her touch or see her smile as I grew. She left this earth walking into a gas chamber with her youngest grandchild in her arms. Her last words uttered before she was murdered were “Shema Yisrael.”

As I stood at the gates of Auschwitz, I knew that I was coming to the closest physical distance I’ve ever had with my bubby. Somehow I felt her soul hovering above. Was she waiting for me to call out to her, to tell her my story, to share what has happened to us, her children?

I wanted to scream out loud, “Bubby, I am here! I came to find you, to hear you, to feel your presence and bring it home with me.”

I strained to see the piles of suitcases encased in glass. Would my family’s name be written on one, as others had so innocently and tragically labeled theirs, thinking that they were going to settle down and unpack?

The mounds of hair, the thousands of glasses tangled together, and the endless mountain of shoes. Did they once belong to my bubby, my grandparents, my cousins, my aunts and uncles?

Fingering the countless names of those who died in Auschwitz, suspended from the ceiling above, I discovered pages and pages of my relatives. Hundreds of Jungreises, too many to count. My heart hurt.

Where does all the pain go?

After walking through the rooms where heads were shaved, disinfectant sprayed, and poisonous gas dispensed, I finally stumbled onto the sunshine. It felt impossible to think that there were bright yellow rays in a place where ashes once blocked the light of the sun.

Now we are here again. Massacred. Vilified. Hated. Violated. Taken. Our children made to feel unwelcome and unwanted.

Slogans shouting, “There is only one solution.”

We hear that “never again” is now. Has our world really changed since my bubby walked into the valley of death?

I gathered the group of women around and shared my emotions:

Listen to me. I am a walking miracle.

If you would have been standing there, seeing my bubby with the baby in her arms as the Nazis in their uniforms, rifles in hand, marching Jews into the gas chambers, what would you have thought? If we had to take a bet, who would you think would live and who would disappear?

There is no way this elderly bubby will survive. Most would say it is the Jew who will vanish from the face of this earth.

And yet here I am. I carry my bubby’s name with pride. She continues to live through me. She created a lifelong legacy. She triumphed. It seems impossible but this is the definition of faith.

And those who tried to wipe us out are gone.

Our story continues.

You can burn us.

You can shoot missiles at us.

You can shout at us. Spit at us. Falsely accuse us.

You can try to destroy us, deny our culture, our roots and our heritage.

But we defy you.

I realized that I had found my bubby for whom I was named. Her spirit was living in my heart all this time. She is with me.

Our nation, the Jewish people lives. Am Yisrael Chai.

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On October 7, 2023, the entire Jewish world was stunned: The modern state of Israel had suffered its worst attack ever, and this was the deadliest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.

A day later, while protestors took the streets to condemn Israel, one sports team put up a message of support.

“The Miami Marlins are saddened and heartbroken by the images of suffering and loss of innocent lives,” the team posted to their Instagram. “We stand in solidarity with our South Florida community and the people of Israel for an end to terrorism and we pray for peace.”

One of the people involved in the messaging was Ari Ackerman, co-owner and partner in the Miami Marlins, as well as a pro-Israel Jew.

“When October 7 happened, I spoke to partners of mine and we said we need to do this immediately,” Ari said in an Aish.com interview. “I sent a suggestion of what we should say, and they took it under advisement, since it wasn’t just me making the decisions. They did post pretty much what I said. I’m proud I spearheaded it.”

Ari, a husband and father of two, was already an advocate for the Jewish community. But when October 7 happened, he amped up his support when Israel and his people needed it the most.

“I love being part of a network of people who are warm and loving,” he said. “It’s such a beautiful thing to be a part of.”

Holding Flag

A Zionist through and through

Ari’s connections to Israel run deep. His grandmother’s family had the first pharmacy in Israel, in Tel Aviv, and his grandfather was a very close friend of Arik Sharon, the eleventh prime minister of Israel.

“I was named after him, and he came to my bar mitzvah,” Ari said. “My grandparents instilled a responsibility of being Jewish in me and my sisters. We never lost sight of it.”

I My grandparents instilled a responsibility of being Jewish in me and my sisters. We never lost sight of it.

His mother was born in Israel, and he grew up in New York, where he attended The Ramaz School. After high school, he spent a semester in college in Israel and would go back and forth several times a year to visit family.

