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The History of Jewish Vienna
Rabbi Menachem Levine
From medieval times to modern day, uncover the compelling history of the Jews of Vienna and its haunting lessons about antisemitism.
he Jewish community of Vienna has a fascinating but tragic history. It’s a city where Jews were powerful financiers, advisors, Nobel prize winners, and world-renowned psychologists. Yet, in this same city, the Jews were expelled three times, their homes and synagogues destroyed, and even in the best of times, they lived in an environment of open antisemitism. It is no coincidence that Hitler was an Austrian who lived in Vienna for years and that many of his ideas came from that period.

The First Jew - Financial Advisor to the Duke
Although a Jewish presence existed in Vienna as early as the 10th century, the first recorded Jews arrived in Vienna in the late 12th century. The first Jew, known as Shlom (Solomon), was a mint master and financial adviser to Duke Leopold V and his presence was documented by 1194. In a cruel pattern that would repeat itself in Vienna’s history, in 1196, Shlom and 15 other Jews were murdered by Christians from the Third Crusade.

Leopold receiving the banner from Emperor Henry VI, Babenberger Stammbaum, Klosterneuburg Monastery, 1489–1492

In 1238, Emperor Frederick II granted Vienna's Jews a Charter of Privileges, identifying Jews as "chamber serfs" – meaning that the legal status of Jews was that they "belonged" to the Roman-German emperor. Six years later, Duke Frederick II issued the “Charter of the Jews,” spelled out terms for their protection and money-lending guidelines.

During the Black Death epidemic in 1348-9, Vienna was one of the few cities that did not blame the Jews for causing the plague. Consequently, it became a haven for Jewish refugees, which will be seen again in Vienna’s history. During the 14th century, Jews comprised about five percent of the city's population.

The Vibrant Community and Its World-Famous Rabbis
During this period, Vienna’s community was led by world-famous rabbinical leaders. Rabbi Yitzchak of Vienna (circa 1200-1270) was a student of the Tosafists of France and Germany. He brought a high-level Talmud study to Vienna, the standard hallmark of a learned Jewish community. He is renowned for his work, Ohr Zarua, a work of Halacha (Jewish law) quoted by scholars since he published it.

His son, Rabbi Chaim Ohr Zarua, also served as a rabbi in Vienna. He adapted his father’s classic Ohr Zarua to make it more accessible, including only the decisions without the complete justification.

Rabbi Meir ben Baruch Halevi (1320-1390) served as the Rabbi of Vienna for the last 30 years of his life and instituted a requirement that a Talmudic student could not officiate as a rabbi unless he had ordination from a properly ordained rabbi. This practice requiring rabbis to have ordination was accepted by Ashkenazi communities in the succeeding generations, and it continues to this day.

Rabbi Yisrael Isserlin (1370 to l440) is considered the last great rabbi of medieval Austria. He authored the classic work Terumas ha-Deshen and a super-commentary on Rashi's Torah commentary.

The Land of Blood
Toward the end of the 14th century, antisemitism began to rise among the burghers, likely due to jealousy of their Jewish neighbors. In 1406, during a large fire that destroyed the synagogue, the burghers used the opportunity to attack Jewish homes.

The persecution soon became far worse. On May 23, 1420, Duke Albert V issued the Vienna Decree, ordering all Jews of means imprisoned and their possessions confiscated. Jews who were impoverished before the Vienna Decree were forcibly expelled to Hungary. The imprisoned Jews were tortured, and attempts were made to forcibly convert them to Christianity. Children were separated from their parents and given to monasteries for conversion. After the Pope spoke out against the forced baptisms, the duke responded by having the remaining Jews - 210 men and women - burned at the stake on March 12, 1421. Even the synagogue was not spared; its stones were used to build a new faculty building for the University of Vienna.

The Jewish community of Vienna was utterly destroyed, and Jews were forbidden to live in Vienna.

The leading Ashkenazi Sage, Rabbi Yaakov Moelin (1365-1427), known as the Maharil, who lived in Mainz, Germany at the time, recorded the horrific events and sharply referred to Austria as "the land of blood."

The 15th Century: A Limited Presence
In 1451, a few Jews were permitted to return to Vienna and were given special protection from the Hapsburg Emperors. By 1512, there were 12 Jewish families in Vienna. A small number of Jews continued to live in Vienna during the 16th century, although they lived with the constant threat of expulsion hanging over them.

In 1624, Emperor Ferdinand II limited the Jews of Vienna to a ghetto on the present-day Leopoldstadt quarter site consisting of 15 dwelling houses. Their numbers steadily increased; by 1670, 136 dwellings housed 500 families. When Jews of Ukraine faced the infamous Chmielnicki Massacres in 1648-49 known as Tach v’Tat, some chose to escape to the safety of Vienna.

For a time, the community of Vienna resumed its respected position in the Jewish world and the rabbis of the renewed community were once again world-famous leaders. Among them were Rabbi Yom Tov Lipman Heller, known as the Tosfos Yom Tov (1579-1654), and Rabbi Shabsai Sheftel Horowitz (1590-1660), the author of Vavei Amudim, who was renowned for his expertise in both Halacha and Kabbalah.

Renewed Hatred
The second expulsion of Jews from Vienna took place in the middle of the 17th century.

Bishop Kollonitsch, a conniving and influential antisemite, served as the Lord Chamberlain to Emperor Leopold I (1658-1705). At his urging, Emperor Leopold decreed to expel the Jews of Vienna, despite the tremendously negative financial impact this would have on his kingdom, because the Jews were his financiers and advisors.

Expulsion of the Jews from Vienna 1670, Print from a 1932 pamphlet on the expulsion of the Jews from Vienna and other places

The influential Jews of the community did their utmost to stop or limit the expulsion. They tried giving the emperor the enormous sum of 100,000 florins but were refused. They asked Queen Christina of Sweden to intervene, but although she did, her words were ignored. On March 1, 1670, Emperor Leopold ordered all the Jews to leave Vienna and all of Austria. The deadline was August 1, and the last Jews of Vienna were exiled in the month of Av. The Great Synagogue was converted into a Catholic church, and the Jewish area was renamed Leopoldstadt in honor of Emperor Leopold I’s success in removing the Jews from Vienna. (And that name remains to this day.) As an aside, Bishop Kollonitsch continues to be revered by Viennese citizens, and a giant statue of him stands in front of the town hall in Vienna.

The Court Jews of Vienna
Within a short time, the expulsion began to negatively impact Vienna’s economy.

The first Jew allowed back into Vienna to reside was Samuel Oppenheimer, who was officially permitted to reside in the city in 1676. Those accompanying him became the nucleus of the very small, not-legally recognized community. They were not permitted to have a synagogue and all services had to be held in private homes.

Samuel Oppenheimer by Josef Kriehuber
Oppenheimer provided needed supplies for the Austrian army, including uniforms, food, horses for the cavalry, and even supplies for the hospital. Yet, despite all he accomplished on behalf of Austria, he still suffered from antisemitism. Bishop Kollonitsch accused Oppenheimer of trying to murder Samson Wertheimer, and Oppenheimer was jailed. Only after paying an enormous sum was he released, and his claim of innocence was accepted. Oppenheimer supported many Jewish scholars and built synagogues and yeshivas in various communities. He also redeemed Jews taken captive in Turkish wars. After he died in 1703, his son Emmanuel appealed to have the debts owed to his father repaid by Austria. In response, rather than pay Emmanuel the six million florins they owed, the state claimed that Emmanuel needed to pay them four million florins. This wealthy family was left penniless.

Along with Oppenheimer, a very limited number of Jews were permitted to return to Vienna. In all, ten wealthy families - mostly known as Court Jews - resided in Vienna. They initially paid 300,000 florins for this privilege and an additional tax of 10,000 florins each year.

Despite the antisemitism and lack of civil rights, the Viennese Court Jews’ influence increased. As a result, Vienna became a center for Jewish diplomacy and philanthropy for Jews throughout the empire.

Sefardic Jews and Diego D'Aguilar
In 1718, due to peace treaties with the Ottoman Empire, Turkish citizens were granted permission to travel to and temporarily reside in Austria. Ironically, although Austrian Jews could not reside live in Austria, Turkish Jews could. The Sefardic Jews from Turkey formed a legally recognized community in Vienna. (With typical Jewish ingenuity, there were Austrian Jews who traveled to Turkey, obtained Turkish citizenship and passports, and returned to reside legally in Austria.)

During the reign of Maria Theresa, a Jew from Lisbon retained a particularly powerful position in the Empire. Diego D'Aguilar was born to a Converso family in Spain and was forcibly taken from his parents as a child and raised to become a Catholic Priest. After he was ordained, his mother managed to obtain an audience with him and emotionally reminded him of his Jewish roots. His sister had been caught practicing Judaism, and his mother hoped he might be able to stop her being burnt at the stake.

Although he was unable to save his sister, this meeting reawakened in him a desire to return to the Judaism he barely knew, and he and his mother escaped to Vienna. In Vienna, D’Aguliar became a full-fledged observant Jew and was financially successful due to his reorganization of the tobacco industry. Ironically, he became a favorite of the antisemitic Empress Maria Theresa. He raised tremendous amounts of money for government loans and rebuilt the Schoenbrunn Palace in Vienna. He remained loyal to the Jewish community and was able to prevent the expulsion of Jews from Moravia and Prague in 1744.

The Schoenbrunn Palace

Empress Maria Theresa made D’Aguilar’s a baron in recognition of his services to Austria. Due to his influence, she also abandoned her plans to expel Jews from the Empire in 1748.

D’Aguilar left Vienna suddenly in 1749 when the Spanish government demanded his extradition. He moved to London with his wife and a large family of 14 children. Before leaving Vienna, he presented the community with beautiful silver crowns for the Torah scrolls, upon which his name was inscribed.

Empress Maria Theresa
Despite her positive feelings towards D’Aguilar, Empress Maria Teresa remained an ardent antisemite. Aside from the 12 prominent families, no Austrian Jews were permitted to live in Vienna, and all antisemitic decrees remained in place.

Emperor Joseph II: Increased Tolerance of Jews
The slow process of removing restrictions on the Jewish community began in November 1780 when Joseph II, Maria Teresa's successor, became Emperor and ruled the Hapsburg Lands from 1780-1790. In 1781, he discontinued the Leibmaut poll tax, which had been paid by Jews to enter certain cities since the Middle Ages. (This was a particularly degrading tax, as it was a property tax and made the statement that Jews were property and not people.)

In 1782, Emperor Joseph II proclaimed an Edict of Tolerance to make the Jews “of better use to the state,” as was stated in the prologue to the resolution. Jews no longer had to wear a yellow band, they could attend schools and universities (although they were still limited in their choice of professions) and they could live anywhere in Vienna (although they could not own property). He took steps to assimilate the Jews into society, requiring that Hebrew and Yiddish be replaced by the country's national language in public discourse and forbade documents and textbooks to be printed in Hebrew. He also required Jews to take on last names approved by the Austrian officials.

Many Jews took advantage of the new opportunities granted them, but in the process, many also lost their Judaism. At the Congress of Vienna in 1815, salons of assimilated Jewish hostesses served as meeting places for the rulers of Europe. One of the most famous hostesses was Fanny Arstein was had a salon attended by the prominent personalities of the time, including the emperor and Mozart. In 1821, nine Jews of Vienna were knighted and raised to the nobility.

With newly acquired rights, the Jewish community hired renowned architect Josef Kornhäusel to construct the Stadttempel, the central synagogue of Vienna, the first legal synagogue to be opened since 1671. The magnificent synagogue was inaugurated in 1826, but in deference to the law, it was built hidden from the street view.

The Stadttempel, the central synagogue of Vienna

Despite all the “tolerance,” the Jews continued to exist as a non-community, as they were forbidden by law to establish themselves as a community, until 1867, when Jews were recognized as equal citizens.

The Golden Age of Jewish Vienna
In 1848, under the reign of Emperor Franz Joseph, Jews were granted limited civil rights. In 1852, the Jewish community was permitted to establish a legally recognized community, albeit with a temporary status. Finally, in 1867, the Constitutional law created complete equality for all citizens of Austria, including Jews. With their official acceptance and legal recognition as a community, Jews from the Eastern part of the Austro-Hungarian empire, particularly Galicia, Czech, and Hungary, immigrated to Austria.

After the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, Jewish refugees from Eastern war regions escaped to Vienna in large numbers. For the first time, thousands of Hassidic Jews and their rebbes moved to Vienna, joining the Oberlander Vien followers of the Chasam Sofer. They assumed they would reside in Vienna’s relative tranquility until the war ended.

Yet, Vienna unexpectedly became a thriving center of Hasidism over those few years. By the time the war ended, the refugees realized Vienna was a far better option than their destroyed hometowns. They began to settle and rebuild their communities in Vienna.

Following World War I, by 1923, the percentage of Jews in Vienna reached its peak at 10.8 percent of the population, making Vienna the third-largest Jewish community in Europe.

Hassidic Jews in Leopoldstadt, 1915

Due to its prominent rabbinic residents and community, Vienna would go on to host the first two Knessiah Gedolahs (The Great Congress) of the International Agudath Israel in 1923 and 1929.

Enlightenment Movement In Vienna
During its Golden Age, Vienna also became a center of the “Enlightenment Movement,” which promoted the move toward secularism and decreased Jewish education. Between 1848 and 1938, secular Austrian Jews were prominent in Vienna's intellectual, cultural, and political life. However, unlike the earlier affluent and influential Viennese Jews, who were very observant, many prominent Jews of this era assimilated or even converted to Christianity.

Assimilated Jews contributed to Vienna's cultural and scientific achievements. Prominent Jewish physicians and psychologists, including Sigmund Freud, Alfred Adler, and Victor Frankl, resided and taught there. Jews were active in music and theater, including Gustav Mahler, Arnold Schonberg, Oscar Straus, Emmerich Kalman, Max Reinhardt, Fritz Kortner, Lily Darvas, and Elisabeth Berner. Writers Arthur Schnitzler, Stefan Zweig, and Felix Salten became world-renowned for their works.

Alfred Adler and Sigmund Freud

Theodor Herzl, founder of secular political Zionism, lived and died in Vienna. Many Jews were leaders of the Social Democratic Party. Victor Adler and Otto Bauer, who served as Austrian foreign ministers after World War I, were both Jews.

In the field of medicine, three out of four Austrian Nobel Prize winners in medicine at the time were Jewish. More than half of Austria's physicians and dentists were Jews, as were more than sixty percent of the lawyers and a substantial number of university teachers.

Yet, despite their success and fame, antisemitism remained a constant in the environment of Austria. As Rabbi Berel Wein, a noted Jewish historian, observed, “Austria was always known for its antisemitism.” And this hatred of Jews would soon rear its ugly head in the most vicious way imaginable.

Two Infamous Antisemites
While Jews were focused on integrating and excelling within Viennese society, a renewal of antisemitism developed. This time it wasn’t religious antisSemitism that targeted the Jews for not becoming Christians. It was racial antisemitism which applied to all Jews, whether their religion mattered to them or not.

Two particularly influential antisemites were Georg Ritter von Schönerer and Karl Lueger.

Georg Ritter von Schönerer
Georg Ritter von Schönerer was a politician who innovated ideas that Hitler would adopt, such as expelling Jews from his movement, adopting the title Fuehrer and the greeting of Heil. He told his followers that a battle would take place between the Germans and the Jews and that “if we don’t expel the Jews, we Germans will be expelled!” He was jailed after ransacking the office of a Jewish newspaper and attacking their employees. Yet, after his release, he continued to successfully build his Pan-German movement. Twenty-one members of the antisemitic nationalist party, Alldeutsch Parti, were elected to the Austrian Parliament.

Another rabid, influential Austrian antisemite, Karl Lueger, was elected mayor of Vienna five times between 1897 and 1910. At first, Emperor Franz Joseph refused to support him due to his antisemitism, but after Lueger’s fifth reelection, he accepted Lueger’s power. (As an aside, his political success is another indication of how acceptable antisemitism was in Austria.) Lueger blamed the Jews for Vienna's financial problems and roused crowds with his antisemitic fervor. Interestingly, in private, he still had several Jewish friends. Lueger is said to have responded to questions about this contradiction with the statement, "I decide who is a Jew,” a comment that fits well with Vienna’s overall approach to its Jews historically.

Karl Lueger
Lueger’s ideas strongly influenced Adolf Hiter, who moved to Vienna in 1906. In Mein Kampf, Adolf Hitler refers to Lueger as one of the personalities who shaped his views about Jews, as well as von Schönerer as discussed above.

The Anschluss
On March 12, 1938, German troops marched into Austria, and Nazi Germany annexed Austria in an event that became known as the Anschluss. That same night, Jewish stores and apartments were pillaged, and Jews were chased into the streets and humiliated, forced to scrub sidewalks, to the cheers of the Austrian observers. Almost immediately, the Nazis carried out the first deportations to Dachau of Jews. This overnight turnaround from successful integrated citizens to a hunted and degraded people, was a complete shock to Austrian Jewry.

By May, the Nuremberg Racial Laws were applied in occupied Austria. Within a short period, the Jews - who, as discussed above, were so prominent and influential in Austria, both politically and professionally - lost their civil liberties. They were expelled from universities, excluded from public service and most professions, and were forced to wear a yellow star. Other decrees followed, banning Jews from public parks, closing Jewish stores, and requiring Jews to take on a first name of Sara or Israel.

