William Hamilton

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Jan 24, 2025, 5:12 PM

How You Make Your Decisions

“Get me Amit’s family on the phone! I won’t breathe until I speak to Amit’s family!” Amit, a 22-year-old paramedic, was murdered on October 7, 2023 by Hamas enemies-of-peace (this describes them as well as ‘terrorists’). From his hospital...

Jan 17, 2025, 5:18 PM

“There was a moment when they (young IDF casualties) were laid out next to each other. And I went up to each one and touched their faces gently, I caressed them for a moment, and then I told them...

Jan 10, 2025, 5:39 PM

‘Because I wasn’t running alone’

“I was so worried about you,” said the young rabbinical student, Gerald Wolpe, to a frail Holocaust survivor in 1947. They were awaiting a Madison Square Garden viewing of the UN vote, authorizing the State of Israel. Everybody had...

Jan 3, 2025, 5:02 PM

Change-for-the-Better

“We need to talk,” said the father of 17-year-old Barnash, nicknamed the wild stallion. It was back in 2005 when Israel removed all traces of Jewish life from Gaza. Barnash was furious. He and his extremist friends were hostile...

Dec 27, 2024, 5:31 PM

‘Self-motivators are Great Storytellers’

Darkness sometimes helps light do its job. The sages say, if you light a match at midday, in broad daylight, it won’t have the brightening effect it does when you light it at midnight. This doesn’t mean dark times...

Dec 20, 2024, 5:33 PM

Doing Wonders for Your Spirit

“When my reserve unit didn’t call me up for duty, I sank into a deep depression” writes Yair, the co-editor of One Day in October about the emptiness and fear he felt back in October of 2023. “For long...

Dec 13, 2024, 9:30 PM

Eyal was moved by the Syrian children he met when he launched Project Good Neighbor in 2016. “I would see young kids who’d been brought to Israel for treatment fall down and get hurt, but not cry” he began....

Dec 6, 2024, 5:26 PM

A bit more strength

“Listen,” said Or, the female IDF Battalion Commander we met a couple of weeks ago. She was confronting a troubled soldier who’d recently gone AWOL and was never reachable when he went home for Shabbat.” That story’s not going...

Nov 29, 2024, 4:03 PM

Another Tale of Love and Darkness

“I’m sick of telling the story because it’s important. I just want some peace and quiet.” This from 15-year-old Gali. Her adroit use of WhatsApp on that terrifying October 7 morning, provided the IDF with precise locations for hundreds...

Nov 22, 2024, 11:50 PM

Confronting Self-Doubt Pushes Me Forward

“We reach the edge of an embankment,” 35-year-old Or tells of her perilous plight as an IDF Commander that terrifying October 7 morning. “I peer my head up and see a sight I will never forget as long as...

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About Me

Rabbi William Hamilton has served as rabbi (mara d'atra) of Kehillath Israel in Brookline, MA since 1995.