“Israel is the homeland of the Jewish people,” Ari said. “It’s the continuity of the Jewish people, and of our traditions for thousands of years. After all, at the Passover Seder every year, we say, ‘Next year in Jerusalem.’”

For 18 years, Ari spent his time building Bunk1, a popular technology that allowed parents to see pictures online and send emails to their kids at summer camp.

“I’m very proud of that,” he said. “We brought technology services into summer camps that didn’t have anything tech-wise.”

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Antisemites Are Attacking the Talmud

Rabbi Efrem Goldberg
Influencers are shamelessly promoting blood libels and unfounded accusations about the Talmud to an audience eager to hear it. Arm yourself with knowledge.
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Avichail Reuven’s Inspiring Act of Bravery Will Floor You
Sarah Pachter
On October 7, this brave soldier ran 8 miles to save lives and fight Hamas terrorists.
Avichail Reuven, an Ethiopian IDF paratrooper had just returned home from active service. He was still being trained as an officer when he came home to Kiryat Malachi, a city a few miles from Ashkelon, for a short break.

He had been looking forward to a much-needed rest when he was abruptly awoken on October 7th to the sound of sirens blasting, signaling an incoming missile attack.

He checked his phone and was shocked to learn that this was not just another terrorist attack. He saw that Hamas had penetrated various communities near the Gaza border and that Israel was experiencing something far deadlier and more serious than anything he had ever seen.

Despite his exhaustion, Avichail thrust himself into action.
In an interview with Channel 12 news he stated, “I told my brother and friend that I was heading to the border. I said that if anything happened, I would just kill [the terrorists]. I felt like the guys were laughing at me a little. They told me ‘You’re crazy to go, there’s no reason for us to go with you.’ I also looked for friends with a car to drive there, but I couldn’t find anyone, so I decided that I would go to the interchange and start trying to catch a ride.”

Undeterred, he grabbed his gun and uniform, still wet from the laundry machine, and began heading towards the main intersection to see if he could catch a ride. Not one car stopped and no buses were running. Avichail decided to run.

For one hour he ran 8 miles towards Zikim, the nearest community under attack.

Avichail told Channel 12, “It was difficult, running in a wet uniform, with sirens all the time and rockets falling in the area. It was the hardest run I’d ever done. It was the longest run I’d ever done, in uniform, in the heat. A nightmare.”

A parent on his way to the Nova festival to help his child saw Avichail and gave him a ride. The parent realized that without a weapon it would be futile and dangerous and dropped Avichail at an intersection where a police car gave him a ride to a checkpoint near Zikim.

Avichail stated, “I argued a little with the police officers. I told them, ‘I’m going in. If not with you, I’m going in alone.'”

Another commander named Alexander arrived at that spot at the same moment and the two of them went in together.

Avichail explained, “There was complete chaos here. Half the base was burned. A lot of shouting and you could see terrorists running all around the area.”

He came to a bomb shelter filled with 30 women soldiers with one wounded. Avichail helped her and then said to them, “I need three strong women. This is why you enlisted into a combat unit. Now is your moment to prove that you’re fighters.”

He told three soldiers to stand at the entrance and kill any terrorists nearby. He then went to another bomb shelter filled with male soldiers, many of them injured. He spent hours fighting and killing several terrorists which saved the lives of many Jewish civilians.

Witnesses describe how, despite the chaos, Avichail remained calm and focused, focused on his mission. Stepping up for others at great risk to his life, he demonstrated tremendous heroism.
After fighting in Zikkim he went to Yiftah, Kfar Aza, and Kibbutz Be’eri. And his heroism did not end there. He later fought for months in Gaza with a goal to decimate Hamas.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recognized Avichail’s heroism in his address to the U.S. Congress on July 24th, stating,
With us today is Lieutenant Avichail Reuven. Avichail is an officer in the Israeli paratroopers. His family immigrated to Israel from Ethiopia. In the early hours of October 7th, Avichail heard the news of Hamas’ bloody rampage.

He put on his uniform, grabbed his rifle, but he didn’t have a car. So he ran eight miles to the frontlines of Gaza to defend his people. You heard that right. He ran eight miles, came to the frontlines, killed many terrorists and saved many, many lives. Avichail, we all honor your remarkable heroism.”

The entire room gave him a standing ovation.

The IDF also recognized Avichail’s bravery, promoting him as an officer, and the community of Zikim thanked him as well.