All Jewish organizations and institutions were shut down. However, afterward, some organizations were re-opened when the Nazis forced emigration, and the Jewish organizations were to coordinate that. Adolf Eichmann worked closely with Vienna's Security Police to establish the Central Office for Jewish Emigration in Vienna, which he sadistically established in the “Aryanized” Palais Albert Rothschild in Vienna, which they had confiscated from Louis Van Rothshild.

By May 17, 1939, nearly 130,000 Jews left Austria under the forced emigration policy. Most of the Jews’ assets were “legally” taken by the Germans through various taxes and exit permit requirements. When Jews tried to emigrate to Switzerland, the Swiss responded by asking Germany to mark the passports with a J, for Jew, so they would know who to refuse. Austrian Jews went wherever they could - to England, France, Czechoslovakia, America, Shanghai, Africa, Australia and Argentina.

The synagogue in ruins

During the Kristallnacht pogrom of November 9-10, 1938, the city's synagogues were burned down, and 4,000 Jewish stores and businesses were vandalized and ransacked. The only synagogue that remained was the central synagogue, which had been hidden from street view due to the law. Perhaps this was also so the fire wouldn’t spread to the nearby Hotel Metropol, which was the headquarters for the Nazi party. During Kristallnacht, over 6,500 Austrian Jews were deported to Dachau and Buchenwald.

Beginning in October 1941, 35,000 Viennese Jews were deported to the ghettos of Minsk, Riga, and Lodz, as well as Theresienstadt and elsewhere in Eastern Europe. By the end of 1942, only 8,102 Jews remained in the city. These Jews were eventually taken to the largest concentration camp in Austria, Mauthausen.

Mass deportations of Viennese Jews started in October 1941

Before the war, there were approximately 190,000 Jews in Austria. Only 5,816 lived to see the liberation of Austria, and 65,459 Austrian Jews were murdered. This was a smaller percentage than in other countries because the Austrian Jews were initially forced to emigrate.

Compared to other countries, there were very few Austrians who tried to save Jews. Yad Vashem lists Righteous Among the Nations who saved Jews during the Holocaust. Austria ranks 18th, with only 113 individuals listed. Even more telling, Simon Wiesenthal who lived in Vienna after the war, is quoted as having said “Only eight percent of the population of the Third Reich were Austrians. [However] Austrians were responsible for half of the murder of Jews perpetrated under Nazi rule.”

Jewish Life in Vienna After the Holocaust
In April 1945, the Vienna Jewish Community re-established itself, although very few Viennese Jews returned to Vienna to live after the war. They were rebuffed when they attempted to reclaim their homes and other properties. Vienna was also a Displaced Persons camp for Jewish survivors from Eastern Europe.

In the decades after the Holocaust, Austria has had a very mixed approach to their Jewish citizens. On the one hand, when the Soviets allowed Jews to leave, there was a transit camp in Vienna for them in route to Israel. A few years later, when Iranian Jews escaped Iran after the Shah's fall, and they needed a stop-over place, they used the same transit camp.

On the other hand, open antisemitism continues to be prevalent and acceptable in Austria. Among other examples, in 1986, Austrians elected Kurt Waldheim, a Nazi collaborator, as President of Austria. This was despite his role in World War II as an interpreter and intelligence officer for the German army unit that deported most of the 56,000 Jews of Salonika to their deaths. Understandably, U.S. Ambassador to Austria, Ronald S. Lauder, refused to attend Waldheim's inauguration.

This May 22, 1943 file photo released by the World Jewish Congress shows former United Nations Secretary General Kurt Waldheim, center, at an airstrip in Podgorica, Yugoslavia.
In 2000, the extremist right-wing Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ), led by Jörg Haider, a man with open neo-Nazi sympathies, entered the Austrian government. After Haider publicly made anti-Semitic comments against Ariel Muzicant, President of the Federation of Austrian Jewish Communities, Israel chose to recall its ambassador in protest. After talks in Jerusalem with the Austrian foreign minister, full relations were restored in 2003.

Due to public pressure, in the late 1980’s, the Austrian government began reexamining its role in the Holocaust, revising the “Austrian Victim Myth” they had clung to since World War II. In 1991, Chancellor Franz Vranitzky gave a speech to the Austrian parliament in which he acknowledged the shared responsibility of Austrians for the suffering inflicted on the country’s Jewish community. In July 1993, Vranitzky reiterated this admission in a speech before the Israeli Knesset.

Additionally, Austria began instituting several programs and incentives to support Holocaust education and fight anti-Semitism.

Today, there is a growing Jewish population in Vienna. It primarily consists of descendants of survivors and Eastern European refugees from the post-Holocaust era. There are also Russian and Iranian Jews who came to Vienna for its transit camp and chose to stay rather than continue to other destinations. Recently, there has also been a growing Israeli population. Vienna has approximately 15,000 Jews registered in its community, although the actual number of Jews is likely higher.

Most Jewish institutions, organizations, and kosher restaurants are in the historically Jewish area of Leopoldstadt, which is the central Jewish district. The Stadttempel, the only synagogue that survived the Holocaust, houses the community offices and chief rabbinate. The synagogue has limited visiting hours and heavy security due to the August 1981 terrorist attack by Palestinian terrorists. Remarkably, many of the synagogue's members do not live in Vienna. They support the community because their great-grandparents were synagogue members, and they have strong emotional ties to the community.

Today, Vienna's Jewish community is regarded as one of the most dynamic in the European Union, yet it is a shadow of its Golden Age greatness. Vienna’s more significant impact is its lesson for eternity: Jews may be successful, powerful, and influential. They may be government leaders, successful businessman and famous academics. Yet, if there exists unchecked antisemitism in the community, the Jewish position remains precarious.
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The Wild West Bank: Showing the Truth About the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
Kylie Ora Lobell
Zach Sage Fox risked his life taking a film crew into Ramallah to ask Palestinians about Israel.
The Wild West Bank: Showing the Truth About the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
Zach Sage Fox risked his life taking a film crew into Ramallah to ask Palestinians about Israel.

Zach Sage Fox stood on a main street in Ramallah in Palestinian territory, with his Muslim cameraperson and translator. The 30-year-old comedian, social media influencer, and former actor on the Disney channel asked random people there what they thought about Israel and the Jews.

“Britain brought all the criminal Jews since 1948,” a lady wearing a backpack says. “Jews have not been killed or exposed to any struggle or any violence.”

“They can go back. Poland, Iraq…” another woman says.

“Nothing is named Israel,” says one man in a yellow shirt.

Zach presses all of them, telling them the facts, like that Jews were kicked out of Poland and Iraq, and that Israel existed before 1948 – and is even mentioned in the Quran multiple times. Other Palestinians in the video deny that rape occurred on Oct. 7, even though Zach shows them the evidence, and they say the “resistance” is justified, because according to them, Gaza is “under occupation” – despite the fact that Israel left in 2005.

The influencer published this eye-opening video to his Instagram page, calling it “Wild West Bank.” It’s received 159,000 likes and over 11,000 comments and earned Zach mainstream media recognition. But the lengths he went through to get that content, to show the truth about the West Bank, could have cost him his life.

“After less than an hour of being there, a bunch of thugs made us delete a lot of our footage,” Zach said. “We lost one main interview, which really upset me. We were there for 30 minutes before things started getting tense. I knew I was risking my life.”

One man came up to a woman Zach was speaking to and told her she “wasn’t being modest,” and he guilted her into wanting to erase the footage, Zach said.

“I realized in that moment that I was in danger. I was going to say, ‘I’m on public property, on the street, and I have the right to interview anyone I want.’ Then I thought, ‘Wait a minute. I’m in the West Bank. There are no rules like that here.’”

In the short time Zach and his crew were there, they got what they needed to show the truth: that the population is radicalized to hate Jews. Some said they want a one-state solution and to wipe Israel off the map, while others believed the Nazi lies that were perpetrated decades ago.

“The level of brainwashing was clear right off the bat,” Zach said. “The guy I interviewed in the coffee shop has a master’s degree. My producer arranged it. I thought he’d have a nuanced perspective. Hearing how he supported Hamas right off the bat was shocking.”

In the video, the professor says, “Israeli prisoners, when they were released from Gaza, they were smiling.”

“You think that these people are genuinely smiling after being held hostage?” Zach pushes back. “They’re scared for their life.”

Zach’s conclusion, after talking with all these people?

“Everyone supports Hamas there,” he said.

It was in stark contrast to a follow-up video Zach posted later, where he interviewed Israelis.

“Do you think that a two-state solution could work?” Zach asks one woman.

“If they wanted peace, a two-state solution could work,” she says.

“Are you able to find love in your heart for the Palestinians, in spite of everything that’s happening?” Zach asks a young woman.

“Of course,” she says.

One man says, “As long as they’re cool with me, I’m cool with them.”

Zach said, “It’s crazy hearing how much these Palestinians hate my people, when I don’t hate any of them. They’re born into this system where they are indoctrinated to hate Jews.”


He was already familiar with what indoctrination looked like, having filmed people at pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses leading up to these newest videos.

“I am so appalled by the anti-Israel and anti-America rhetoric and sentiment on the ground,” he said. “When these college students are burning American flags, I’m thinking, they are the freest generation in the freest place on earth. They don’t realize they are so privileged. Their privilege has turned into poison.”

Zach, who was born and raised in the Philadelphia area, went to Jewish day school and got his start in showbusiness as a kid. His mom was doing funny skits on the radio, and Zach would go with her to the recording studio when he was a toddler. After putting up videos on YouTube in 2008, he landed a development deal with Disney and then opened his own production company, Fat Camp Films, with his partner, Omri Dorani. The two have worked with Hulu, Coca-Cola, Pioneer and other huge brands, making content for them.

Zach already had a large following before Oct. 7, so when that day hit, he was determined to speak out. He also knew he had to because of the lack of support for Israel and the Jewish people coming out of Hollywood.

“We have this laundry list of amazing Jews in Hollywood who could use their voices against the rapid rise in antisemitism,” he said. “But Oct. 8 came, and it was near silence. Then Oct. 9, and still silence. The more silence I saw in Hollywood, the louder I felt I needed to be.”

Is It Improper to Have Children During Times of War?
During 1938 to 1944 my Hungarian great grandmother gave birth to five children. I thought she was reckless – then October 7 happened.
Barely out of adolescence herself, my maternal great grandmother, Roizy Tauber, had five children from 1938 to 1944. At this time, Roizy was living in Hungary where the terrible fate of the Jews was just around the corner. As a teenager, I scorned her for being reckless.

Roizy was in her ninth month with her fifth (a girl) when she arrived at Auschwitz. Normally this meant being sent straight to the gas chambers. But my daring great grandmother volunteered to be induced by the evil Mengele as part of an experiment. This was her single chance to avoid imminent death. She ended up being one of two survivors out of a group of ten who lived through the experiment.

Because Roizy abhorred speaking about her past, how she made it out alive remains a mystery. All we know is that she somehow managed to flee the experiment room without the baby. What happened to the baby? Was it born a stillborn or killed immediately upon birth? These details are unknown. Yet somehow my great grandmother lived to be liberated, was reunited with her husband and four sons who had managed to hide throughout the war. They proceeded to have five more children.
In Auschwitz, my great grandmother promised she would move to then British-mandated Palestine if she would live. She made her fantasy a reality and arrived to the Holy Land when the State of Israel was still in infancy. During this time, war and poverty was rampant. My maternal grandfather was born in 1947, the first child after the war. He remembers days of starvation but my great grandmother was not deterred. She was living her dream and nothing would get in the way of tampering with that dream.

Except something did: polio.

My great aunt contracted polio which was deadly at the time. Because Israel was dealing with constant attacks and its medical care was a far cry from what it is today, my great aunt’s life was in grave danger. Left with no choice, Roizy migrated with her family to America so that her daughter could get the proper medical attention she needed to fight the illness.

That is partially how I ended up being born in America. From a very young age I held onto my great grandmother’s dream of living in Israel. As a teen hearing what she went through during the Holocaust, I decided I would never bring children into the world during a time of such upheaval. What was Roizy thinking having all these babies during a time of great persecution and genocide?

Fast forward to 2023. I am living in Israel. Every day I wake up and breathe the fresh Jerusalem air and contemplate how incredible it is that my great grandmother’s dream has come full circle. And because I was struggling with infertility, I was spending lots of time at the fertility centers, with blood work and ultrasounds part of the rhythm of normal life.

And then came October 7, 2023, when suddenly my confidence in living a life of security shattered into smithereens. Should I continue doing fertility treatment during a time of such uncertainty? No longer a teenager, I looked at my great grandmother’s choices with fresh eyes. She abruptly went from being viewed as an irresponsible grandmother to the heroic woman from whom I now draw strength.

Roizy & Children

Roizy's two surviving sisters with her oldest four sons who were born before the Holocaust. The baby on the bottom left is my grandfather, born in 1947.
My great grandmother did not choose to live during such horrific times. Nevertheless, she made difficult choices that expressed her hope and faith, and her deep commitment to life itself, no matter what the outcome. Hitler left behind a legacy of destruction. My great grandmother left a legacy of over 1,000 descendants and a life of tremendous faith and determination. She couldn’t control her life’s circumstances and put her trust in God Who promised that the Jewish nation would endure forever. With her deep resevoirs of faith and trust in God, she carried our nation’s future generations.
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Remarkable Vilna Ghetto Diary; Smuggling Torah Scroll Out of Baghdad; Pain of Disconnection
https://aish.com/smuggling-a-torah-scroll-out-of-baghdad/?src=ac
by Raquel
August 4, 2024
Thrown out of Baghdad, with her pockets emptied and belongings destroyed, Daisy managed to sneak out a Torah scroll.

Many Jewish families, including Daisy’s, had been living in Iraq for over 2,000 years. Jews had been in Baghdad since the exile that followed Nebuchadnezzar's destruction of the First Temple in 586 BCE.

Born in the late 1920s, Daisy was the third of five children. Daisy’s only brother, Edward, passed away at the young age of 17.

Farhud and Escape
In 1941, Baghdadi Jews were subject to a violent, Nazi-inspired program called the Farhud. For two days, mobs - including Iraqi soldiers and police - attacked Jewish homes and businesses, resulting in widespread looting, destruction, and the massacre of many Jewish residents. Hundreds of Jews were killed and many more were injured. Thousands of homes were destroyed and many Jews were left homeless. With each year that passed, life grew more difficult.

Daisy in Baghdad

After the establishment of the State of Israel, as Jews around the world began to return to their ancestral homeland, life in Baghdad continued to worsen for the Jewish community. The Iraqi government placed asset freezes, enacted arrests, and carried out public executions, and the Jewish community was forced to leave their homes, abandon their possessions and escape.

Operation Ezra and Nechemia
In a rescue operation titled Operation Ezra and Nechemia, Baghdadi Jews began to leave Iraq and travel to Israel. Daisy’s family was flown out alongside thousands.

The operation was named after the biblical figures Ezra and Nehemiah, who led the Jewish people from Babylonian exile back to the Land of Israel. The operation began in 1951 and rescued approximately 120,000 Jews from Iraq over the span of two years.

Daisy Elias

To join the rescue operation, Jews were forced to leave all their possessions behind. Daisy, however, refused to leave without the Torah that the family had written.

This Torah meant more to Daisy than it would to typical teenage girl. Beyond the knowledge that it contained the Jewish wisdom that guides every Jew in their life’s purpose and mission, the Torah scroll had been written in her brother Edward’s memory. As homes were raided, it became clear that sneaking this Torah with them would be a challenge.

First, her sisters embarked on the journey to Israel while Daisy stayed behind. Eventually, it was Daisy and her father’s turn to escape. Before they boarded, the Baghdadi authorities took everything from her, as they did to every Jew who left. They ripped off her coat, emptied her pockets, and even stole her locket that contained a picture of Edward.

But somehow, she managed to hold onto the Torah scroll.

Daisy boarded the flight carrying with nothing but the clothes she wore – and the parchment of the Torah scroll, without its covering, mantel and decorations that usually adorned it. It sat on her lap for the duration of the flight and came with her to the State of Israel.

Bravely carrying this scroll to Israel meant commemorating her brother’s memory, a legacy that continued with her children.

Arriving as a refugee in Israel, Daisy first lived in a Ma’abara (a refugee absorption camp for Mizrachi Jews), before moving to Kibbutz Afek in the Western Galilee where she did a Hebrew ulpan and became a kindergarten teacher. Her brother-in-law introduced Daisy to George Elias from Baghdad, who was visiting Israel having set up his textile business in Manchester, England. They became engaged after their second date and were married in Israel and settled in Manchester.

Daisy and George

Since Daisy’s passing in 2020, her four children have made many charitable contributions in her memory. Most recently, they donated a Torah to a synagogue in London. They are also in the process of writing a Torah scroll in the merit of the release of the hostages.

The 613th mitzvah of the Torah is the obligation for every Jew to write a Torah scroll, and this new Torah donated by the family will be in the memory of Daisy and Edward.

Welcoming the new Torah scroll written in memory of Daisy, in London, 2024.

