Zack Rothbart, at The Blogs

Zack Rothbart

Jan 8, 2025, 5:20 PM

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Clinton Bailey, friend of Ben-Gurion and the Bedouin

The prolific researcher, who died this week, was revered by the people whose lives he documented with loving respect

Dec 25, 2024, 10:30 PM

The eternal flicker

Hanukkah in Jerusalem, 2018 - 5779 (Photo: Zack Rothbart)

There is something sublimely and humblingly eternal about candles' flames. Specifically when you know your ancestors meditated upon candle flames too. That they flickered when the ancient Greek colonizers tried to destroy us… in body and spirit, and when – a...

Sep 29, 2024, 12:03 PM

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The Hasid’s triumphant blow

Seeing an unmanned shofar on the lectern, the Hasid decided he would be the one to blow it at the end of prayers – and blow it he did

Sep 11, 2024, 4:16 PM

Starting School on the Darkest Day of the Year

A sticker calling for Hersh's release, September 1, 2024 (Photo: Zack Rothbart)

The first day of school is always a bit of a strange sort of national holiday in Israel. The tongue in cheek question every year is: Are we celebrating because the children have embarked on another year of educational enrichment and...

Jun 30, 2024, 11:54 AM

Haredi draft and hostage release on a single Talmudic page

A demonstration for the release of the Israeli hostages in Gaza, which took place in front of the Kirya in Tel Aviv, October 2023 (Lizzy Shaanan / Pikiwiki Israel, CC BY 2.5), via Wikimedia Commons

It’s kind of disheartening, yet also strangely comforting to know that many of the issues we are dealing with today have kind of always been around… Like many others, I try and keep up with ‘Daf Yomi’ – learning one...

Jun 4, 2024, 5:19 AM

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Liberating the Western Wall with a prayer book

IDF Chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren holding a Torah scroll and blowing a Shofar next to the Western Wall (Courtesy: IDF Archives)

An impromptu prayer service was held that day in 1967 when Israel captured Jerusalem's Old City – there was just one item missing

Sep 19, 2023, 1:51 PM

Is there only one religious Zionism?

In early 2021, a relatively fringe group of Jewish nationalists went ahead and did perhaps the most brilliant political rebranding act in Israel’s history. They called themselves The Religious Zionist Party. The new name implied many things. Firstly, the...

Jul 13, 2023, 9:24 PM

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Remembering the Yom Kippur War… in a bouncy castle?

A shark-themed inflatable slide adjacent to the Mandate-era Tegart fortress, now home to the IDF Armored Corps Memorial Museum (Photo: Zack Rothbart)

An inflatable giraffe and a Sponge Bob labyrinth don't remove the pain of war, but they make kids happy, and isn't that the point?

Jun 21, 2023, 4:11 PM

What would the Rebbe think of ChatGPT? Depends who you ask

I asked ChatGPT what it thinks the Lubavitcher Rebbe would think of it. This is what it answered: “As an AI language model, I don't have personal opinions or beliefs, but I can provide some perspective based on the teachings and...

May 21, 2023, 6:28 PM

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Is there a lesson in Israel’s bizarre bread boycott?

Haredi consumers took offense when Omer Bar-Lev supposedly insulted a great Torah scholar. There's just one problem...

About Me

Zack Rothbart is a Jerusalem-based writer, publicist and consultant. He is currently Senior Strategist at Concrete Media, and previously served as the National Library of Israel's international spokesman. Zack tries to learn something from everyone, and lives with his endearing and thought-provoking family, for which he is grateful. Feel free to email him via the "Contact Me" link above.

Contact Me