The Mishna teaches, “In a place where there is no leader, strive to be a leader” (Ethics of the Fathers, 2:1). When there was no one coming to the rescue, no bus and no car, Avichail pushed forward to complete his mission. His immense bravery – and great humility – make him a modern-day hero.

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https://aish.com/bringing-jewish-pride-to-the-miami-marlins/?src=ac
Bringing Jewish Pride to the Miami Marlins
Kylie Ora Lobell
As a co-owner and partner in the Miami Marlins team, US entrepreneur Ari AOn October 7, 2023, the entire Jewish world was stunned: The modern state of Israel had suffered its worst attack ever, and this was the deadliest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.

A day later, while protestors took the streets to condemn Israel, one sports team put up a message of support.

“The Miami Marlins are saddened and heartbroken by the images of suffering and loss of innocent lives,” the team posted to their Instagram. “We stand in solidarity with our South Florida community and the people of Israel for an end to terrorism and we pray for peace.”


One of the people involved in the messaging was Ari Ackerman, co-owner and partner in the Miami Marlins, as well as a pro-Israel Jew.

“When October 7 happened, I spoke to partners of mine and we said we need to do this immediately,” Ari said in an Aish.com interview. “I sent a suggestion of what we should say, and they took it under advisement, since it wasn’t just me making the decisions. They did post pretty much what I said. I’m proud I spearheaded it.”

Ari, a husband and father of two, was already an advocate for the Jewish community. But when October 7 happened, he amped up his support when Israel and his people needed it the most.

“I love being part of a network of people who are warm and loving,” he said. “It’s such a beautiful thing to be a part of.”

Holding Flag

A Zionist through and through

Ari’s connections to Israel run deep. His grandmother’s family had the first pharmacy in Israel, in Tel Aviv, and his grandfather was a very close friend of Arik Sharon, the eleventh prime minister of Israel.

“I was named after him, and he came to my bar mitzvah,” Ari said. “My grandparents instilled a responsibility of being Jewish in me and my sisters. We never lost sight of it.”

I My grandparents instilled a responsibility of being Jewish in me and my sisters. We never lost sight of it.

His mother was born in Israel, and he grew up in New York, where he attended The Ramaz School. After high school, he spent a semester in college in Israel and would go back and forth several times a year to visit family.

“Israel is the homeland of the Jewish people,” Ari said. “It’s the continuity of the Jewish people, and of our traditions for thousands of years. After all, at the Passover Seder every year, we say, ‘Next year in Jerusalem.’”

For 18 years, Ari spent his time building Bunk1, a popular technology that allowed parents to see pictures online and send emails to their kids at summer camp.

“I’m very proud of that,” he said. “We brought technology services into summer camps that didn’t have anything tech-wise.”

After selling his company, he started putting more time into investing, and became a board member and partner of Derek Jeter’s group, which purchased the Miami Marlins back in 2017. Today, Ari spends most of his time at home in New York with his wife, son, and daughter, but he also goes to Miami on occasion.

“The community in Florida is great,” he said. “There are very proud Jews there and there’s freedom in Florida for the Jewish community, which is so nice to see.”

Praying at the Kotel

Ari has served as a board member for Hillel, AIPAC, and the UJA, and he was elected as the National Young Leadership Cabinet Co-chair for The Jewish Federations of North America.

“I was always an advocate and serving on boards and giving speeches to the Jewish community,” he said. “I do all that I can.”

Spreading messages through sports – and beyond

Since October 7, Ari has been ramping up his pro-Israel and pro-Jewish messaging on his Instagram, where he has over 20,000 followers. He posts about the mainstream media’s missteps on Israel, combats misinformation and antisemitism, and talks into the camera – usually wearing his signature mustard-colored sunglasses – about the importance of standing up for the Jewish state.


One thing that’s important to him is not just speaking to his fellow Jews.

“I don’t want to be the echo chamber guy who speaks to the same people everybody speaks to,” Ari said.

That’s why he’s been so vocal at the Miami Marlins – he hopes to reach the outside world and ensure they see the truth. Along with the post on October 8, the team also played “Hatikvah,” the Israeli national anthem, at a game this past April.ckerman shows his Jewish pride on and off the field.
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LATEST
Shabbos Kestenbaum Is Empowering Jewish Students at Harvard and Beyond
Raphael Poch
The recent Harvard grad calls for Jewish pride and action amid rising hostility.
ust ahead of the new school year and in the face of rising antisemitism on college campuses across the United States, one young man stands out as a powerful voice for change. Shabbos Kestenbaum, a recent graduate of Harvard University, has become a prominent figure in the fight against discrimination and harassment of Jewish students on college campuses.