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10 Memes that Speak to Every Jew; Jews of Iran; Who Are You Without Your Job?
Aish.com
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10 Memes That Speak to Every Jew
Raquel
Hard to put into words what it’s like to be Jewish today? Let these memes do the talking because everyone needs a laugh now and then.
10 Memes That Speak to Every Jew

Hard to put into words what it’s like to be Jewish today? Let these memes do the talking because everyone needs a laugh now and then.

Sometimes it’s hard to put into words what it’s like to be Jewish. Maybe that’s what memes are for. From being overfed by our grandmothers and celebrating Bar Mitzvahs to the scary reality of rising antisemitism, here are 10 memes that capture various moments of being Jewish.
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Hard to put into words what it’s like to be Jewish today? Let these memes do the talking because everyone needs a laugh now and then.

Sometimes it’s hard to put into words what it’s like to be Jewish. Maybe that’s what memes are for. From being overfed by our grandmothers and celebrating Bar Mitzvahs to the scary reality of rising antisemitism, here are 10 memes that capture various moments of being Jewish.

Should We Celebrate the Fall of Evil?; Preparing for War in Israel
Aish.com
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by Lori Palatnik
August 1, 2024
Should Jews Celebrate the Fall of Evil?
Is it kosher to take joy in the death of evil people?

This week many Jews are openly celebrating the news of the death of two major terrorists -- top Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukur in Beirut and Hamas’s political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran. Both have years of blood dripping from their hands, having masterminded the killing of over 200 American servicemen in 1983, the barbaric massacre of 1200 in southern Israel on October 7th, the kidnapping of 240, and the recent slaughter of 12 Israeli Druze children in Majdal Shams.

But some Jews are pushing back, saying that it is not Jewish to take joy in someone’s death, even if they were not good people.

This took me back to May 2011 when President Obama announced to the world that Osama Bin Laden had been killed. We were living in the D.C. area at the time, and spontaneously hundreds of Americans flooded the streets in front of the White House chanting jubilantly, “U-S-A, U-S-A!!” I posted my joy and immediately got negative comments. One Jewish guy quoted from a midrash on the Torah that when the sea engulfed and killed the Egyptians who were chasing the Jews, God quieted the angels and told them not to cheer their death, that this was not something to celebrate.

Indeed, when the sea miraculously split, the seabed turned dry, and the Jewish people walked safely to the other side. They then turned to watch the death of their enemy, as the now muddy seabed caught the Egyptian horses and chariot wheels.

The Torah describes how Jewish people broke into song, called “The Song of the Sea.” Miriam, with musical instruments, took the Jewish women aside and danced and sang in praise of God. The Talmud teaches that in heaven the angels also broke into song but God chastised them, saying, “How can you sing when my people are dying?” (Talmud Sanhedrin, 39b)

Several questions arise. Why would God tell the angels not to celebrate and yet allow the Jews to sing? And God’s people were dying because He himself killed them!

What God is saying to the angels is that this is not a happy day for Him. He did not create the Egyptians for them to do evil, but they chose evil, and now evil had to be eliminated. But the Jewish people had suffered at the hand of the Egyptians; they not only had the right to celebrate, they must celebrate.

The Shabbat before Purim is called Parshat Zachor, the Torah portion where we “remember.” What is it that we are recalling each year? We remember Amalek, the arch enemy of the Jewish people who attacked the Children of Israel in the desert, and whose descendants rise in each generation to try and destroy us. Remembering Amalek fulfills one of the 613 mitzvot of the Torah. Yes, God commands us to remember evil. But why would we forget?

Because there is a part of us that wants to rationalize evil away, and not to accept that it actually exists. We give it political reasoning or economic rationalization.

In life we must know what is good and what is evil, and we should celebrate when evil is destroyed.

The Torah tells us that it does exist, we must not close our eyes to it, and we are to do everything that we can to eradicate it from the world.

In Every Generation
During the Passover Seder we sing “V’hi sh'amda”:

“For not just one alone has risen against us to destroy us, but in every generation they rise against us to destroy us; and the Holy One, blessed be He, saves us from their hand!"

Mr. Yisrael Yitzhak Cohen, of blessed memory, was a survivor of Auschwitz and Dachau. He told us dramatic and horrific stories of what he experienced. He shared with us that when the Nazis tortured them in the camps, they would point their guns and shout, “Sing Jews, sing.” And they would sing “V’hi sh’amda.”

As the Nazis left the camp, killing every Jew they could find on the way out, Mr. Cohen, barely a skeleton, laid down among the corpses and feigned to be dead. When the Nazis were gone, he and a friend stumbled into the kitchen, found some flour and water and began to bake it into something they could eat. As they sat on the floor waiting to remove the matzah, American soldiers entered the room. They were liberated on Passover Sheni, 29 days after Seder night.

Mr. Cohen knew evil when he saw it and would never forget.

During the havdalah ceremony that marks the end of Shabbat, we celebrate the ability to distinguish between light and darkness. In life we must know what is good and what is evil. Yes, we are commanded to remember that there is evil in the world, and we should celebrate when it is destroyed.

As King Solomon wrote in the Book of Ecclesiastes: “To everything there is a season… A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance … A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace” (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8).

The Book of Ecclesiastes is read in synagogues on the Shabbat of Chol Hamoed (the interim days) of the week of Sukkot. In 2023 that day fell on October 7th.

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What Does Judaism Really Say About Non-Jews
Rabbi Meir Bier
Every human being, Jew and non-Jew alike, deserves to be treated with kindness and respect, and has the ability to use their free will to create an eternal relationship with God.
How does the Torah describe the way a Jew should treat a non-Jew? What does Judaism teach regarding the spiritual importance of non-Jews? There is a lot of misinformation out there on these important questions. This article aims to set the record straight.

The Talmud (Gittin 62a) writes one should address non-Jews with the Hebrew term Shalom, one of God’s Names, meaning we should bless a non-Jew with God’s Name when greeting him. The Talmud (Berachot 58a)1 teaches that one who sees a non-Jewish scholar of note should recite the blessing, “Blessed are you God who grants wisdom to flesh and blood.” The Talmud (Kiddushin 33a) dictates that one should arise for an elderly non-Jew and show them respect. Jews are mandated to give charity to non-Jews, visit their sick, and assist in burying them (Gittin 61a). Judaism requires Jews to treat non-Jews with kindness and decency.

Judaism maintains that any human being who leads a good and moral life achieves a relationship and connection to God.

Furthermore, Judaism does not believe that only Jews capable of achieving a connection to the divine. Judaism maintains that any human being who leads a good and moral life achieves a relationship and connection to God. Non-Jews can attain a portion in the World to Come (Sanhedrin 105a),2 through their observance of the Noahide laws, which are a universal code of ethics mandated for all of mankind.3

Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzato, the great 18th century Kabbalist and ethicist, writes in his philosophical work The Way of God, “Man is unique because he possesses free will. Therefore, a quality is found in man that doesn't exist in other creatures, namely, that his actions are repaid measure for measure. This reward is divided into parts, one in this world, the other in the world to come.” The choices of all human beings, Jew and non-Jew alike, are predicated by personal choice rather than instinct. Since they determine their moral and ethical behavior, the subsequent reward that follows positive choices is earned.

Judaism views free will as being the result of tension between the base impulses of a person, and a person’s innate spiritual reality, or one’s soul4. Every person possesses a lofty human soul5 and has free will, which gives him the ability to attain a portion in the World to Come.6 The Midrash (Tanna Dvei Eliahu Rabba chapter 9) sums up this idea with the statement, “Whether Jew or non-Jew, man or woman, slave or maid servant, everything is according to their actions.” Meaning, lineage and social status play no role in one’s spiritual standing.

Regarding the Messianic era, the Talmud (Pesachim 68a) and Midrash (Bereishit Rabba 26-2) are clear that righteous non-Jews are participants.7

Disparaging Quotes
There are a number of quotes from the Talmud which seem to disparage non-Jews. These are often misquotations or passages whose simplistic reading may mistakenly convey the opposite of their true meaning. Let us quote a few examples.

The Talmud writes (Bava Kama 37b) that if a Jewish owned cow gores (a common Talmudic example of monetary damage) the cow of the non-Jew, the Jew is not liable for damages. Whereas if a cow owned by a non-Jew gores is the cow of a Jew, the non-Jew is liable. This seems to indicate a Jew doesn’t need to respect the property of non-Jews.

In fact, the opposite is the case.

Meiri (1249-1315, an important Talmudic Commentator) writes this must be referring only to societies that have no respect for law and order and have no respect for the possessions of others. Such societies allow their members to damage the property of others without repercussion. Therefore, we are entitled to punitively treat them this way to force them to stop this behavior. This is a unique law in dealing with a specific case and in no way a general way to treat non-Jews.8

Rabbi Shimon Schwab (1908-1995) gives a pithy summary of the honesty a Jew must have when dealing with non-Jews.

Those who make the headlines through deceit and swindle and smuggling and forging and defrauding the government and the public no matter how devout they are in their outward appearance have the blood of the Jewish people on their hands. Stealing from a non-Jew is more severe than stealing from a Jew, for whoever is guilty of the former has no atonement, should he die without repenting, because of the Chillul Hashem (desecration of God's name) involved. Our Rabbis have gone on record including those who lie or steal from the Gentiles among those who are desecrators of God, for they provoke non-Jews to say, “There is no Torah within Israel.” Liars, swindlers, thieves who appear to be observant Jews are actually considered as if they proclaim, “There is no Torah unto Israel,” for the Torah instructs the Jewish people not to commit dishonest acts, and they God forbid put the lie to this command. Should they actually adhere to this directive, then the greatest sanctification of God, in this respect, would result. – Selected writings pages 298-299

Non-Jews are Not Subhuman
Another misleading statement found in the Talmud (Yevamot 61a) is “You the Jewish people are called Adam (man) whereas the non-Jew is not called Adam.” This seems to suggest that the Talmud views non-Jews as being subhuman.

Yet this can't be. The Talmud (Sanhedrin 59a) asks, from where do we know that a gentile who toils in Torah study is analogous to a High Priest? The verse says (Leviticus 18:5), “You shall guard my statutes and laws, for HaAdam (a man) who does them shall live.” The Torah doesn't say a Jew. It says Adam, a man – meaning any man, including non-Jews. The very same word used to exclude non-Jews in one Talmudic source is used to include non-Jews in another source. Clearly a simplistic reading of these passages won't suffice.

Rabbi Yisrael Lifschitz in his commentary to Ethics of the Fathers (3:14) pushes back forcibly against any insinuation that the Talmud views non-Jews as inferior or subhuman. He starts his essay by writing “This is a mitzvah to publicize,” denoting the importance of this subject.

The Mishna writes, “Beloved is man who was created in the image of God” (Ethics of the Fathers, 3:18). If the Talmud considers non-Jews to be animal-like, in what way are they created in the image of God, writes Rabbi Lifshitz. The Torah (Exodus 19-5) refers to the Jewish people as a “treasure among nations.” Not much of a compliment if the other nations are viewed as intelligent primates, he points out. Furthermore, he writes that non-Jews have a portion of the World to Come, and as such are spiritually significant. This is sourced from the Talmud and logic. The verse in Psalms (145-17) says, “God is just in all his ways and righteous with all His creations.” Obviously if God is righteous to all His creations, they all have an opportunity to achieve the World to Come.

Rabbi Lifshitz then cites the achievements of individuals who benefited society greatly, such as the “Hasid Jenner (Edward Jenner who developed the smallpox vaccine), Drake (Sir Francis Drake) for bringing the potato to Europe, Gutenberg for inventing the press” and others. It is inconceivable, he argues, for these people not to be rewarded by God for their achievements.9

Returning to the contradiction of the Talmud regarding the term “Adam” referring to non-Jews, Rabbi Lifshitz offers the following approach. He writes there is an advantage to both a person born into the Jewish tradition, and one who was not. A Jew has access to a rich, beautiful tradition of divine wisdom, the Torah. However, having access to such a tradition is also a disadvantage because the wisdom and morality contained therein are there for the taking. Someone who must go through a journey of searching and discovery to come to a moral lifestyle has put in more effort and likely feels a strong personal connection to their lifestyle as a result. (Presumably this can be said for many Jews as well who don’t have easy access to Torah study resources). Therefore, when using the term “HaAdam” or a man as a reference to humanity in general, the Talmud associates this with any person, Jew or Gentile.

However, the term Adam as a proper noun is specifically a reference to the Jewish people. The reason for this is because Adam is also the name of the first human being. Just as Adam was created by God and could take no credit for his existence, a Jew should take no credit for his spiritual knowledge as this is a gift handed to him by tradition. A Jew defines themselves by how they choose to use that knowledge.

Judaism perceives itself as an instrument working for all mankind but not as a dictate to be obeyed by all men on earth. It welcomes any human, spiritual or ethical advance brought about by other religious faiths.

To summarize, absolutely nothing derogatory is meant by the Talmud and its references to non-Jews. It is merely a distinction between the accomplishments of people from different traditions.

Rabbi Yechezkel Landau (1713-1793) introduces his work Nodah Be’Yehuda with a letter demanding Jews deal honestly with non-Jews and respect them. He ends this letter by pointing out any derogatory statement regarding non-Jews found in authentic Jewish sources should be assumed to be referring to immoral pagans and idol worshippers exclusively.

Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, one of the outstanding Jewish leaders of the 19th century wrote the following:

The truth is that the attitude of Judaism toward all other religious faiths and all human intellectual pursuits differs basically from the attitude of other religions. Judaism is probably the only religion that doesn’t declare, “There is no salvation outside myself,” that happily welcomes any intellectual or moral advance, no matter what its origin. The words of the Jewish prophets look with firm assurance to the ever growing, ever spreading spiritual and moral ennoblement not only of the Jews but of all mankind.

Judaism is probably the only religion that does not presume to reign supreme over all other religions. Judaism perceives itself as an instrument working for all mankind but not as a dictate to be obeyed by all men on earth. It welcomes any human, spiritual or ethical advance brought about by other religious faiths. – Collected writings vol. 7 pages 85-87

When considering all of this, Judaism emerges as a shining example of tolerance and acceptance of people of different persuasions. That the Jewish people have been arguably the greatest victims in history of hate and prejudice is a uniquely tragic irony. We long for the day when “All the nations of the world will realize that God's name is associated with you, and they will be in awe of you” (Deuteronomy 28-10).

see Shulachan Aruch Orach Chaim 224:7
See Avoda Zara 10a that clearly reaches this conclusion as well
Sanhedrin 56-57, Miamonides Melachim chapter 9. There are seven commandments. They are: Not to worship idols. Not to curse God. To establish courts of justice. Not to commit murder. Not to commit adultery or incest. Not to steal. Not to eat the flesh from a living animal.
See Derech Hashem 1:4:2
Tosafos Avoda Zara 5a
Maamarei Ramchal feldheim ed. Page 28. Derech Hashem 2:4:6-7.
see also Maamarei Ramchal pages 42 and 114
Maimonides (Nizkei Mamon 8:5) codifies this law in the same manner as Meiri, as do modern Halachic works such as Aruch HaShulchan (Choshen Mishpat 406) who quotes the wording of Miamonides when recording this Halacha. See also Chazon Ish Bava Kama 10:5.
Rabbi Lifschitz then makes a veiled reference to a limitation on the ability of righteous gentiles receiving a portion of the world to come imposed by a teaching of Miamonides. Miamonides writes (Melachim 8:11) that a non-Jew who observes the seven Noahide laws of morality because God commanded them through Moshe is a righteous person and deserving of the world to come. Whereas one who observes them from logical deduction is not. This would seem to exclude many, if not most ethical non-Jews from the world to come, who act morally without any knowledge of the Jewish tradition. Rabbi Lifshitz quotes the language of the Talmud (Avoda Zara 10a) which teaches that any non-Jew who doesn’t act like Esau (Jacob’s wicked twin brother) is deserving of the world to come. This clearly indicates any ethical non-Jew is a participant. (See Kessef Mishna who writes that this teaching of Miamonides has no source; Toafos Re’em who points out Sefer Yereim (233:2) clearly argues. Importantly Rabbi Avraham Yitzcak Kook writes emphatically that Miamonides can't mean to exclude moral non-Jews are unaware of the Jewish tradition from the world to come and offers several ways to interpret the words of Miamonides as such (Igros Ha’reiah vol. 1 pages 99-100). His interpretations are very similar to rabbi Lifschitz's conclusions.)
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https://aish.com/the-druze-of-israel-8-facts/?src=ac
The 12 children murdered by a Hezbollah rocket in Majdal Shams were from the Druze community in Israel.
by Dr. Yvette Alt Miller
July 30, 2024
On Saturday, July 27, 2024, a rocket fired by the Iranian-backed terrorist group Hezbollah in Lebanon headed into Israel. It hit a soccer field in the northern town of Majdal Shams, which was filled with children playing. The rocket killed 12 children.

“We heard the sirens and the strike was immediate,” recalled Tawfiq Sayed Ahmed, an insurance agent from the town whose daughter was in the field, playing. “I went to the stadium immediately and the scene I saw was indescribable: I’ve never seen anything like this in my life. The remains of children, dismembered. It was frightening, terrifying.”

Like nearly all residents of Majdal Shams, the slain children were Druze, a minority within Israel who thrive while practicing their own religion and living in close-knit communities in Israel’s north. Here are eight facts about the Druze community.

