This commemorative edition of the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 massacre is being posted in lieu of this week’s regular Tuesday edition. Horrors, Hostages and Heroes: First Anniversary of 10/7 Attacks BACKGROUND – TALKING POINTS – ACTIONS – STORIES MAKING NEWS Hearts pounded with fear as sirens blared, rocket interceptions boomed across the sky as […]
The Day of T’ruah: 101 Calls of the Shofar “The teru’ah which the Torah mentions … — we do not know what it is: whether it resembles the wailing with which the women cry when they moan, or the sighs which a person who is distressed about a major matter will release repeatedly, or perhaps […]
Iran Attacks Israel Following Nasrallah Killing BACKGROUND – TALKING POINTS – FACTS – ACTIONS – 10/7 RESOURCES – STORIES Israel’s northern towns have been under a relentless barrage of deadly Hezbollah rockets, missiles and drones displacing more than 60,000 Israelis – the equivalent of 2 million Americans – for the last year. The attacks have displaced Israeli […]
Rabbi Hillel Skolnik, President, MERCAZ USA Dear Friends, As we usher in the very first moments of 5785, it will have been two weeks since we gathered together online for our General Council meeting which not only installed a new slate of officers, but challenged us with the question of the limits of our tent […]
A shelter for the soul The Home Front Command urges us to properly prepare the shelters in our homes and in public places. They explain that it is a matter of saving lives—actual, physical lives. A shelter and the need to prepare it carefully it advance are not new. The Bible tells us about the […]
Iran and Hezbollah’s Escalating Conflict Against America and Israel BACKGROUND – TALKING POINTS – ACTIONS – STORIES We value the feedback of our readers and invite you to please take 15 seconds to answer two questions about this week’s edition by clicking the image right below the Actions to Consider section. After enduring nearly a […]
UN Legitimizes Seat for Palestine: Trophy for 10/7 BACKGROUND – TALKING POINTS – FACTS – ACTIONS – STORIES We value the feedback of our readers and invite you to please take 10 seconds to answer two questions about this week’s edition by clicking the image right below the Actions to Consider section. Despite a raging […]
Our tradition places great importance on the connections we feel with other people. We note those connections through happy events, such as a wedding or Bat Mitzvah, and sad events, such as a funeral and burial. In this week’s Torah reading, Ki Tetse, we read of how we must let a captured woman mourn the […]
Islamist Terrorism Still Threatening Freedom and Democracy BACKGROUND – TALKING POINTS – ACTIONS – VOICES – STORIES As we mark the 23rd anniversary of September 11, 2001, we are reminded of the nearly 3,000 innocent lives lost in the brutal acts of terrorism. Their memory lives on, not only in the hearts of their loved ones, […]
We are in the midst of the sheva‘ de-neḥamta, the seven Haftarot of consolation that are chanted between Tish‘ah Be-Av and Rosh Hashanah. How can we be consoled this year, in the wake of the slaughter on October 7? Ibn Ezra and modern scholars teach us that Isaiah 40–66 were written by a second author […]