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A boy observes police as they patrol the streets of Tarabin al-Sana, a Bedouin town in southern Israel, on December 31, 2025. (Charlie Summers/Times of Israel)

Yardena Bagantz

The Negev’s future cannot be secured by police cruisers alone

The Shin Bet warns of terrorist cells forming in the south — but tackling the threat means addressing the root causes that draw young Bedouins toward crime and extremism

Students at Beth El Temple in West Hartford, Connecticut add to a communal art piece marking the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 attacks, Oct. 7, 2024. (Tyler Russell/Connecticut Public via Getty Images)

Dena Klein

Oct. 7 made it impossible to ignore what’s missing from Israel education

We need to help Diaspora Jews build a relationship with the country that can hold the weight of reality – even in difficult times

Illustrative. A segment of an eruv, including the plastic white pipe on the pole, as a 'lechi,' in Airmont, New York, on February 6, 2018. (Wehwalt/ Gary Greenbaum/ Wikipedia

Amy Handlin

What an ‘eruv’ taught me about fighting antisemitism

Getting to know your local leadership now means you can turn to them later (I know; I was the politician tapped to help a NJ Jewish community)

Illustration. (J Studios via Getty Images)

Arnie Draiman

When did $650,000 become a reasonable Jewish nonprofit salary?

We need talented people leading our charities. But does paying a CEO twice as much deliver twice the impact, or simply leave less money for the mission?

(iStock)

Tehilla Shwartz Altshuler

ChatGPT was on my medical team

I made my own decision, of course, but the machine’s influence far exceeds its data, depending on how we relate to it: tool, team-member, or authority

(LBD Creative)

Sarah Tuttle-Singer

Jerusalem’s Old City: Never the same place twice

There are real tensions here. Real grievances, fears, and injustices. Moments of kindness don’t erase them, but the sunshine and rainbows and kumbaya are real too

Barbie Holiday Sweater Doll (Mattel)

Yael Buechler

Hanukkah Barbie is here — and she actually got it right

After years of Jewish holiday merchandising that’s off target or just plain wrong, there’s something powerful about finally feeling seen

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Oct 13, 2026, 9:34 PM

Noach: True Strength

True Strength at the Mabul - Grok XAI

The Mabul, the flood! Let’s point our focus on Hashem through this entire episode. The Gemara in Shabbos 88a tells us that when Hashem first created the world He said, “If the Yidden accept the Torah you (creation) will...

Oct 13, 2026, 8:34 PM

What changed after the flood was not humanity

Parashat Noach suggests that covenant begins when perfection is no longer the condition for relationship. Living in South Florida during hurricane season teaches you a peculiar discipline. You watch the cone. You secure what you can. You charge the phones,...

Chaim Y. Botwinick

Oct 13, 2026, 8:23 PM

How October 7th Changed Our World Forever

It is so hard to fathom that three years have past since we experienced the horrible October 7th tragedy. With a reported 1.5 million Israels who are currently impacted psychologically, emotionally and physically by this tragedy, the shocks, aftershocks and...

Nassir Hussein Kahin

Oct 13, 2026, 8:06 PM

Words Matter: Trump Opens the Somaliland Recognition Door

Trump’s public distinction gives Somaliland’s recognition campaign a new political opening. Credit: HOASR original infographics.

Trump’s distinction between Somaliland and Somalia—and his advice to change the name—give recognition advocates a sharper argument as Washington’s confidence in Mogadishu weakens. Donald Trump has given Somaliland’s recognition campaign more than a memorable rally quotation. By calling Somaliland “a...

Grant Arthur Gochin

Oct 13, 2026, 8:03 PM

Lithuania Told Congress It Fixed the Lie

On May 12, 2026, Lithuania’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs wrote in a letter to Congressman Brad Sherman, relying, in its own words, on “information supplied by” Lithuania’s Genocide and Resistance Research Centre (LGGRTC). The Ministry reported that the Centre...

Oct 13, 2026, 8:02 PM

Anti-Zionism Without Zionism

This essay is, in a sense, a continuation of two previous pieces I wrote about antisemitism and anti-Zionism. In the first, A Chimerical Test for Antisemitism, I suggested that one useful way of identifying when hostility toward Israel or...

Oct 13, 2026, 7:59 PM

When Leaders Compete to Be the Toughest: Noah 5787

When Leaders Compete to Be the Toughest: Trump, Netanyahu, and a World Losing Its Moral Bearings Parashat Noah and the danger of turning punishment into a spectacle There is something deeply unsettling about the political moment in which we find ourselves....

Oct 13, 2026, 7:32 PM

What to do with the Lulav and Etrog?

Every year, as we approach the final day of Sukkot, shake the lulav in all directions and inhale the exquisite fragrance of the etrog one last time, I already know where I will place these sacred items. I refer to...

Oct 13, 2026, 6:16 PM

Sometimes you just lift up your hands and say: ‘HaShem I can’t do this without you!’

Image AI Generated Certain things that you go through in life almost lead you to say: “HaShem, I don’t need you (G-d Forbid).” Stay away from this type of thinking. It is assur (forbidden)! Everything you go through in life. All the risks that are in...

Alexandria Fanjoy Silver

Oct 13, 2026, 5:59 PM

Mapping a Blindspot

Since October 7th, historians and educators have lamented that Holocaust education, particularly as it is taught in public schools, seems to have profoundly failed. In the effort to universalize the Holocaust, we diluted its message to fit within a...

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