1. Druze Practice a Faith That’s Over a Thousand Years Old
The Druze religion began 1100 years ago, in 11th century Egypt, among Shi’ite Muslims. A visiting missionary from Persia helped encourage the view that the caliph of Egypt at the time, al Hakim ibn Amr Allah, was the divine incarnation of God. Amidst an atmosphere of great religious tension, al Hakim disappeared in the year 1021, Druze believe that in one day he will return and usher in an era of global peace.

al Hakim ibn Amr Allah
Much of the finer points of the Druze religion are secret, even to ordinary Druze people, and are maintained by religious leaders called “uqqal” (“knowers”). Aspects of the Druze religion that are widely known include monotheism, a belief in reincarnation, equality between men and women, and a host of prophets who span Christian, Muslim, and ancient Greek culture. Druze have a unique religious text called Al-Hikmah al-Sharifah, which is only read by the faith’s elders. Among Druze holy figures are Moses, Moses’ father in law Jethro, Plato, Socrates, Jesus, Mohammed, and Alexander the Great. The Druze religion doesn’t recognize conversion, either into the religion or out to another faith.

2. Druze People Live in Israel, Lebanon, Syria, and Elsewhere
Druze followers left Egypt and flourished further north, in what today are the nations of Lebanon, Syria and Israel. Under French rule, there was an attempt to establish an independent Druze state inside of present-day Lebanon, which failed. Today, estimates of the number of Druze people in the world today range from 800,000 to 2 million. The greatest number - over 600,000 - of Druze people today live in Syria. Smaller communities exist in Lebanon, Israel, and abroad, in Europe, Australia, and both North and South America.

A Druze woman wearing a tantour during the 1870s in Chouf, Ottoman Lebanon
Approximately 150,000 Druze live in Israel. For generations, many Druze faced persecution and discrimination at the hands of their neighboring Muslim communities and overlords. Though Druze people speak Arabic, they consider themselves a distinct, unique group.

3. Druze Fought on Israel’s Side in Israel’s 1948 War of Independence
During the British Mandate period, when Great Britain ruled present-day Israel (1923-1948), tensions between Jews and Arabs soared. A series of Arab pogroms against Jewish communities swept present-day Israel in 1929, resulting in the deaths of scores of Jews. During this time, Druze people generally sided with Jews. When Israel declared its independence and faced an onslaught from surrounding Arab armies, Druze people stood with Israel and fought on the Israeli side during its War of Independence.

“A long-standing friendship links the Druze and the Jews in Israel,” noted former Israeli President Chaim Herzog. “In our War of Independence, many Druze fought side by side with Jews to repel the Arab invasion.” (Quoted in Living History: The Memoirs of a Great Israeli Freedom-Fighter, Soldier, Diplomat and Statesman, by Chaim Herzog. Weidenfeld and Nicholson, London: 1997.)

4. Israel’s North is Home to Three Druze Communities
Druze soldiers serving in the Israeli army

Most Israeli Druze people live in the Carmel region of Israel’s north. There is also a flourishing Druze community in and around Haifa, and a smaller community of about 18,000 Druze people who live in the Golan Heights, which Israel gained from Syria in the 1967 “Six Day” War and which Israel annexed in 1981. Majdal Shams - where Hezbollah’s massacre of children took place - is a bustling town in the Golan Heights; the vast majority of its over 11,000 residents are Druze. (Unlike Druze people who live in the rest of Israel, Druze residents of the Golan have the choice of whether or not to accept Israeli citizenship; each year, scores of people do so.)

5. The Colorful Druze Flag Flies in Israeli Communities


Visitors to Israel’s north might have noticed colorful rainbow flags flying in some towns and villages. This is the Druze flag, made up of red, green, yellow, blue and white. Sometimes flown in a stripe shape, it can also take the form of a colorful star. Each of the flag’s five colors is associated with a particular human trait, including the masculine, feminine, wisdom, etc.

6. Israel’s Druze Community is Flourishing
By many measures, the most successful and flourishing Druze community in the world is in Israel. Since Israel’s founding in 1948, the Israeli Druze population has increased over 1000%.

With the creation of the Israeli state in 1948 came an era of liberation for Israel’s Druze. As historian Howard M. Sachar has noted, in the early days of Israel’s poverty-stricken statehood, Israel encouraged Druze life by “granting the Druze the status of an official religious community, with their own religious council and courts” and “by supplying their villages with a generous measure of roads, water pipelines, and agricultural credit and guidance.” (Quoted in A History of Israel From the Rise of Zionism to Our Time by Howard M. Sachar. 2nd Edition. Alfred A. Knopf, New York: 2002.)

Israeli Druze people have strong family values: in one recent Israeli poll, 99% of Israeli Druze said they believe in God. Only 1% report having married outside their faith. 93% describe themselves as proud to be Druze.

7. Israeli Druze Serve in the Israel Defense Forces and Excel in Israeli Society
Druze men are required to complete Israeli army service. (In this, they are unique among Israel’s Arab population: Arab Christians and Arab Muslims are not required to serve, though they can volunteer if they wish.) In the army – and elsewhere in Israeli society – many Druze people reach the highest levels, out of all proportion to their small numbers. When they serve in the armed services, Druze soldiers serve disproportionately in elite army units, helping to foster a feeling of intense patriotism in their community. Druze Israelis also work as university professors, politicians, members of Israel’s Knesset, diplomats, judges, physicians, and in other prestigious fields.

Druze soldiers serving in the Israeli army

Wherever Druze people live, they traditionally have felt a fierce attachment to their home nation. “Each community is completely patriotic and loyal to its country,” explained Aimen Amer, an Israeli Druze entrepreneur, Israel Defense Forces veteran, and co-founder of the HR tech company Skillinn. This is the secret of the incredible success of Israel’s Druze community, he feels.

8. A Major Druze Holiday Takes Place in Israel Each Spring.
Each April 25-28, thousands of Druze people flock to the Israeli city of Tiberius for the Druze festival of Ziyarat al-Nabi Shu’ayb, which honors Jethro, Moses’ father in law, whom Druze believe is buried just west of Tiberius. The three-day long festival is recognized as a holiday in Israel. Druze people don’t work during the pilgrimage, and Israeli leaders commonly extend holiday greetings to the Druze community during this time.

Druze marching to Jethro’s tomb

Standing With Our Israeli Druze Brethren
As the residents of Majdal Shams mourn their slain children, all of Israel - and supporters of Israel across the world - stand shoulder to shoulder with this Druze community. Their anguish is our anguish; their loss is a loss to us all. Learning about the unique and fascinating world of the Druze in Israel is one way to honor the memories of the 12 children murdered by Hezbollah.

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LATEST
Why is Life Painful?
Rabbi Meir Kahane
Why would God hurt someone He truly loves?
The road of life is a bumpy ride.

Some people have more bumps than others. But everyone has them.

The question is, why? Why does God make life so challenging?

God loves each and every one of us unconditionally. His love is the most genuine love that exists because it depends on nothing. His love is bigger than our mistakes and insecurities. His love for us is infinitely deep because He is infinitely deep. It will never cease like He will never cease.

Why would God hurt someone He truly loves?

Can you think of an instance where you would, in fact, hurt someone you love?

Can you think of an instance where you would, in fact, hurt someone you love? There isn’t a loving mother in the world who has not brought her child to a dentist despite the fact that the drilling will hurt. She might even have to hold him down during the process. Loving parents will subject their child to lifesaving surgery, even though the recovery will be painful.

We will hurt someone we love when the outcome is worth the pain. Preserving your teeth is worth a half-hour of painful drilling. Survival outweighs six months of post-op. There are times we will hurt a person we love because we love them.

We make the common mistake of thinking that pain is bad. Pain may be undesirable or unpleasant, but it’s not bad. The proof is that we will give ourselves pain at times. We go to the gym or take an injection. We climb mountains and give birth. These activities are painful. Yet we engage in them, enthusiastically, because the pain is worth it.

We don’t really mind pain. What we mind is pointless pain. But if there is a point to the pain, we engage in it.

A striking analogy to this idea is made by the great Chasidic master, Rabbi Kolonymus Kalman Shapira, who was known as the Piaseczner Rebbe, the Rabbi of the Warsaw Ghetto. Rabbi Shapira suffered the tortures of the Holocaust and spent three years in the Warsaw Ghetto. After losing his loved ones, he was killed by the Nazis in a labor camp. With tremendous faith and strength, he taught Torah in the ghetto, inspiring the masses despite the hell they were living through. He even wrote a searing book about faith while he was there, titled Aish Kodesh, Holy Fire. In one of his earlier works, Chovat HaTalmidim (A Student’s Obligation, Chapter 12) he writes, “Stand a farmer to shake his sickle without a stalk or weeds to cut, he couldn’t keep it up for half an hour.” Rabbi Shapira is pointing out that human beings will accept pain unless there is no underlying purpose. If there is meaning to the pain, we will withstand it.
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Iranian Jew Fighting Antisemitism; Dating With Chronic Condition; Dying Art of Speaking to the Bereaved
LATEST
This Persian Jewish Influencer Is Encouraging Jews to Stand Up and Get Involved
Kylie Ora Lobell
Sam Yebri is a dedicated civic leader in LA fighting for Jews and Israel.
In June of 2024, a group of pro-Palestinian protestors showed up to the Jewish community of Pico-Robertson, Los Angeles, shouting vulgarities at Jews, blocking a synagogue entrance, and wearing keffiyehs. They were there to stop people from purchasing Israeli real estate at an event inside the synagogue, and the protests soon turned violent. Some people got injured, the police showed up in riot gear, and President Biden put out a statement that he was “appalled by the scenes” of what happened.

One of the community leaders who swiftly got the information about the protests out to his fellow Jews was Sam Yebri, a workers’ rights attorney who ran for City Council in the Pico-Robertson district in 2022. To his over 10,000 followers on his Instagram – which he dedicates to fighting antisemitism as well as crime throughout his beloved LA – he posted videos and pictures of the mayhem. He told the LA Times, “There’s a reason why these protesters chose Pico-Robertson for their actions: They knew they would be striking at the heart of Jewish America.” Sam dearly loves his city – and his Jewish community. Pre-Oct. 7, he was already heavily involved in different Jewish organizations including the special needs organization ETTA, where he’s president of the board, as well as the Jewish Federation of Los Angeles and American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Now, he’s ramped up his support for his people and Israel, posting daily on social media and promoting local events to give back to the world’s only Jewish state.
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aish.com
The Freedom Train: From Bergen-Belsen to Haifa
Avi Abrams
Eighty years ago 283 Jews were released by Nazi Germany and brought to the Land of Israel. This is their remarkable story.
Throughout the 1930s there was a steady flow of Jewish immigration out of Nazi Germany and Europe to the Land of Israel (Mandatory Palestine under British control), but after the war broke out in 1939, the road to freedom became highly restricted and complicated. Very few Jews managed to escape Europe during the Holocaust and for those interred in concentration camps, it was virtually impossible.

Yet in July 1944, while Europe was ablaze, 283 Jews made the unimaginable train journey from the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany to the city of Haifa. This is their incredible story.

By 1939, there were 445,000 Jews in the Land of Israel, about 1/3 of the total population. A good portion of them were born there and were already speaking Hebrew for two or three generations. Although Mandatory Palestine was under British control and not a sovereign state, it nevertheless issued passports to its Palestinian Jewish and Arab inhabitants. Palestinian Jews would visit European destinations, usually in the summer, both for tourism purposes and to visit relatives abroad. The summer of 1939 was no different, but those Palestinian Jews visiting Germany and Poland who were unable to make it back home by the end of August got stuck there.

Jewish settlers circa 1920 building their kibbutz. From the Library of Congress’s Prints & Photographs division.

Two days after Nazi Germany invaded Poland, on September 3, 1939, Britain declared war on Germany. That meant every British citizen travelling within German territory (including German-occupied Poland) became designated as enemy aliens. Palestinian Jews, as citizens of a British protectorate, also fell under that category. Within weeks, both Jews and non-Jews with British paperwork were put into interment camps. The Nazi regime calculated that they could use these hostages as bargaining chips to recover German citizens within British territory.

Meanwhile, back in Mandatory Palestine, families of the hostages formed committees and actively petitioned several organizations for help including the Jewish Agency, the Red Cross, the U.S. embassy in Berlin, and the Swiss Delegation. Both the U.S. and Switzerland were neutral countries at the time and were able to have some degree of influence on the formation of a hostage deal.

Hostage Deals
Remarkably, during the war, exchange deals did take place between the British and German governments that involved the transfer of 550 Palestinian Jews within Germany and the German-occupied territories in exchange for 1000 German citizens who were living in British Mandatory Palestine at the time. These Germans were descendants of a Christian puritan community known as The Templers who came to the Holy Land (then under Ottoman rule) starting in 1868. Throughout the late 19th century, they built several German colonies in Haifa, Jaffa, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and other localities as well. Until today, there are residential neighborhoods in Jerusalem and Haifa that are still refereed to as the “German Colony”.

The German Colony in Haifa, 1875

Over the decades, the German government provided financial support to Templer schools in the various German colonies across Mandatory Palestine. When the Nazi party came to power, it required all German educational institutions (including those overseas) to have curriculum and teachers in line with Nazi ideology. Within a few years, 75% of the Templers belonged to the Nazi party or supported Nazi ideals. Some of the Templer youth even left Palestine to join the German army in the late 1930s.

When World War II broke out, the British declared the Templer community consisting of some 2000 individuals as enemy nationals. They were rounded up into two Templer colonies, one in Wilhelma (in the Galilee) and the other in Sarona (today in the heart of Tel Aviv) that were enclosed with barbed wire and placed under armed guard. Feeding and tending to the needs of 2000 German citizens and Nazi sympathizers was a burden to the government of Mandatory Palestine. With the prospect of a German invasion from North Africa into Mandatory Palestine, the British were eager to dispose of their fifth column.

On July 31st, 1941, the British decided to unilaterally deport 661 German citizens (mostly men of fighting age) from Mandatory Palestine to Australia via Egypt. This was considered a loss for Germany, which by this point was fighting a two front war and needed all the manpower they could get. The German foreign office therefore took renewed interest in a potential exchange deal with the British. In the course of the war, three deals did in fact take place. The first two exchanges were less documented and not highly publicized, but we do know that they took place in December 1941 and November 1942 and involved the transfer of some 267 Palestinian Jews who had been imprisoned in Germany and Poland since 1939.

The third deal took place in July 1944 and received a lot more public attention since, by this point, the magnitude of the Holocaust was starting to surface. Unlike the first two deals, the third deal was not applicable to Palestinian Jews who got trapped in Europe at the outset of the war. Rather, it was meant for Jews who were residents of Europe, the Netherlands in particular, but who had relatives in Mandatory Palestine who had sent them valid immigration certificates.

Jews in the Netherlands
By the summer of 1944, the Netherlands had been under German occupation for four years. Between May 1940 and July 1942, all 140,000 Jews in the Netherlands were required to live exclusively within the municipal boundaries of Amsterdam. Between 1942-44, the majority of the Jewish population was forcibly relocated to the Westerbork transit camp on the Dutch-German border. From Westerbork, some 100,000 Jews were deported to extermination camps and concentration camps in Auschwitz, Sobibor, Theresienstadt, and Bergen-Belsen. Of that number, only 3,500 were selected for Bergen-Belsen.
boarding the deportation train to Auschwitz
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https://aish.com/antisemitism-and-self-defense-for-the-jewish-community/?src=ac
Antisemitism and Self-Defense for the Jewish Community
by Kylie Ora Lobell
July 21, 2024
5 min read
Martial Arts Legend Daniel “Tiger” Schulmann reflects on antisemitism and how Jews can protect themselves during these difficult times.

Since October 7, Jews around the world have felt scared – for their safety, for their communities, for Israel. Though it’s a harrowing time, many Jews have pledged to fight back by calling out antisemitism, defeating disparaging politicians at the polls and suing universities for discrimination.

They’ve also been learning self-defense, something that martial arts legend Daniel “Tiger” Schulmann has been teaching for decades. Now, he’s advocating for Jews to learn it as well.

“Historically, Jews have prioritized education above all else,” he said. “Martial arts should be integrated into that education.” After all, the right to defend oneself and one's property is a fundamental principle in Jewish law, as the Talmud teaches, "If someone comes to kill you, rise up and kill him first" (Sanhedrin, 72a).

Who Is Daniel “Tiger” Schulmann?
Schulmann started studying kyokushin karate, a form of martial arts, when he was 6 years old. His father enrolled him in karate classes after Schulmann’s older brother was the victim of extreme bullying. Shigeru Oyama, the boy’s instructor, quickly saw that he was a prodigy; he was fast, strong, and fearless. Schulmann was given the nickname Tiger not only because of these qualities, but also because he was born in the year of the Tiger.

At age 12, he got his first black belt, the highest honor in karate, and he went on to represent the U.S. in the 2nd World Open Championships in Tokyo when he was 17. He then became the North American Full Contact Champion and competed for six years in a row.

When he retired from competition, he opened up Tiger Schulmann’s Martial Arts which, after four decades, is now the largest martial arts school in the U.S. Over 300,000 people of all ages have participated in his school, which has locations in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania.

