My Father’s Visit from the Next World by Beth Sarafraz He insisted on a cup of coffee. Little did I know he was saving my life. Winter, 2014. The heat in my apartment went off at 10 p.m. and it was freezing cold. So I went into the kitchen, opened the oven door and turned … Read more
by Naomi Ragen A trip to France reveals how its citizens are learning to live in the shadow of terrorism. “So, you’re probably not coming…” my daughter said with a mixture of fear and resignation. We were on the phone, I in Jerusalem, she in Paris, the day after the massive terrorist attacks in the … Read more
Moshe Kempinski After the ninth plague Pharaoh’s heart is almost broken and he declares the following to Moshe; “Go! Worship Hashem, but your flocks and your cattle shall be left. Your young children may also go with you.”( Exodus 10:24) It is then that Moshe declares an unusual request. Extremely unusual considering the hundreds of … Read more
by Michael Freund A whopping 67 percent of Palestinians support stabbing attacks against Israelis. Every once in a while, a news item comes along that captures the essence of an issue, encapsulating a point so crucial and fundamental that it manages to convey just about all one needs to know about a given subject. Such … Read more
Moshe Kempinski Hashem explains to Moshe that he is going to bring his people , as “a people” out of the Egyptian bondage. Hashem could have simply said that “I will bring my children out of Egypt”. Instead Hashem uses four expressions to describe this process. A process that in of itself will eventually bring … Read more
Omri Efraim Over 30,000 new immigrants arrived in Israel in 2015, the highest number in over a decade. Nearly 8,000 came from France amid a wave of terror attacks, while around 7,000 came from Ukraine. Tel Aviv received the most olim, followed by Netanya, Jerusalem and Haifa. Statistics published by the Ministry of Immigrant Absorption … Read more
by Reuven Schwartz ( in the picture At the scene: Revuven Schwartz, the author, with white beard at right.) Right in front of me, two Arabs stabbed a rabbi in cold blood. On Wednesday morning I visited my daughter, who lives in the Old City of Jerusalem. As I was leaving through Jaffa Gate I … Read more
Moshe Kempinski The book of Exodus is called the book of Names ( Sefer Shemot); ” And these are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt; with Jacob, each man and his household came:”( Exodus 1:1) . The giving and choosing of names cannot be understood as being arbitrary and is … Read more