Kestenbaum's path to becoming an outspoken advocate began in 2017 with his decision to attend EFG@Aish, a program that would prove instrumental in shaping his future. "The Aish program was pretty new at the time," Kestenbaum recalls. "There was no one from my high school SAR who had gone before, very few individuals from modern Orthodox schools who had gone." The program's mission to inspire Jews across the world by teaching them to take responsibility for one another, and to use Jewish values to fix the problems that they see around them resonated deeply with Kestenbaum. He found that Aish provided him with "the tools to be an advocate, to be a learner, to be a Jewish individual."

The impact of his time at Aish was profound. Kestenbaum speaks of experiences that left an indelible mark, such as "hosting the Deputy Prime Minister of Australia for a Friday night deal overlooking the Western Wall." These moments, he says, were possible "because of the empowerment that Aish and experience" provided.

Armed with this foundation, Kestenbaum entered Harvard where he pursued a degree in religion and public policy. He describes his focus as "the intersection between contemporary Jewish life in America and domestic policy, how the two can better interact and understand each other." Little did he know that this academic interest would soon become a pressing reality in his own life.

Suing Harvard
The environment at Harvard, according to Kestenbaum, was far from welcoming to Jewish students. He paints a stark picture of the situation on campus: "At Harvard, we had Jews who were being followed on their way to classes by encampment protesters. We had library buildings either taken over or surrounded by masses of protesters. We had at all hours of the day and night chants for the globalization of the intifada." This hostile atmosphere, he argues, was "not an environment conducive to academic life, and certainly not conducive to Jewish continuity and Jewish safety."
Kestenbaum's experiences at Harvard led him to take legal action against the university. The lawsuit, filed by Kestenbaum and Students Against Antisemitism (SAA), alleges that Harvard has become a "bastion of rampant anti-Jewish hatred and harassment." While the problems started before the October 7th attack on Israel by Hamas terrorists, the issues only became worse from there. The lawsuit argues that the university has failed to enforce its own anti-discrimination policies when it comes to antisemitism, allowing an "intolerable anti-Jewish environment" to develop on campus.
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https://aish.com/the-president-of-columbia-isnt-the-only-one-leaving-the-university/?src=ac
The President of Columbia Isn’t the Only One Leaving the University
Kylie Ora Lobell
Eliana Samuels made the tough decision to withdraw from Columbia due to the rampant antisemitism on campus. She’s going to a Jewish university instead.
Eliana Samuels made the tough decision to withdraw from Columbia due to the rampant antisemitism on campus. She’s going to a Jewish university instead.

Eliana Samuels was set to attend Columbia University this upcoming fall. Her mother, Dr. Roya Rahmanian Samuels, graduated from the prestigious Ivy League and was once a proud alum. Eliana worked hard throughout high school and was accepted during the early decision period her senior year. She was going to study neuroscience.

However, after October 7, everything changed. Not only were people protesting against Israel on the streets of New York City – the fight had come to Columbia University as well. Throughout this past school year, it was home to a number of antisemitic protests, culminating in a “solidarity encampment,” the alienation of Jewish students on campus, and a lack of response or protection from the administration.

Minouche Shafik, the university’s president, recently resigned – the fourth Ivy League president to do so – after widespread criticism over her handling of anti-Israel protests that rattled the campus.

After seeing how Columbia ignored antisemitism and failed its Jewish students, Eliana made a tough decision: to withdraw from the university and transfer to honors at Yeshiva University, a nearby Jewish school, instead.

She wrote a long and thoughtful letter to the admissions committee in which she wasn’t afraid to voice her opinion.

In observing the on-going events on Columbia’s campus since October 7th and the unsatisfactory response in which Columbia’s President, administration, and faculty have continually permitted, enabled, and accepted the inexcusable violence and antisemitism on campus, it is evident that Columbia University has demonstrated a consistent lack of ability and willingness to keep its students safe and protected.