“Our curriculum emphasizes leverage and technique, providing a distinct advantage to our students in a relatively short time,” Schulmann said. “Classes are tailored by age and skill level, ensuring adults and children train appropriately.”

The school’s motto? “Live fearlessly” – just like Tiger.

“We've empowered thousands of adults to defend themselves and their families,” said Schulmann. “Many children have overcome bullying, simply by gaining the confidence to stand up to bullies or, when necessary, fight back—with both approaches proving effective in ending harassment.”

How to Defend Yourself
Of course, if you’re in the NY-NJ-PA-CT metropolitan region, Schulmann recommends enrolling in one of his 50 different schools.

“Antisemitic attacks are surging at an alarming rate—on our streets, college campuses, outside synagogues, and at protests,” he said. “Shockingly, school administrators are turning a blind eye, and police intervention before violence erupts is highly unlikely. In these uncertain times, it is extremely important for Jewish people to train in martial arts for the purpose of self-defense.”



Additionally, it’s important not to just film someone doing something wrong and then post it – it reinforces the idea that it’s acceptable, in a way.

Schulmann said, “Why do people brazenly tear down posters of Israeli hostages in front of Jews who just put them up? Why do they feel emboldened to verbally or physically assault Jews? The answer is simple: they believe they can do so without consequences. In order to boost their egos, bullies target those whom they perceive won't fight back. Often, victims of these attacks film these incidents, but instead of deterring antisemitism, these videos inadvertently showcase vulnerability, reinforcing the notion that perpetrators can act with impunity, inviting it to repeat.”

Along with learning self-defense, he believes in being an assertive communicator if you’re in a situation where someone is tearing down posters or doing something else that’s wrong.

“Many of these assaults could be halted with assertive communication,” he said. “Confidence in handling oneself physically, if necessary, enables assertiveness and discourages aggressors. This self-assurance reduces fear and projects strength and self-respect, deterring potential altercations.”

If you don’t live near any of Schulmann’s training centers, see if other self-defense classes are being offered to your Jewish community. Perhaps it’s through a local Jewish security team or your local Jewish Federation. If you still can’t find anything, look into karate schools.

“Learning self-defense is transformative, not just in physical capability but in projecting confidence and self-respect,” Schulmann said. “Weakness leaves one vulnerable while strength and confidence act as a deterrent. Assertiveness backed by the ability to defend oneself physically can de-escalate situations and prevent future attacks.”

According to the martial arts master, self-defense is about more than reacting – it’s about feeling empowered to stand firm against antisemitism.

“By integrating martial arts into our education, we reclaim our security and assert our right to live without fear,” he said. “Strength not only protects us, but also sends a powerful message that we refuse to be victims. Let's take charge of our safety and ensure that our communities thrive with resilience and courage.”

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FASHION BLOGGER TURNED OUTSPOKEN JEWISH ADVOCATE
KYLIE ORA LOBELL
Elaine Chaya, an Iranian Jew, refocused her work post Oct.7 and is urging Jews to get involved.
https://aish.com/fashion-blogger-turned-outspoken-jewish-advocate/?src=ac
Elaine Chaya had quite the impressive resume. She was a popular fashion and lifestyle blogger who worked with brands like Uniqlo, Abercrombie & Fitch, DSW, and Crocs, and appeared on E! News, PopSugar, and Cosmopolitan.

In 2018, she created an Instagram campaign called #WokeUpThisWayChallenge, where people would post their real lives on social media; she ended up partnering with Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation, and celebrities from “Glee,” “Pitch Perfect,” and “Pretty Little Liars” posted their own versions of it.

During the pandemic, her focus began to shift to mental health and education – she was homeschooling for other people’s children at the time – and her Jewish journey.



“I started to embed Judaism into my social media because I was becoming more spiritual,” she said. “I was keeping Shabbat.”

When Oct. 7 happened, Elaine, the daughter of Iranian Jewish immigrants, decided to fully embrace her Judaism, stand up for Israel, and fight antisemitism on her feed. She wasn’t afraid to declare to her 87,000+ Instagram followers: I’m a proud Jew – and nothing will stop me from speaking up.

She made videos of herself talking about the hostages, commenting on the situation in Iran, and urging people to live their life with faith in God.


“In life, you don’t know what the future holds but what I’ve learned from all of this is that if you continue to work on yourself & have faith everyday— life will one day show you why your hardships were meant for something,” she wrote to her followers, while sharing a photo of herself in a shirt emblazoned with the Hebrew word “Emunah”, faith.

Elaine, who is based in Los Angeles, is on a mission to inspire Jews, to fight against antisemitism, and strengthen her people, one post at a time.

“The more I posted about Judaism, the prouder I became,” she said. “Once you start working that muscle, it becomes stronger and stronger.”
Growing up in LA
Elaine’s parents escaped from Iran when they were teenagers after the Revolution occurred and the country fell to extremists. It became unsafe for Jews there, so many left for America. Her dad left when he was 18, and his mom was 13. They met in LA and went on to marry and have two daughters, Elaine and her sister.
LA is home to thousands of Iranian Jews, so Elaine and her family felt right at home.

“There was a big community of people from my parents’ schools in Iran who came here, so we didn’t feel alone,” she said. “We brought our unity and our culture over here.”

Even though Elaine went to public school, she never experienced antisemitism growing up. It was at UCLA, where she went for undergrad, that she first saw pro-Palestinian groups on campus.

“They put up their ‘apartheid wall’ one week a year,” she said. “But I felt safe as a Jew there. I was active in Hillel and worked for the rabbi. There were a lot of Jewish students at UCLA. I didn’t feel so scared.”


Elaine and her sister chose UCLA because it’s where their mom went to school; it became a second home for her.

“It was a home for me, too,” Elaine said.

Antisemitism at Home
When pro-Palestinian groups took over UCLA this past semester, defacing the legendary Royce Hall and putting up encampments, it felt personal for Elaine.

“It was really disappointing,” she said. “I looked at UCLA in such a high regard. It was the place that was welcoming Iranian Jews at a time when they weren’t welcome in their own country. It was devastating to see all the graffiti and what people did to the school.”

Elaine attended a pro-Israel rally on campus and saw that the encampments were behind a barricade. She stayed far away.

“I didn’t talk to the protestors,” she said. “I saw them. But honestly, I was scared.”

On her Instagram, she posted a picture that said “College is for education, not antisemitism” as well as a video of a Jew blowing a shofar at UCLA. She wrote, “In Judaism, we hear the shofar during two of our most major holidays: Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, when we’re in the deepest of our prayers and closest connection to Hashem. Being on this completely cleared campus after the chaos the past weeks felt surreal. But I really felt Hashem. Please God hear our prayers, help repair this world & BRING OUR HOSTAGES HOME.”



Though it was disheartening to see what occurred at UCLA, it gave Elaine the push she needed to keep pursuing her goals of increasing Jewish pride, while pursuing education for the Jewish and non-Jewish communities as well.

Educating on Judaism and Israel
Elaine created Workshop 8Teen, a program that aims to empower Jewish high school students with education so they can stand up to Jewish hate. She did the first launch in San Diego in April, and taught the students about topics like, “What is genocide?” and “What is occupation?”

“We tell them how to combat it if someone says something to you about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” she said. When Jewish students are faced with this, they will know what to do.”

She also wants to educate non-Jewish people and form allyships with those who aren’t extremists.

“We need people who aren’t Jewish to stand up and say something,” she said. “There are a lot of Jews on social media making an impact, but we need people outside of the Jewish community to start speaking up for us as well.”

Even though Elaine gets a lot of hateful comments on her posts from the anti-Israel, antisemitic crowd, she keeps going because she knows she’s making a positive change. She encourages others to do the same.

“People say, ‘I want to do Instagram, but it’s just not my thing,” she said. “Everyone has a strong suit, and everyone has something they can provide during this time. For me, that’s social media. For this mom I befriended, it’s fundraising for helmets for the IDF. Another person I know is an amazing fashion design who making jackets with a Star of David on them. There are different ways to contribute.”

She continued, “Do what feels authentic and exciting for you. Own it… and get involved in some sort of way, in any way you can.”
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WHEN THEIR DAUGHTER WOKE UP FROM HER COMA
SARAH PACHTER
Sometimes one good act can change everything.
When Their Daughter Woke Up from Her Coma
by Sarah Pachter
July 21, 2024
Sometimes one good act can change everything.

Six years ago, when Lana Cohen* was ten years old, she started to experience severe foot pain coupled with swelling and redness. She had contracted cellulitis, a bacterial infection of the skin, and her pediatrician, Dr. Senter recommended two rounds of the antibiotic Bactrim. Lana didn’t respond well to the drug and her pain intensified. Her doctor urged the Cohens to go to the hospital. As Lana’s father, Rabbi Steven Cohen, walked his daughter down the corridor, she said, “Daddy, I can’t walk, I need you to hold me.”

As soon as he picked her up, Lana passed out and went unconscious in his arms. As she lay in a coma in the ICU, Dr. Phil Malter informed Steve that this would be his daughter's last night on earth. Rabbi Cohen looked the doctor in the eyes and said, “I think you meant to say that we are expecting a miracle.” Dr. Malter, a non-Jewish doctor, replied, “I know your people. I’ve worked with your people before. If you believe in a miracle, you are going to see a miracle.”

As she lay in a coma in the ICU, Dr. Phil Malter informed Steve that this would be his daughter's last night on earth. Rabbi Cohen looked the doctor in the eyes and said, “I think you meant to say that we are expecting a miracle.”

Steve and his wife Yocheved spent weeks by Lana’s bedside with no respite. After numerous MRIs and testing brought no clarity, their resolve weakened.

Cellulitis is rare, especially for a ten-year-old child. The neurologist, Dr. Caster, mentioned she had experienced once in her medical career an eerily similar situation with a girl the same age who had something similar to cellulitis. When they put the child on the same antibiotic, she had a similar reaction.

Unbeknownst to them, Lana was allergic to the antibiotic. Steve explained, “Her brain literally blew up. The swelling worsened by the day. There was so much swelling that by the time they did the second MRI they saw even more damage.”

Originally, the doctors assumed there were two separate incidents of brain damage. Eventually they realized that it was all a severe reaction to the Bactrim Sulfa.

Change in Destiny
Lana’s parents were advised by their rabbi to add another Hebrew name to their comatose daughter, hoping that a change of name would alter her destiny. They added the name Esther, since Lana got sick right before Purim, the holiday which celebrates the salvation of the Jewish People with the heroine Queen Esther.
“When we added Esther to her name by her bedside, we saw her facial features change. I was looking at my brother and my mother-in-law, and we eyeballed each other because we all saw the same, incredulous thing.”

Steve relayed, “Many people remember her Hebrew name because with the new addition of Esther, the first letters of her name spell out E-L-O-H-I-M, one of the names of God. Her Hebrew name became Esther Leah Hadassa bat Yocheved Miriam.”
As they were about to learn, God was about to intervene in a remarkable way.
Bartering with God
After three weeks, Lana’s father needed a break from sitting bedside and took a day off to rest and recuperate. After his short rest, he got back into his car and began the drive toward the hospital. While sitting in the car he had an urge to call a family member to share something that was borderline gossip. He said, “I had a really juicy bit of information that I wanted to relay to a family member to help them out. I rationalized that they deserved to know this piece of information.”

He was about to dial the number when he put his phone down. “God, I closed my mouth. I need you to open my daughter’s mouth. Please in the merit of refraining from lashon hara, derogatory speech, please save her.”
Ten minutes later he received a phone call from his wife in the hospital. She shrieked into the phone and cried, “Lana is beginning to wake up! You won’t believe it! You need to get over here!”
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https://aish.com/lawrence-of-arabia-the-unexpected-zionist/?src=ac
Lawrence of Arabia: Unexpected Zionist; Auschwitz Survivor on How to Embrace Life; How to Host a Shabbat Dinner
https://aish.com/lawrence-of-arabia-the-unexpected-zionist/?src=ac
Lawrence of Arabia: The Unexpected Zionist
LATEST
LAWRENCE OF ARABIA: THE UNEXPECTED ZIONIST
RABBI ELIE MISCHEL
Though Lawrence was unquestionably dedicated to the Arab cause, historians have shown that his views on the Middle East were far more complex than previously assumed.
Was he the champion of Arab nationalism - or a secret Zionist? T.E. Lawrence, better known as "Lawrence of Arabia," remains one of the most enigmatic figures of the early 20th century. His exploits during World War I as a liaison officer with Arab rebel forces fighting against the Ottoman Turks have been immortalized in print, stage and film. Lawrence's 1922 memoir "Seven Pillars of Wisdom" is considered a literary classic, while David Lean's 1962 epic "Lawrence of Arabia" won seven Academy Awards and is frequently cited as one of the greatest and most influential films ever made.

For decades after his untimely death in 1935, Lawrence was viewed as a heroic champion of Arab independence and nationalism. He developed close friendships with Arab leaders like Emir Faisal and was frequently seen in public wearing an Arabian robe and headdress. His impassioned advocacy for Arab self-determination following World War I cemented his legacy as a dedicated Arabist. Lawrence's identification with the Arab cause appeared so complete that he refused to accept the award of Commander of the Bath from King George V, explaining that he could not possibly accept any honor while Britain was "about to dishonor the pledges which he had made in her name to the Arabs who had fought so bravely."


Given his identification with the Arab cause, few would have listed him among the friends of the Jewish people or the Zionist project. Yet in recent years, historians have begun to uncover a more complex picture of Lawrence's views on the Middle East - one that reveals him to have been a committed supporter of Zionism and Jewish settlement in Palestine.

The Life of Lawrence
Thomas Edward Lawrence, born in 1888 in Wales, showed an early passion for history and archaeology. He studied at Oxford, where he combined academic studies with adventurous travels, including a solo 1,000-mile trek through Ottoman Syria in 1909. His archaeological work in the Middle East proved invaluable when he enlisted in the British Army at the outbreak of World War I.

In 1916, Lawrence was assigned to Hejaz to work with Arab forces against the Ottoman Turks, a role that would define his legacy. As a liaison between British and Arab leaders, he developed a close friendship with Emir Feisal, who would later be crowned King of Iraq. But Lawrence was also an innovative military strategist. He orchestrated sudden strikes and sabotage operations that inflicted significant damage on Turkish forces while minimizing Arab casualties. His crowning achievement came in 1917, with the capture of Aqaba, a strategic port city only a few miles from modern day Eilat.

In contrast to his military successes, Lawrence's post-war efforts to secure Arab independence were thwarted by the secret Anglo-French Sykes-Picot agreement, in which the great powers agreed to divide up the Middle East amongst themselves. Disillusioned, he briefly advised Winston Churchill before withdrawing from public life, joining the Royal Air Force under an assumed name. In 1926, Lawrence published "Seven Pillars of Wisdom," his memoir of the Arab Revolt, which cemented his fame as "Lawrence of Arabia" and inspired numerous books and films about his exploits.

Western Leaven in the East
Though Lawrence was unquestionably dedicated to the Arab cause, historians have shown that his views on the Middle East were far more complex than previously assumed. It turns out that the Arabist was also a philo-semite who deeply appreciated the uniqueness of the Jewish people. In his writings, he refers to the “the everlasting miracle of Jewry,”1 acknowledging the millennia-long relationship between the people and land of Israel. “The Jewish experiment is a conscious effort, on the part of the least European people in Europe, to make head against the drift of the ages, and return once more to the Orient from which they came.”2

The Arabist was also a philo-semite who deeply appreciated the uniqueness of the Jewish people, referring to the “the everlasting miracle of Jewry.”
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https://aish.com/antisemitism-is-hurting-small-jewish-companies-like-the-matzo-project/?src=ac
ANTISEMITISM IS HURTING SMALL JEWISH COMPANIES LIKE THE MATZO PROJECT

SARAH PACHTER
The Matzo Project hasn’t experienced an overt boycott with Free Palestine stickers placed on their products, but it’s hard to deny that post Oct 7, a silent shunning is taking place
The Matzo Project is a Brooklyn-based, Jewish-owned company offering Miami-Grandma-inspired matzo flats, chips, and matzo ball soup mixes. Since its retail launch in 2017, the company has been steadily growing, serving culinary adventurers from San Francisco to South Korea. However, shortly after October 7th, sales began to soften. This unexpected shift has left the company reflecting on the support it has received from its diverse customer base and the importance of community solidarity.

Humble Beginnings
The Matzo Project began when Kevin Rodriguez and Ashley Albert, longtime friends from Jewish summer camp, had the bright idea to create year-round artisanal matzo. “In the end, it’s really just a good, neutral cracker!” said Ashley.

Having built several successful companies in her lifetime, Kevin initially approached Ashley for advice about opening a gelato company, but she quickly pointed out that “This is just not a problem that needs solving.”

To prove her point, they spent a cold February day visiting gelato stores all over New York City, without finding a single shop with a customer inside.

Dejected, Kevin began to think of other possibilities. It was at that moment that Ashley remembered a suggestion she had made 20 years earlier to a neighbor who was closing their pizza shop. She had encouraged them to pivot to matzo production. She couldn’t believe that 20 years later, no one else had thought to do it! Ashley emphatically encouraged Kevin to start making artisanal matzo. Inspired and determined, Kevin started experimenting with recipes, and with Ashley's guidance, along with lots of tasting, trial, and error, they perfected a crispy and flavorful matzo.

