Friday September 18, 2025 – כ״ו אֱלוּל תשפ”ה There is a memorable and jarring scene in the 2006 Israeli movie “Sweet Mud”/ “אדמה משוגעת” in which the main character, 12-Year-Old Dvir, who cares for his mentally unstable mother, is trying to prepare for his bar mitzvah, which at the kibbutz is combined with a severe […]

Friday, September 12, 2025 – Early this week, many of us were hopeful that we would learn of some progress made in negotiations for a ceasefire and a hostage return. Then, on Tuesday, that drastically changed when news broke of an Israeli strike in… Doha, Qatar of all places, targeting top Hamas leadership. The hope […]

September 5, 2025 – י״ב אֱלוּל תשפ”ה This week, the calendar collides with history. The 700th day of war in Gaza is upon us, a grim reminder of how what began as a just war of self-defense has turned into Israel’s longest in history, with increasingly dubious legitimacy – by far. And it is a […]

Friday August 28, 2025 – ה׳ אֱלוּל תשפ”ה As we approach day 700 of the war, Israel faces a triple imperative: to eradicate Hamas, to bring the hostages home, and to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. All goals are moral imperatives, yet each threatens to complicate the other. Hamas’s October 7 attacks exposed the […]

Friday August 22, 2025 – כ״ח אָב תשפ”ה  There was a short Israeli news clip this week in which two young men in their 20s were pitted one against the other in a quasi-debate style interview. One wore a black suit jacket, a white button-down shirt, was clean-shaven, with slicked-back hair, and a black velvet […]