It has unequivocally failed in supporting its Jewish students by subjecting them to a severe and pervasive antisemitic hostile educational environment. Accordingly, based on the actions, responses, and dialogue from Columbia University, I no longer believe that I can be kept safe as a future Jewish student on campus from clear and identifiable danger nor do I feel that Columbia University has demonstrated a willingness or ability to protect me and my fellow Jewish students. I will not be able to live on a quad in which fellow students verbally and physically assault Jewish students while calling for our people to be brutally murdered. I also cannot attend a university in which the education being provided would not be fair, balanced, and free from bias.

I am hereby officially withdrawing my registration from Columbia University effective immediately and will not be attending the university in the fall.

The lackluster response she received affirmed Eliana’s decision.

“Your withdrawal request has been processed. It may take up to 2 business days for the change to be reflected in the system and on your application status page. Thank you for your consideration and best of luck with your college plans.

Best, Columbia Admissions”

Eliana said Columbia’s response was, “incredibly disappointing, but unfortunately, not that surprising. I wrote a very strongly worded email… and their response was an acknowledgement of my withdrawal request.”

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Looking at the bright side
The withdrawal email was the last communication Eliana had with Columbia. She may have been disenchanted with her experience with the Ivy League, but she is now accepting what happened – and excited about her future at YU, where she plans to major in biochemistry.

October 7: Heartbreaking Stories of Kibbutz Be'eri
TRENDING
https://aish.com/october-7-heartbreaking-stories-of-kibbutz-beeri/?src=ac
WATCH https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZgR5qpASqg&t=45s

Texas Christian Organization Sues Biden Administration for Anti-Israel Sanctions

The Biden administration's recent sanctions policy targeting Jewish settlers in the West Bank has come under fire, with a lawsuit filed by Texans for Israel and American Jews living in Israel, challenging its constitutionality.
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https://aish.com/nissim-black-bring-on-the-light/?src=ac
Nissim Black: Bring On the Ligh
by Yehudis Litvak
August 11, 2024
8 min read
After October 7th, Nissim Black’s music became a unifying force.

American-Israeli rapper Nissim Black grew up in the inner city of Seattle, WA. Musically gifted, he began composing and producing music as a teenager. As an adult, he embarked on a spiritual quest, which led to his conversion to Judaism. Today, Nissim lives in Israel with his family, and his Jewish-themed music inspires diverse audiences world-wide.

Last fall, Nissim had been working on his fourth album, with plans to release it in November. He had just released the second single from the album.

“Then October 7th happened,” says Nissim. “I couldn’t even look at music. I couldn’t do anything.”



He put the album on hold and threw himself into what he felt was more needed at the moment – “bring a voice of some type of hope, reassure people, to remember that God is on our side. I got creative, just not musically creative. I went on social media and started releasing videos, telling everybody that it is very important when dealing with terrorists not to allow them to cause terror. Don’t watch the videos, don’t be obsessed with the news. What we do in our times of struggle is we turn to God and prayer. This is our ray of hope.”

Diverse Audience
Despite the global rise in antisemitism, Nissim continues to perform all over the world, though now he travels with an armed bodyguard. Recently, Nissim performed in the United States, Canada, South Africa, Great Britain, Gibraltar, Germany, Brazil, and Jamaica.

His audience is diverse and not limited to Jews. In fact, many of his listeners are religious Christians. Nissim says, “It’s been very interesting to see, as it appears that more and more people are turning their back on Israel, that there is this overwhelming support, particularly from the Evangelical world.” Since October 7th, his Christian fan base has been consistently growing.

“Maybe because I’m here, in Israel, and I speak a language they’re familiar with. I don’t think my music is converting anybody, but people who are already pro-Israel are attracted to my music.”

Nissim finds it easy to connect with religious people – whether white or black, Jewish, Christian, or Muslim. When he noticed that his post-October 7th inspirational videos were attracting non-Jewish viewers, he made sure to use English terms rather than Hebrew and include “universal items of faith.”

“I was Muslim as a kid, but I wasn’t raised Muslim,” he says. “My grandfather introduced me to Islam when I was 8 years old, but my parents weren’t religious. Later, I converted to Christianity. So any religion I’ve participated in, from the three Abrahamic religions, I was a convert to. I was never raised in a religion. Because of that, I don’t have any resentment towards any religion. I wasn’t forced to go to church, or mosque, or synagogue. Every move towards God and spirituality I made on my own. So I have a certain level of tolerance that many people wouldn’t have. I want to see everybody close to God.”