They started small, working in a tiny commissary kitchen with a pasta roller and an army of helpful friends. Kevin's wife crafted a homemade matzo cutter from several pizza wheels, allowing them to hand-cut the dough into squares. “It’s not like they sold pre-made matzo-molds at Macy’s” Ashley said.

In the early days an apartment was used for storage

They also had no choice but to hand-toast every single piece of matzo, by holding tongs over open flames to create the signature burnt bubbles. “We suckered every single friend into helping us, one way or another,” Ashley recalled. The group worked together in an assembly line fashion, hastily producing each batch. Ashley has only one video from these hectic times because, she said, “who had time to take pictures? We had our hands full!”

Gradual Success
The Matzo Project's journey was challenging and required a tremendous amount of hard work and dedication to convince the world that matzo could be a year-round snack. But with perseverance, they started growing. They eventually began cooking out of a bigger bakery in Coney Island. People were starting to understand that what they were making was more than just an alternative to traditional matzo, it was actually “surprisingly delicious”! This led to unique, high profile opportunities like providing matzo for a James Beard Foundation Dinner. “In addition to all of the flats we sent them, I took the little end strips from the matzo and threw them in a bag so they could use them for their appetizers.” Kevin explains, “The chef really loved them and they were a big hit with the crowd. That was the moment we invented the matzo chip!”

They hadn’t even launched yet and it was already clear that they needed to scale up for a third time that year. What started as a painstakingly handmade product that took hours craft soon became an operation that could manufacture over 100,000 bags in a single shift. The demand was out there and The Matzo Project was meeting it handily. These achievements signaled a new era of growth and visibility for the brand, solidifying its place in both Jewish and mainstream markets.

Trying to keep up with orders

They officially launched nationwide in 2017, expanded their line to include chips, matzo ball soup mix and matzo meal, and found their way onto the shelves all over the country in places like Whole Foods, The Four Seasons mini-bar, museum gift shops, high-end restaurants and even celebrity green rooms.

Their big break came when they partnered with JetBlue, where The Cutest Little Cinnamon Sugared Matzo Bites were included in the in-flight snack boxes for almost three years. “If there was ever proof that matzo could be widely embraced for the other 51 weeks of the year, that JetBlue snack pack made a strong case for it” Kevin said.

Facing Challenges
But after a period of steady success, the landscape began to shift. The recent Israeli-Hamas conflict and the subsequent rise in antisemitic sentiments have created a challenging environment for The Matzo Project. The conflict has heightened sensitivities and many businesses became cautious about appearing partisan. This led to some longtime clients halting orders, fearing backlash or controversy. Kevin and Ashley noted a significant drop in sales, attributing it to this climate.

Ashley described the situation: “Shortly after October 7th, we’d reach out to companies who had ordered from us over and over again to take their next order, and they’d say, ‘Oh, no thanks, I think we’re all set for now.’ These are people we have had as clients for years who all of a sudden just stopped ordering.”

Ashley continued, “We had been growing by leaps and bounds, and suddenly, business didn’t just slow down, it really slowed down. It’s hard not to notice that this dramatic drop began in the fall of this past year, shortly after October 7th, which should have been one of our busiest seasons.”

They invented their own tools to manufacture it—because they don’t sell matzo cutters at Bed, Bath and Beyond

Kevin added, “For some clients, I think it feels like a moral decision to purchase or carry our product in their stores now, as if having us on their shelves means they’re making a statement or picking a side. And while The Matzo Project is an undeniable celebration of Jewish culture and heritage, we are American-born Jews selling products made entirely in Brooklyn. Conflating us with the Middle Eastern conflict just doesn’t make any sense. “

There seems to be a renewed undercurrent of antisemitism that’s quietly hurting many small businesses like ours.

Fortunately, The Matzo Project has not experienced an overt boycott with Free Palestine stickers placed on their products in stores, but it is hard to deny that a silent shunning is taking place. The idea that a store would hesitate to offer an American-made, Jewish brand to its customers in order to play it safe would’ve seemed unimaginable a year ago, now The Matzo Project is slowly disappearing from shelves all over the country.

Kevin noted, “Unfortunately, we aren’t the only Jewish-owned brand experiencing this issue right now. There seems to be a renewed undercurrent of antisemitism that’s quietly hurting many small businesses like ours. The effect that this unspoken sentiment is having on so many of us feels devastating in more ways than one.”

Sadly, Ashley pointed out that The Matzo Project has “experienced low-key antisemitism since we started, but back then, it felt more shocking than it does now.” For instance, in January 2023, the company was a finalist for a very prestigious accelerator program; Ashley explained, “I knew from an insider that we were many of the main team’s top pick, but we were told that ultimately, several of the judges ‘just didn’t understand the mainstream appeal of a Jewish brand’ and we did not move forward.”

Despite these challenges, The Matzo Project’s commitment to introducing the humor, customs and cultural foods of the Jewish people to the world at large remains unwavering. Kevin says “We know how important it is to hold on, stay afloat and find our way back to the stores.” “And not just because the graze boards of the world need us!” Ashley adds.

Many Jewish-owned small-businesses are facing similar obstacles right now. By supporting these companies, we can use the collective strength of our community to ensure that our unique culture remains visible and vibrant. We have an obligation to make sure that businesses like The Matzo Project don’t crumble in the face of a backlash of hostility towards the Jewish people.

Ashley and Kevin have worked hard to create an inclusive, modern Jewish brand that feels relevant and welcoming to people all over the world and they need the support of our strong community now more than ever. Kevin emphasized, “I can’t think of another food brand that celebrates secular Jewish culture in a way that unites both Jews and non-Jews of all stripes. The message our product sends can’t be found anywhere else. That’s why it is feeling so desperately important that we don’t go under.”

Call to Action
By encouraging mainstream stores to stock Jewish-owned products like The Matzo Project, ordering directly from their websites, sharing their stories on social media, and raising awareness that they exist in the first place, we can ensure that businesses like these endure and thrive.

Kevin stressed, “As hard as it is to acknowledge what’s happening to our little business, it feels crucial for us to bring it to light and address the challenges we’re facing, as this silent undercurrent of disdain affects more Jewish-owned business than just ours.”

Every bite of matzo, macaroon, or mandelbread tells a story of our resilience and shared heritage. By continuing to support these products and their stories, we contribute to a richer, more inclusive cultural landscape. Together, we can help these businesses overcome challenges, make a difference in preserving our heritage and ensure the continued visibility of the Jewish people.

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THE ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION OF DONALD TRUMP
RABBI EFREM GOLDBERG
by Rabbi Efrem Goldberg
July 16, 2024
7 min read
Each and every one of us needs to take a step back and take ownership over how we interact.
When the peace and harmony of Shabbat concluded and we learned the news of an assassination attempt on Donald Trump, among my many thoughts was the question: What If?

A series of anthologies titled, “What If? The World's Foremost Historians Imagine What Might Have Been,” examines turning points in history and what might have been if particular moments had gone differently. One moment that broke differently at Poitiers in 1356, at Gettysburg in 1863, or in Berlin in 1945, could have altered the entire tapestry of modern history.

So, what if? What if Donald Trump had not turned his head at the last moment and instead of being shot on the tip of his ear, was assassinated as the shooter intended? Would a dangerous and irreparable division have resulted, with violent and grave consequences for the country? Who would have replaced Trump as the Republican presidential nominee and how would the election have been impacted?

Reflecting on his brush with death, Trump said it was “God alone who prevented the unthinkable from happening.”

President Biden called on Americans to “lower the temperature” in politics and said that Americans “must stand together.” Trump said that the miracle is motivation to pivot to a message of unity. While the assassination attempt was the act of an individual, many are blaming the level of rhetoric and extremist language in politics on both sides. Comparisons to the most evil men in history, descriptions of a threat to democracy, claims that the election is a matter of life or death, create an atmosphere that is not only toxic, but clearly dangerous.

While Trump may be the highest-profile attempted assassination of late, there have been no shortage of shootings and attempts to kill both Republicans and Democrats. Since the United States Congress was established in 1789, 15 of its members have been killed while in office, and 14 have suffered serious injuries from attacks. Of those killed, 10 were Democrats, four were Republicans, and one was a Democratic-Republican. Of the four members of Congress physically attacked since 2011, Gabby Giffords (D), Steve Scalise (R), Rand Paul (R), and Angie Craig (D), two are Democrats and two Republicans.

Similar divisiveness, discord and dangerous demagoguery exist in Israel as well. Many blame the 1995 murder of Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin, the head of the Labor Party, on incitement from his political adversaries and their followers. Others are concerned today with the relentless inflammatory language leveled at current Prime Minister, Bibi Netanyahu, the head of Likud.

Anger and fear lead to division, hate and – as we were reminded this week –to violence.

Both in Israel and America, each side points a finger at the other, blames the other, and calls on the other side to improve. An objective observer will conclude that the left and right in both countries have contributed to the poisonous and perilous polemics and that neither side adequately calls out their own for what they contribute to the noxious atmosphere, even while calling for unity themselves.

Politicians and political parties profit off the industry of extreme and inflammatory language. Anger and fear generate outrage, which translates to dollars and to votes. But it also leads to division, hate and – as we were reminded this week – even to violence.

We, The People
Ultimately, it is up to each and every one of us to turn down the temperature, to be sensitive to and regulate how we speak, what we say, and the tone we take. We, the people, must recognize our own autonomy and take ownership over how we interact. We can and must model how to disagree agreeably, how to debate and discuss ideas and policies, and not repeat, promote or advance ad hominem attacks against people.

King Solomon’s insight in Proverbs (18:21): “Death and life are determined by the tongue,” feels particularly poignant this week.

Soon, we will begin to observe the Three Weeks culminating in Tisha B’Av, the most inauspicious day on our calendar marking the destruction of both Temples in Jerusalem and the countless calamities and suffering in our history. Our rabbis taught that the cause of our millennia-long exile was sinat chinam, baseless hatred that can be traced all the way back to the dispute between Joseph and his brothers.

The Torah tells us that Joseph’s brothers hated him to the point that v’lo yachlu dabro l’shalom – and they could not speak to him peaceably” (Genesis 37:4). The Ibn Ezra explains, “they could not speak to him peaceably – l’shalom to mean that they couldn’t even greet him with “Shalom.” It wasn’t just that they couldn’t talk about the issues they disagreed about, or that they didn’t want to be close, loving brothers. The hatred and intolerance had grown so deep that they couldn’t stand to even extend greetings to one another or to be in a room together.

Making Room for Others
When we disagree with people, we withdraw from them and stop speaking to them. We see them as “the other,” different and apart from us. As our communication breaks down, the dividers rise up higher and we can’t find a way to break through them.

Achieving peace and harmony means bending towards those on the right of us and those on the left of us, acknowledging them, engaging them, and making space for them.

The antidote is in our hands and we remind ourselves of it three times a day when we pray. Our practice of taking three steps backward at the conclusion of the Amidah comes from the Talmud which states, “One who prays must take three steps back and only then pray for peace” (Yoma 53). Rabbi Menachem BenZion Zaks explains that we cannot pray for, nor achieve, peace if we are not willing to step back a little and make room for others and their opinions, tastes, and personalities.

After literally stepping back, we ask, “Oseh shalom bimromav, God, please bring peace,” and we then turn to our right and to our left. Achieving peace and harmony means bending towards those on the right of us and those on the left of us, acknowledging them, engaging them, and making space for them. That is a prerequisite to the shalom, the peace we crave.

Ballot, Not Bullets
In America and in Israel there are so many issues that deserve legitimate, vociferous debate. From elections to army service, from gun control to abortion, from judicial reform to religious coercion, there are complicated issues with multiple perspectives. They elicit strong emotion and passionate positions, but they cannot and must not sow irreversible division. We cannot allow our differences and strong opinions to make us unable to say hello to one another, or to see someone we disagree with as “the other.”

We cannot allow the feelings of unity and togetherness that followed October 7 to vanish or fade away. We can point a finger at others for how they have returned to rhetoric, or just like when you point an actual finger, we can recognize there are three pointing back at ourselves and take responsibility for our role and contribution to conversations.

As we approach the Three Weeks, don’t just ask and ponder “What if” about the assassination attempt on Donald Trump. Ask what if we all took responsibility for how we speak, for keeping the focus on policies and issues, and not on people, for avoiding language that inflames and incites and instead using language that persuades and influences.

What if we looked to our right and to our left religiously, politically, and in every other way and brought the great blessing of peace by bowing to what we have in common, rather than what divides. What if.

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LATEST
AN INTERVIEW WITH MATISYAHU: ANTISEMITISM, CANCELED SHOWS, AND A NEW EP IN A POST-OCTOBER 7 WORLD
ABBY SCHNEIDER
Jewish reggae singer Matisyahu stands proudly with Israel and vows to bring light into the darkness through his music.
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THE INDOMITABLE DR. RUTH
DR. YVETTE ALT MILLER
The renowned sex therapist was a Holocaust survivor, former Israeli soldier, and a proud Jew.
“Dr. Ruth” Westheimer, the Jewish woman who helped countless of people in their intimate lives, has died at the age of 96. In over 40 books, on television, and through her popular syndicated radio show, Dr. Ruth educated millions of people, providing accurate, clear information about sexuality at a time when the topic was taboo. Dr. Ruth reassured people that sex was a normal part of life.

Few of her many fans realized that Dr. Ruth – a diminutive, motherly figure with a thick German accent – was a decorated military hero in Israel, and that her life was marked both by the Holocaust and by her intense devotion to Jewish life.

Orthodox Jewish Childhood
Dr. Ruth’s parents met in a way that is fittingly romantic for their daughter’s later career in romance: her mother Irma took a job as a housekeeper for the Seigel family in the German town of Weisenfeld. She and Julius Seigel, her employer’s son, fell in love, married, and moved to Frankfurt, where Dr. Ruth was born in 1928. Irma and Julius were Orthodox Jews, and raised their daughter – named Karola Ruth Siegel – in a warm Jewish home. She was their only child, and later fondly recalled going to synagogue regularly with her father.

Upheaval During the Holocaust
The last time Dr. Ruth saw her beloved father she was ten years old, during Kristallnacht, the “Night of Broken Glass,” November 9-10, 1938. Nazi members and ordinary citizens took to the streets in towns throughout Germany, Austria, and in parts of Czechoslovakia. Over 1,500 synagogues were destroyed; 7,500 Jewish-owned businesses were burned down and ransacked; hundreds of Jews were beaten, raped, and murdered. Over 30,000 Jewish men were arrested and sent to concentration camps. Among them was Julius Segal, Dr. Ruth’s father. She later recalled watching as he was bundled away outside their apartment window.

Dr. Ruth and her parents

Her mother and grandmother realized that no Jew was safe in Germany and secured a place for young Ruth in a group of 300 Jewish children who were being sent to Switzerland as part of a Kindertransport. The Kindertransport missions brought about 10,000 Jewish children to safety in countries including Britain, the Netherlands, and Switzerland. These children were saved, but at the cost of losing their families: no adults were allowed on the transports. Dr. Ruth never saw her family again. After the war, she believed her parents were both murdered in Auschwitz.

In Switzerland, Dr. Ruth lived in an orphanage. She later recalled that she and the other Jewish children were treated badly, forced to do housework and take care of the younger children. Girls were not allowed to attend regular high school. By day, Dr. Ruth learned how to do housework in an all-girls school. At night, she would steal her way to one of the orphanage’s stairwells where the lights remained on and study from the books of a Jewish orphan who would share his textbooks with her.

Heroism in Israel
After the Holocaust, at the age of 16, Dr. Ruth – along with her friend from the orphanage – moved to British-ruled Mandatory Palestine, in present-day Israel. She began going by her middle name, Ruth, and lived in various kibbutzim, or collective farms.

I learned to assemble a rifle in the dark and was trained as a sniper so that I could hit the center of the target time after time.

At that time, the Jewish community in Mandatory Palestine was besieged: beset by violent attacks from hostile Arab forces, and forbidden by the British from accepting the tens of thousands of ragged Holocaust survivors who were begging to move to the Holy Land. Dr. Ruth later described how she joined the precursor to the modern day IDF (Israeli Army): “At the age of 16 I immigrated to Palestine from Europe, where I became a member of the Haganah, the main underground army of the Jews. I learned to assemble a rifle in the dark and was trained as a sniper so that I could hit the center of the target time after time. As it happened, I never did get into actual combat, but that didn’t prevent my being severely wounded. I almost lost both my feet as a result of a bombing attack on Jerusalem” on her 20th birthday.

Dr Ruth in Israel

In the same article, Dr. Ruth also explained why she felt, as a female Jewish combat veteran, that it is so important for all Jews to defend the Jewish state: “Now were it up to me, I would abolish all warfare. But having lost my family at the hands of the Nazis, I know that we need our armed forces in order to protect our freedoms. And there is no reason why our troops have to be composed only of one sex.”

Finding Love and Building a Career
Dr. Ruth married three times; she later said “the third one was the real marriage,” lasting from 1961 to her husband Fred Westheimer’s death in 1997. After teaching kindergarten for a time in Israel, Dr. Ruth moved with her first husband to Paris, where she earned a degree in Psychology at the prestigious Sorbonne university. She later moved to the United States and in 1970 received a Doctorate in Education from Columbia University.



