I have been so moved by the events over the last two weeks in Israel. I have been, for some reason, more affected by this than I have been by the infinite number of horrific trage­dies experienced in Israel prior to this. Maybe it’s because the targets here were children, and as a father I can’t bear the thought of losing my own child in such a way. Maybe it’s

Over the past 18 days, most, if not all large Jewish group meetings or organizations in the area have begun or ended proceedings with tehillim said for the three kidnapped Is­raeli boys, known to many now by their first names: Naftali, Eyal and Gilad. Weddings and Shabbos davening, as well as daily minya­nim, were punctuated by special prayers said on their

Bradley Scott’s shout-out to the White House, silent so far about the kidnapping of three Israeli youth this week, could also be di­rected at an audience formerly supportive of Israel: American Christian leaders.

Response from American “Christian Pal­estinianists” to the kidnappings this week by Hamas of three Israeli teenagers is almost non-existent.

Back in the mid-’70s there was a ground­breaking female superhero on Saturday morn­ing TV called Isis. An American high school science teacher found a magic amulet on an archeological dig in Egypt that allowed her to turn into the ancient goddess Isis who had su­perhuman powers to control the elements and use these powers to fight evil. The show only

We are not the first Jews to live with enor­mous uncertainty about the future. Uncer­tainty, however, can be both paralyzing and liberating. When the Jewish people have great leadership, times of great uncertain­ty have become times of opportunity and transformation.

The biblical narrative we read this week (Numbers 13:1-15:41) tells a dramatic story about

Although Israel has been at the heart of day-school curricula for decades, we have known little about how schools teach and students learn about Israel—at least until last month, when the AviChai Foundation released its study of Israel Education in Jewish day schools and high schools across America. The report explored the following questions: What do schools hope to

(originally printed in the Times of Israel, reprinted with permission of the author)

Oh, I wish I could write a love story about my people, the Jewish people. After all, I do love them and apparently, according to the Bible, so does God. So, who am I to argue? They have contributed so much to humanity on all fronts in such unfathomable abundance that even the

The Iranian regime’s new en­emy, it seems, is Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi. Iran’s mullahs apparently fear Sisi’s secular stance against Islamist movements, and see him as an obstacle to Iran’s fu­ture influence in the Middle East.

According to the Jordan-based media outlet Al-Bawaba, Iran is de­termined to put an end to

Recently, two articles appeared in Haaretz that should have come as no surprise to those working in Israel engagement. In one, Chemi Shalev discusses the ever-growing gap, at risk of reaching crisis proportions, between staunchly left-wing American Jews and an ever rightward-moving Israel (see page 31 of JLBC Issue #36) In another, Arnon Ment­ver, CEO of the Joint

Should Israel Be a Funder of Day-School Education in the Diaspora?

“Don’t worry America, Israel is behind you.” The popular t-shirt bearing this slogan usually features a print of an F-16 jet and is ubiquitous at souvenir shops along Jerusalem’s Ben Yehuda Street. How’s this for a new slogan, “Don’t worry overburdened

Challenging assumed norms: how should it be done and how should it be received? These are among the questions of the hour for our North American Jewish communities, and they have a whole host of applications— generational divides, changes in the commu­nal structures of Jewish life, relationships to the State of Israel, etc., etc., etc. One portrait in

A few weeks ago, Ely Rosenstock wrote a wonderful piece about the “tuition tax” and the need for parents to make sound financial decisions based on the affordability of a neighborhood and a day school. His piece, like my own previous essay, “A Transparent Proposal,” was inspired by Moriah Day School’s Tuition Assistance Program.

Rosenstock’s thesis