Both Nissim’s music and words of inspiration have been received very positively. “I’ve been getting a lot of love,” he says. “That’s been awesome. I tour a lot – 100 days out of the year I’m on the road. So I also get to see the effect my music has had on so many different people. People have been able to stop listening to music that’s not good for them. I get messages from people and run into people all the time who are somewhere in the conversion process. It’s wild.”

Encounters with Antisemitism Post October 7th
In his travels, Nissim has also encountered a lot of antisemitism, especially after October 7th. “I’ve experienced a lot more antisemitism than I have racism.”

Though racism obviously exists, Nissim had not seen much of it growing up. There was systemic racism, such as lack of proper textbooks in his predominantly black high school in Seattle, but no blatant racism on a personal level.

After he converted to Judaism, Nissim experienced some racism within the Jewish community, though not on a large scale. “But on the flip side, there is so much love and acceptance that I have as a Jew that I never before experienced in my life.” Even without a large extended Jewish family, Nissim feels very much at home in the Jewish community and doesn’t feel a lack.

Antisemitism, on the other hand, has been a lot more pervasive. “I walk down the street, and everybody has got something to say,” Nissim shares. “And online – oh my goodness, how much antisemitism I get online! Very nasty and disturbing messages. Especially in the socio-political climate we’re in today, where if any of those people said any of those things to me because I’m black, it would be totally intolerable, but since I’m Jewish, they can say anything and nobody cares. I find it quite interesting.”

Nissim has been called a traitor, accused of joining “a white religion,” and criticized for not expressing support for the Palestinians, who are considered people of color.

“People are not thinking this through as they’re saying this stuff. Every once in a while, if I have an opportunity to educate, I will.”

Unifying Moments
Despite the darkness since October 7th, Nissim has found that his performances are able to bring some light, even to hotspots of antisemitism, like college campuses.

During Hanukkah, Nissim performed at the menorah lighting at George Washington University. The organizers were understandably concerned about security and took extra security measures. They lit the menorah at the same exact spot where the pro-Palestinian event took place just days earlier.


Nissim recalls, “The head of the DEI office came out and was so impressed! And then these black kids come out and start eating potato latkes and jam. I talked to some of them afterwards. It was a very awesome experience, the exact opposite of what everybody was bracing themselves for.”

Nissim was hosted by the DEI departments of other universities and was surprised to find the experiences very positive.

New Album
After postponing the release several times, Nissim and his team finally decided to release the new album on August 14th. The album, Glory, contains 17 songs, accompanied by beautiful footage filmed in Norway and Israel.

He says, “When I stopped making music and was just holding on to the album, a lot of people messaged me, saying, ‘Now we need music more than ever!’ Music can be healing. If you play the right song at the right time, it can really heal a person. We underestimate the power of music. It sets the mood. Everyone has a soundtrack to life – the songs that bring them back to their place. Music is a very powerful tool. The prophets, especially Elisha, would achieve their prophecy through music.”

Nissim compares his creative process to a journey. “First, it’s the prayers,” he says. “I try to stick to an hour of alone time with Hashem every day. Usually, that’s my inspiration. I come back, and I start writing. The music always comes first, then I start thinking visuals, I start thinking of what this song is saying to me. Then, before I get to the lyrics, I write cadence. I always think that the most impactful thing is not what you say but how you say it. Once music and cadence are there, it’s very easy to fill in the words, because I already know how I’m going to say what I’m going to say.”

Nissim has profound appreciation for his fans. Thanks to social media, he has been able to build relationships with his fans and form a community. He treasures all the feedback he receives.

“People underestimate how much it means when people take the time to let you know how much you’ve been able to affect them. It gives me so much strength to go on. You need that feedback, that constant love, you need people commenting on all the YouTube videos – all of that, because it gives you fuel for the fire and enables you to produce and do more. Everything that I have is all them.”



Nissim believes it’s more important than ever to stay positive and focused.

“The world is getting very loud, and the louder it is, the harder it is to hear the voice of God. In everything that is going on right now, God is calling all of us to come closer to Him, to get to know Him. And this is the time to really ramp it up and be more focused, but it’s really the hardest time to do it. Israel is trending in the media. Let’s make the focus on the things that we really should be trending for, which is revealing the light of God in the world.”


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