She worked in a variety of jobs related to public health and trained as a sex therapist, working part time while her children were in school. Her career took off seemingly overnight in 1980, after she agreed to host a 15-minute show that aired at midnight on a New York radio station. Her short show was called “Sexually Speaking,” and her amusing, fact-based, and direct style of conveying information quickly gained listeners. The New York Times noted in 1984 that her show boosted her “from obscurity to almost instant stardom.” The radio station quickly expanded her show first to a one-hour long slot, then to two hours, capitalizing on their new star’s ever-expanding popularity.

In 1984 Dr. Ruth began hosting her own television show in the US. In the 1990s she appeared on a similar program about sexuality and sexual health in Israel. She provided lucid, accurate answers to listeners’ and viewers’ questions, and helped remove many of the taboos against discussing sexual health. Dr. Ruth was warm and relatable, and was funny while treating questions about sexuality with the respect they deserved. She used to teach her audiences that sex was a healthy part of life; sometimes she explained that the goal of a loving, respectful relationship was “shalom bayit,” a Hebrew expression meaning peace in the home.

New York’s Loneliness Ambassador
Dr. Ruth worked until her final months. Observing the rise in loneliness in recent years, she lobbied the state of New York to create a role for her to help her fellow citizens. Dr. Ruth’s tenacity paid off: At the end of 2023, New York Governor Kathy Hochul appointed Dr. Ruth as New York State’s – and the USA’s first – “Loneliness Ambassador,” charging her with helping combat the growing scourge of loneliness. Dr. Ruth told The New York Times “The first thing to do is have the courage to admit you’re lonely. Then you can do something about it.”

The Nazis couldn’t eradicate my will to live and pass on to my children and grandchildren my love for Judaism, Israel, and the Jewish people.

She opened up about her own experiences with loneliness: “I’ve known loneliness, even extreme loneliness, during my 95 years. When I was ten years old, I was separated from my family and never saw them again. When I was twenty, I was caught in a bomb blast and almost died and wondered what would happen to me. Also, I lost my husband of 35 years to a stroke in 1997. And I’ve been lonely at other times too. So, when I read about the loneliness epidemic, given my history and my experiences as a therapist, I knew I had to join the fight against loneliness.” She encouraged people to go out when possible and to forge connections with others. Sadly, Dr. Ruth suffered a stroke soon after being appointed Loneliness Ambassador and had to curtail much of her public work.

“Am Yisrael Chai”
Despite the fame and wealth her career brought her, Dr. Ruth always lived in the same three-bedroom apartment in Washington Heights, an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood of New York where she’d raised her family. She attended several synagogues regularly, and was active in a range of Jewish causes. A patron of The Museum of Jewish Heritage - A Living Memorial to the Holocaust in New York City, Dr. Ruth urged people to visit the institution, explaining “It’s like a grave for my family who don’t have graves.” In 2021, she established the Dr. Ruth Westheimer Scholarship in Psychology at Ben-Gurion University in Israel.



She enjoyed a busy social life. On Shabbat, she often visited friends. She was fond of quoting the end of the poem Aishet Chayil, A Woman of Valor, which is traditionally sung on Friday evenings before Shabbat dinner. She believed the song’s line “many women have excelled, but you outshine them all” is the most romantic in all of literature. This is how all men ought to regard their wives, she would tell guests at Shabbat dinners.

Dr. Ruth often spoke of her grandchildren, Ari and Leora, and how they are living proof that the Nazis failed to wipe out the Jewish people. “When I look at my Ari and Leora,” Dr. Ruth wrote, “I know that the Nazis weren't able to accomplish their supreme goal. Yes, they destroyed my family, including my beloved parents and grandparents, but they couldn’t eradicate my will to live and pass on to my children and grandchildren my love for Judaism, Israel, and the Jewish people. For me, the phrase ‘Am Yisrael Chai’ - ‘The Jewish people lives’ - holds special meaning.”

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https://aish.com/the-retina-specialist-who-couldnt-believe-what-he-was-seeing/?src=ac
The Retina Specialist Who Couldn’t Believe What He Was Seeing
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Dr. Sidney Schechet volunteered to treat soldiers and civilians in Israel. One story is for the record books.
Dr. Sidney Schechet, a retina specialist from Baltimore’s Elman Retina Group, felt a deep sense of duty and compassion tugging at his heart since October 7th. Soroka Hospital in Beersheba is one of the main trauma centers for the soldiers injured from the war in Gaza, and their eye doctors were overwhelmed by so many soldiers coming in with severe eye trauma from the war. Furthermore, some of the eye and retina surgeons were called up to serve as well leaving the department short-handed.

Dr. Schechet decided to answer the call for help and offer his ocular trauma and retinal expertise. He and other American retina surgeons left their practices to volunteer for two weeks at Soroka hospital.

The morning he arrived, Dr. Schechet jumped in and got to work in the operating room. He worked day and night treating soldiers with severe eye injuries and also helping anxious civilians. He tried to use his surgical skills and confident medical knowledge to bring relief to both patients and staff alike. It didn’t hurt that his mother was Israeli, so he knew enough Hebrew to put people at ease.

In the midst of the chaos, Dr. Schechet found many moments of profound connection. He listened to the stories of the soldiers, shared in the relief of families whose loved ones were finally getting the care they needed, and felt the gratitude and immense bravery of a community under intense strain.

During his time at Soroka, Dr. Schechet encountered a condition he had treated many times before: Central Serous Retinopathy (CSR). This retinal disease causes vision to blur and become severely distorted. CSR is still quite mysterious, but is believed to have a correlation with serious stress. Dr. Schechet typically initially treats CSR patients by encouraging them to manage stress via yoga, deep breathing, exercise, meditation, etc.

Dr. Sidney Schechet
Since October 7th, there were many cases of CSR, which came as no surprise to Dr. Schechet and the rest of the doctors. One day, Dr. Schechet saw an elderly patient come in with a forlorn look. He reported having impaired vision for the past several months. He had severe CSR and fluid in his eye which was distorting his vision. He was a Holocaust survivor who had family members murdered and taken hostage by Hamas on October 7th.

With these unimaginable tragedies, Dr. Schechet found himself at a loss for words. He thought, How on earth can I tell these people to reduce the stress in their lives?

So, Dr. Schechet decided to skip his usual stress reduction lecture, but he owed it to him to explain the cause of his vision issue and the long road ahead to find a resolution.

After explaining that the condition in this case was triggered by the immense stress he had undergone, the patient teared up and quietly stared into space deep in thought before responding to Dr. Schechet. "You mean I am going blind as a direct result of the loss of my loved ones?"

Dr. Schechet nodded while placing a hand on the patient’s shoulder. Suddenly the patient looked up at him with a bright smile. Startled, Dr. Schechet asked why he was smiling, considering his vision was severely and possibly permanently affected, and that it could take months or even years to heal.

The patient responded, "I actually feel a sense of relief now knowing that I am physically sharing in the pain and suffering of my loved ones. I’ve felt profound guilt at being spared, but this eye problem shows me that I’m still connected with the ones who are in heaven and the ones in Gaza who will return. And I’m smiling because I have that opportunity to share in their pain."

Dr. Schechet was profoundly moved by this unexpected reaction and sentiment. It demonstrated the Jewish trait of “nosei ol im chavero” – sharing someone's burden and loss. He bade the patient farewell and scheduled a follow-up ten days later. When the man came back, Dr. Schechet was stunned to find out that the problematic fluid had nearly gone away completely, something unheard of in the treatment of CSR. They knew that this was a true testament of the strength and constant source of light found within a Jew’s soul.

Dr. Sid Schechet, on the right, in Israel

The time Dr. Schechet spent at Soroka Hospital was intense but deeply fulfilling. Back in the US, he shared this medical miracle with distinguished ophthalmologists. He was routinely met with skepticism. But he had seen it, with his own eyes.

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https://aish.com/a-long-life-or-a-good-life-end-of-life-care-in-jewish-law/?src=ac
A Long Life or A Good Life: End-of-Life Care in Jewish Law
RABBI MICHA COHN
Striking a balance between the preciousness of life and prolonging suffering.
Striking a balance between the preciousness of life and prolonging suffering.

In the traditional Jewish prayer before each new month, we ask God “For life, a long life, a good life and a life of dignity.” When caring for loved ones at the end of life we are often confronted with the difficult decision of choosing between a “long life” or a good life and a life of dignity. While each situation is unique, this article explores some of the values and approaches of Jewish law to end of life.

Life itself has immeasurable value in Jewish law and thought. The Talmud writes the one should be careful not to move a dying patient in order not to hasten his death. Likewise, the Talmud (Avodah Zara 18a) tells of the tragic death of the sage Rabbi Chanania ben Tradyon who was burned alive by the Romans. As the fire consumed him, his beloved students cried out to him, “Open your mouth so the fire will consume you quicker!” The sage refused and explained, “Let the one who created me take me.” Even in such difficult circumstance he did not want to hasten his own death.

While Rabbi Chanania may not have been obligated to act this way in such extenuating circumstances, this story demonstrates an important principle. It is not up to man to end life; it’s up to God. Just as He gives life, it is up to God to take it back.

Jewish law differentiates between terminating care and withholding care.

Leaving it up to the Creator to take back life is a basic tenement of the Jewish approach to end of life care. Euthanasia, physician-assisted suicide and the like, run contrary to this basic value. Furthermore, Jewish law differentiates between terminating care and withholding care. If a patient is connected to a life sustaining machine, like a ventilator, and removing it will result in her immediate demise, it is forbidden. Removing the devise, often referred to as “pulling the plug”, according to Jewish law, is an act of terminating life and not allowed. However, this does not mean that there is an unequivocal obligation to put the patient on that device in the first place. Withholding medical care to the patient is not actively terminating life, therefore, at times it is appropriate.

In order to develop an approach to when withholding care is or is not appropriate, contemporary Jewish scholars looked to a story in the Talmud (Kesubos 104a) about Rabbi Judah, the Prince, Rebbe Yehuda HaNasi, for guidance. Rebbe Yehuda HaNasi was an important sage of the second temple period. He was called the Nasi, which means prince in Hebrew, because he was the leader of Israel at the time. He also compiled the Mishnah, the fist collection of the oral teachings of Jewish Law.

Rebbe Yehuda HaNasi was terminally ill and the Rabbis gathered and prayed fervently to prolong his life. His attendant was a pious and wise woman and she saw Rebbe Yehuda’s pain. She went to the roof and threw down a jug. The jug fell to the ground and shattered, making a loud noise. The noise startled the Rabbis who were praying for his recovery and they stopped praying for a moment. At that moment Rebbe’s soul departed.

This story demonstrates two important perspectives on end-of-life care. Every moment of life is precious and the merit of having a great sage in the world is immeasurable. For this reason, the Rabbis turned toward the power of prayer to prevent Rebbe’s soul from departing. His attendant saw something else; she saw his suffering and interfered with the Rabbis prayers in order to not prolong his pain.

So, whose perspective is correct? Contemporary scholars look to the comments of the Ran (Nedarim 40a)), a 13th century Talmudist, who writes, “It is permitted to pray that a terminally ill patient who is suffering should pass away” and cites the actions of Rebbe’s attendant as proof. The question remains: why did the Ran decided the law like Rebbe’s attendant if it was against the opinion of the Rabbis?

Some explain (see Tzitz Eliezer V:Ramas Rachel #5) that there is really no disagreement. In principle the Rabbis were correct and every second of life if precious. Therefore, the Rabbis tried to prolong Rebbe’s life with the power of prayer. However, the attendant was privy to Rebbe’s actual condition and saw the extent of his suffering, something that the Rabbis were not aware of. Therefore, she acted correctly in disrupting their prayers and allowing Rebbe’s soul to depart. We see from this discussion that although the value of life is immeasurable, there are limitations. When dealing with a terminal patient we take his or her suffering into account at least when it comes to prayer.

A terminally ill patient may refuse certain treatments if it will prolong his suffering.

The next question is if the Ran’s position about praying to end the life of a suffering terminal patient can be applied to withholding treatment in such situations as well. Rabbi Moshe Feinstein (Igros Moshe CM 2:73-74), one of the most prominent contemporary scholars of Jewish law, was of the opinion that there is a parallel and a terminally ill patient may refuse certain treatments if it will prolong his suffering. However, Rabbi Feinstein cautions that withholding care may increase the suffering of the patient, so therefore careful discretion must be made when making these decisions. Others question the comparison. Even when one prays, the ultimate decision is up to God if He will answer the prayer or not. However, withholding routine medical is allowing mortals to make a decision that will end a life.

Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Aurbach (Minchas Shlomo 1:91.24), another important contemporary scholar, made an interesting distinction between care that is basic or more advanced. He reasoned that just as we are not allowed to starve a dying patient, we cannot withhold basic necessities like oxygen, nourishment and fluids. However, aggressive medical treatments may not be required.

As we stated in the beginning of this article, end-of-life decisions are a difficult balance between preserving dignity, avoiding pain, and preserving life itself. We presented the broad strokes of the issues discussed in Jewish legal sources. Ending life is clearly God’s domain. However, how much must to done to preserve life when the patient is in pain and terminally ill is less clear. This could depend on the role of the treatments and other factors. May God grant us the clarity, respect and compassion to make these difficult decisions.

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AT 106, SHE’S ONE OF THE OLDEST HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS ON RECORD
July 7, 2024

Risa Igelfeld experienced unimaginable terror during the Holocaust. Her unwavering positive attitude has kept her alive and strong for over a century
Risa Igelfeld (nee Relles) was born November 1, 1917 in Vienna, Austria. When Risa was still an infant, her mother died from the Spanish Flu in 1918. Her father remarried a woman who had a son.

“She was very mean to me. When I first began my menstrual cycle, I confided in her about it. She slapped me and said I was a liar.”

From a young age, Risa was drawn to singing and performances. She lived near the Opera House and spent all her pocket money to go to the shows.

“Two things stood out to me when the Nazis took over. They smashed all the windows of Jewish stores and grabbed the men to take them to concentration camps. The other is when I was approached in the park by several Nazi soldiers.”

Risa was a teenager walking down the street, dressed in her Sunday best. She was breathtaking in her beautiful red and white dress with coordinating red and white shoes. She passed by the local park when several Nazi soldiers stopped her.

“Are you Jewish?” they growled.

“Yes, I am,” she responded with confidence.

“You are coming with us to wash the Nazi’s headquarters.”

One of the SS soldiers took her aside and said, “They aren’t really going to take you to wash the headquarters. You know what they will do to you? They are going to tie you to a table and rape you, one after another. But you can get out of it if you make a date with me tonight. Be at this park at 8:00 PM. But let me warn you, if you don’t show up, I’ll bang on your door and I’ll kidnap you.”
(Photo credit: Lynn Abesera Photography)
She agreed to meet him, but didn’t show up. Risa told her sister and the housekeeper the whole story, and wanted to run away.

Later that night, the Nazi soldier came banging on the door.
“Open up!” he shouted.
The housekeeper answered and said, “Aren’t you ashamed of yourself for making a date with a Jewish girl?”

“He took off like lightning and was never seen again,” Risa explained to me in Aish.com interview. “If anyone would have found out that he was interested in a Jewish girl, he would have been killed.”

Risa went to college in Vienna where she could choose to learn Latin or French and English. Since Risa had no intention of becoming a doctor and wouldn’t need Latin, she chose to study French and English.

She didn’t know it at the time, but this decision would eventually save her life.
Risa began studying English in the university. As soon as the Nazis came, her professor fled for England.
He later inquired about Risa and asked what had happened to her. He had saved her a visa and sent for her to come to England in 1938. She was possibly his only Jewish student, and he believed she was a decent person worthy of his help.

She escaped to England when she was 21 years old, and her professor helped to find her a job as a housekeeper. The family she was assigned to had two children.

Risa and her daughter-in-law (Photo credit: Lynn Abesera Photography)

“Right away, I loved the children and began to take care of them. I bathed them, took them for walks, and brushed their teeth. I became their nanny and someone else was hired for the dirty work. They employed me for ten years. They were not an antisemitic family. They accepted me.”

During her time nannying, Risa became a popular performer and developed a wonderful reputation as a singer.

“I was very celebrated, and people loved what I did. I would walk into a room and they would applaud wildly because they had heard of me.”

Risa performed in 17 languages, all throughout England and the U.S.

Meanwhile, Risa’s father and step-mother also survived the war.

“My step-mother went to Berlin, to the headquarters of the Nazis, with a lot of money and she said, ‘Here! Make my husband come home.’ The Nazi put the money in his pocket and said, ‘Go home. Your husband will be coming tomorrow, but you better leave right away or else we will deport him again.’”

Once reunited, they didn’t know where to escape to. They hired a boat to Cyprus, but Cyprus would not let them in. Wherever they stopped, no country would let them enter. “They ended up in the Indian Ocean on a little island that held a large prison. They took some of the prisoners out of one cell and let my father stay there. My step-mother was in a dormitory with ten other women and caught Malaria. My parents couldn’t see each other at all.”

With students from Yavneh (Photo credit: Lynn Abesera Photography)

They both survived, but Risa only saw her father many years later.

“My father eventually landed in America. I went to visit him, but when he saw me, he stared at me like I was a ghost. He thought his late wife was coming back from the other world because I looked so much like my mother. I was in my late twenties.”

A New Life
In 1948, when Risa was 31, she married Gershon Igelfeld and together they had two children, David and Ruthie. She met Gershon in the most unexpected way.

“My husband’s sister was my good friend,” Risa explained. One rainy Friday night, Risa rode her bicycle to her friend’s house. The friend said, “I’m so glad you’re here. I’m expecting my brother for the weekend. He’s always so bored when he comes.”

Risa didn’t realize she already had a guest and said, “Oh, well if you have company, I’ll go home.” But her friend begged her to stay, and she agreed. “That was my future husband, but I didn’t know it.”

At first, Risa was not impressed because his English was very poor and she didn’t like the way he spoke. But the following Sunday, he unexpectedly showed up at Risa’s door. “I want to take you out.”

They went for a bicycle ride into Windsor. “We saw the royal family coming out of the chapel and that was quite exciting. Then we sat down for a picnic that he had prepared and he unpacked a beautiful lunch with all the trimmings. I was very impressed.”

She and Gershon had a lot in common. Both of their fathers were entrepreneurs. They soon married and later moved to Los Angeles. They were married for 52 years.

“A few years before he passed, my husband had several strokes and his mind was gone.”

Gershon’s friend, Ralph, would visit often, and Gershon loved it when he came. “Ralph fell in love with me right away. One time, I walked into the kitchen and he followed me and said, ‘I love you. You make me feel so young. But I’m not a marriage-wrecker. I will not say anything or do anything that’s not right.’

With the author, Sarah Pachter (Photo credit: Lynn Abesera Photography)

“Truth be told, I fell in love with him, too. My husband’s brain was not functioning. I kept him at home and cared for him. When he passed away in 2000, Ralph took over at once. Ralph was also from Vienna, and lived only five blocks from where I grew up, but we didn’t know each other at the time. We learned that we have a lot more in common than just being from Vienna. We loved to sing together and laugh. We traveled the world and created beautiful memoirs. We planned to visit Paris together, but sadly it didn’t happen because he fell down the stairs and died.”

The two of them shared companionship and a love of their own for 14 years until Ralph passed away in 2014. Six months afterwards, Risa’s daughter died from cancer. In 2015, her son tragically passed away as well.

Although Risa lost a lot of family in a short period of time, she has still kept a very positive outlook on life.

“I can be sad and miserable, but instead I choose to count my blessings.”

Starting the Day the Right Way
Even at 106, Risa begins her morning routine with half an hour of daily exercise. She works her arms, legs, and core and lifts weights daily. She also rides her stationary bike daily and imagines traveling to different places while peddling. She also plays the piano daily for an hour.

Risa has developed the attitude to accept whatever happens in life and always look for the blessing. “I had bad things happen to me. But I chose to go on living and find the sunny side of life.”

Risa had two main professions throughout her life, but kept her priorities at the forefront. “I was a very popular kindergarten teacher at the JCC and also a popular entertainer, but I always had a hot meal ready for my family.”

Family always comes first for Risa. She taught at the Westside JCC for 40 years. When she turned 100, the JCC celebrated with a birthday party.

Former Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer was there. In his speech, he said, “Risa taught my two sons. She didn’t teach them algebra – she taught them to like themselves.”

These days, everyone calls her Grandma Risa or Risa “Amazing” Igelfeld, sharing her warmth with her students and the community at large.

(Photo credit: Lynn Abesera Photography)

Risa is deeply concerned about the rise of antisemitism taking place in the world today. She believes that the best approach to combat this is to be an example to the world. “All we can do is to prove that we are decent people and that we lead a clean life. It is that which brings success to the Jews, not the ridiculous conspiracies about Jewish people.”

Final Message
Risa’s lasting message to the world is one of positivity.

“I want people to think only positively. When you think positively, there can’t also be hatred or judgment simultaneously.”

Risa believes that her positive thinking has contributed to her long life.

“I lost my two children in my lifetime. I asked myself, can I change it? No. What can I do? I can count my blessings. So I got busy counting my blessings.”

Just last week, Risa was released from the hospital for treatment but has kept herself in a positive state. She was singing Hebrew songs as she walked out the door. Risa has always had a song on her lips, which has kept her mind and heart happy.

Risa asked to close with the following blessing: “My blessing for you all is to try and think positive. Try to let your conscience be your guide, love with integrity, and in that way you will lead a happy life.”

LATEST
I AM MORE AFRAID TO REMAIN SILENT
DEBBIE GUTFREUND
Today every Jew has a choice. Do you hide now because you are afraid, or do you speak up when the whole world tries to silence you?
A recent Gallup survey found that over one in ten US Jews feel mistreated because of their religion and 60 percent feel uncomfortable being openly Jewish.

When I was little, I remember being in a mall with my grandmother around Christmas time. When Santa Claus came up to us to offer me a candy cane, I didn’t know what to say. And I remember my grandmother looking at me and whispering: “Say no thank you. Tell him you’re Jewish. Tell him you keep kosher. It’s something you should be proud of.”

I didn’t want to say anything, but my grandmother was tough and I knew I had to speak up.

“No thank you. I’m Jewish,” I mumbled.

Santa started laughing as he searched for the candy cane package. “You know what, kid? I’m Jewish too. And the candy is kosher,” he said as he handed it to me.

I thought it was so funny. Santa Claus was Jewish! But my grandmother started saying something in Yiddish as we kept walking. And a few feet away, she told me to throw out the candy cane.

“But it’s kosher, Grandma. He checked the package.”

“Maybe the candy is kosher. But Santa Claus is not a Jew. And a Jew should never put on a costume. You have something much sweeter and much more precious than a candy from a Jew who doesn’t know who he is anymore.”
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NINE MONTHS AGO I SENT MY 5 CHILDREN TO WAR
HILLEL SCHEINFELD
We are going through an extremely difficult and painful period, but what we have experienced during the past 75 years is nothing short of a miracle.
Nine Months Ago I Sent My 5 Children to War
by Hillel Scheinfeld
July 3, 2024
7 min read
We are going through an extremely difficult and painful period, but what we have experienced during the past 75 years is nothing short of a miracle.

Nine months…

Those words usually conjure up emotions of hope, anticipation, family, growth, happiness, and gratitude. At present, the words conjure up something different:

Nine months since October 7th.
Nine months at war.
Nine months being held hostage.
Nine months since the world changed
Nine months since the ugly face of antisemitism resurfaced in a way not felt since 1938.

Nine months ago, I wrote about my personal experience sending five children to war that fateful Simchat Torah. Since then, my wife and I thank God every day that our children are working hard and doing well. We have been blessed with a new granddaughter during this time, born to my son who came from the battlefield to the hospital to be with his wife, who also came to the hospital from her base to have their first child.

Yes, we are currently experiencing a very dark period, surrounded by many personal and national tragedies that are painful beyond description. But at the same time, we need to take a step back and appreciate where we are standing.

At the same time there are many families who have not been so fortunate. They have been on the receiving end of the dreaded knock at the door by soldiers tasked with the impossible mission of communicating to a family that their son, daughter, father, mother, spouse will never be coming home. My family and friends have been to many funerals. My kids have all lost friends. They have friends who have suffered injuries and they have witnessed the dark side of war and the psychological challenges that come with it.

Today, nine months has a different meaning.

I get asked all the time, “How are you and your wife doing? How do you guys sleep at night?” I always answer that we are doing well. My kids and their friends are fighting with conviction. They are taking responsibility for the Jewish people and are willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done. I am optimistic and we derive our strength from our kids and in having faith that we are doing what is needed and that this is all part of God’s plan.

I’ve been asked, “Hillel, when is this nightmare going to end?” and reply that I would not categorize Israel today as a nightmare. My optimism is not rooted in denial; it is grounded in the perspective that I believe we, as the Jewish people, need to keep in mind and remind ourselves daily.

Yes, we are currently experiencing a very dark period, surrounded by many personal and national tragedies that are painful beyond description. But at the same time, we need to take a step back and appreciate where we are standing.

We are living in Israel, our homeland, which is thriving. The city of Beit Shemesh where I live has grown from 25,000 to 150,000 people since I’ve moved here. Look at Tel Aviv, which in the past 23 years that I have been in Israel has exploded with world class skyscrapers and has become a world business center during the day and incredible cultural city by night. Look at Jerusalem – it is thriving and bustling with residents, students and tourists trying to soak in its beauty and holiness. Look at the unprecedented resurgence of Torah learning which has been supported by the government of Israel in a way that is unprecedented in the history of the Jewish people.

We have taken a desolate land that the world thought uninhabitable and turned it into one of the most thriving, beautiful, and powerful countries in the entire world. And we did this in just 75 years, under the most challenging physical, psychological and security circumstances. Every day when I drive through the amazing tunnel to Jerusalem, cutting through two mountains, or take a high-speed train to Tel Aviv, or go on vacation in the green mountains and valleys of the north, I say, “Wow! We live in the golden age of Jewish history.”

Take any Jew who has lived in the past 3000 years and drop them into Israel today, they would be utterly amazed at what they’d see.
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Who Are Sephardic Jews?
11 min read
by Tzvi Gluckin
June 30, 2024
20 min read
An overview of the history, etymology, aspirations, and roots of the Zionist movement, as well as its many detractors.

What is Zionism?
Zionism is the idea that Jewish people should live in Israel. It’s an idea that’s integral to Jewish belief and is first mentioned in the Torah, in the book of Genesis 12:7, “God appeared to Abram and said, ‘I will give this land to you and your offspring,’” with more specific boundaries mentioned in Genesis 15:18, “On that day, God made a covenant with Abram, saying, ‘To your descendants I have given this land, from the Egyptian River as far as the great river, the Euphrates…’”1

The Jewish people lived in Israel throughout the biblical period, and numerous archeological finds confirm that fact, with the oldest mention of the name, “Israel,” being the Merneptah Stele, attributed to the Egyptian pharaoh, Merneptah, who ruled from 1213-1203 BCE. The Jewish people were also considered the land’s indigenous population during the classical era. At the time, the land was called “Judea,” and the names, “Jewish,” and “Jew,” attest to that association until today.

It was during the classical era—a period when Israel’s Jewish population was, at times, sovereign, and at others, subjected to Greek and then Roman colonial rule—that the by-then long-held Zionist ideals, like the centrality of the land to Jewish observance, and the importance of living in the land, were incorporated into the daily liturgy, along with a number of fast days, and other acts of remembrance.

Throughout the long Jewish exile and diaspora, a period that started in the first centuries of the common era, Jewish people have prayed, dreamed, and longed to return to the land of Israel. Some Jews did. Some Jews never left—Israel boasts an almost continuous Jewish presence since Roman times, which ebbed and flowed depending on the geopolitical realities of the age—even after new centers of Jewish life and scholarship were established elsewhere.

The modern Zionist movement—particularly its nationalistic, political, and cultural focus—started in the late 19th century. It played a leading role in the push for Israeli independence, which was declared in 1948 after 28 years as a British colonial project, following centuries as a corrupt, dysfunctional Ottoman backwater.

In this article:
Zionism Definition
The Meaning of Zionism
Zionism History
Origins
First millennium CE
The modern Zionist movement
The Founder of Zionism
What Is Anti-Zionism?
Is Zionism Bad?
Summary
FAQ
Zionism vs Judaism: what is the difference or are they related?
What does Zionism mean?
When did Zionism start?
Zionism Definition
The word, Zion (ציון), is first mentioned in the book of Samuel II, 5:7, in reference to King David’s conquest of Jerusalem, “And David conquered the Fortress of Zion, which is the City of David.” The City of David, or Zion, is located to the south of the Temple Mount (Mount Moriah, which today is the location of the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque), just outside the walls of the modern-day Old City of Jerusalem (and the site of an extensive, and mind-blowing, archeological dig), and not to be confused with what is today called “Mount Zion,” which is the hill just outside the Old City’s Zion Gate.

But Zion is more than just a physical location. It is mentioned numerous times throughout the books of the Bible—particularly in the books of Isaiah and Psalms—in a poetic, or aspirational sense, and in reference to the Torah and the Temple as the focal points of Jewish spiritual life, like it says in Isaiah 2:3, “Many people will go and say, ‘Come, let us go up to the Mount of God, to the Temple of the God of Jacob, that He may teach us His ways and we may walk in His paths.’ For the Torah shall go forth from Zion, and the word of God from Jerusalem.”

Jews Praying at Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, by Johann Martin Bernatz (Ottoman Archives, 1868)

In other words, Zion is a concept that entwines the highest ideals of Jewish belief together with Jerusalem and the land of Israel. It’s also mentioned many times in the daily Jewish prayer service, which reinforces that connection. That said, in 1880, when, in response to pogroms in Russia, a number of Jewish activists dedicated to promoting Jewish immigration to what would become the state of Israel decided to join forces, they called their new group “Lovers of Zion” (Hovevei Zion/חובבי ציון). It was the intuitive choice.

The term “Zionism” was coined in 1890 by Nathan Birnbaum,2 who was a former student activist—he co-founded the Vienna-based Jewish student organization, Kadimah, in 1883—and published, Self Emancipation! (Selbstemanzipation!), in which he wrote many of the articles (under different names), and also came up with other iterations of the term like “Zionist” and “political Zionism.”

The Zionist movement, depending on who you asked, was either a political, cultural, religious, or national movement—or, most likely, a combination of those ideals—that captured the popular imagination with the publication of Theodor Herzl’s, the Jewish State (Der Judenstaat), in 1896. It became a political force the following year with the First Zionist Congress, organized by Herzl, in Basel, Switzerland.

The Meaning of Zionism
The modern Zionist movement is not monolithic—different Zionist groups emphasize different issues they deem important, be they national, religious, or otherwise—but their common denominator is the importance and centrality of living in Israel.

The roots of Zionism as a modern nationalist movement were first outlined in the pamphlet, Auto-Emancipation (Selbstemanzipation), published by Polish-born physician and activist, Leon Pinsker, in 1882. Pinsker had advocated for enlightenment values and equal rights for much of his life (he was born in 1821), but in the 1880s, after successive waves of violent anti-Jewish pogroms in Russia, became convinced that antisemitism was too great a force to overcome, and that Jewish self-rule was the only alternative. That idea caught on, and became an animating Zionist ideal.

The revival of Hebrew as a spoken language was another important aspect of early Zionism. Throughout the centuries, Hebrew had been kept alive as a language of scholarship and prayer, but few people spoke it, and its pronunciation varied depending on the community. Eliezer Ben Yehuda, a Lithuanian-born linguist and journalist, led the effort to standardize pronunciation, started a group that created new Hebrew terms for modern words, and began work on a Hebrew-language dictionary that his wife completed and published after his death.

Other important streams in Zionist thought include religious Zionism, which emphasizes the theological basis for the Jewish return to Israel; cultural Zionism, which sees Israel as the spiritual center of a global Jewish cultural revival; and various socialist movements that led to the establishment of communal settlements, or kibbutzim.

Zionism History
Origins
As mentioned above, the Jewish people lived in Israel in biblical times. After years of conquest and strife, which included the destruction of Jerusalem—as described in the biblical book of Kings—many of those Jews were resettled in Babylon, in what is today Iraq. Babylon itself fell to the Persian Empire about 50 years later, and soon, some Jews made their way back to Israel. It was also around this time that the names “Jewish” and “Jew,” meaning “the people from the land of Judea”—the area that is today Israel—were first applied to the Jewish people as a whole.3

That first return to Israel, led by Ezra—and as described in the book of Ezra, chapter 8—is known as the “Return to Zion,” which is taken from Psalms 126, “When God returns the returners to Zion (שיבת ציון), we will be like dreamers.”

That idea, that the Jewish people are not a homeless religious community, but a nation with a specific, and particular homeland, is integral to Jewish identity and belief. It is a defining characteristic of Jewish spiritual life, and, in addition to a continuous Jewish presence in Israel since Roman times, many diaspora Jews made the effort to return and establish communities in Israel over the years, with varying degrees of success.

First millennium CE
Contrary to the simplistic way Jewish history is often taught, the Jewish people were not exiled from Israel following the Roman destruction of Jerusalem and the Second Temple in the year 70. Jewish life continued in Israel for centuries after that event, although most of that era’s leaders and scholars were based in northern Israel, in the Galilee. The last major revolt against Roman rule was the Bar Kochba Rebellion (in the years 132-136), which the Romans crushed. As a result, and in an effort to show Roman dominance, the Romans renamed Judea “Syria Palestina,” and that name was used, with modifications, throughout the remainder of Roman rule (the emperor, Hadrian, had already changed Jerusalem’s name to “Aelia Capitolina” in around the year 130).

Despite those hardships, Jewish intellectual life in Israel thrived in the first centuries of the common era. The Mishna, the six-volume foundational work of Jewish law, was compiled and redacted in the Galilee in around the year 200. The first iteration of the Talmud, the Jerusalem Talmud, was compiled in the year 350, in that same region. Many other important rabbinical texts were composed in Israel in that period as well. However, life under the Romans was difficult, and by the fifth century the center of gravity of Jewish life had shifted to what is today Iraq, with major academies in cities along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Although, even with those changes, major scholars still lived in the Galilee and Golan, and, as is often noted in the Babylonian Talmud (compiled and redacted in the fifth century), visited the academies in Iraq, and brought them news of life—as well as the opinions of the leading scholars—in Israel.
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