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Oct 15, 2026, 11:49 PM

A Letter to My Mother (Z”L) on her 75th Birthday

Dear Mom, Happy 75th birthday. Today Jonas turns seven, and tomorrow you would have turned 75. Your two birthdays, one day apart, always arrive together. I'm looking at a photo from your 71st, the last birthday we all had together: the two...

Oct 14, 2026, 8:43 PM

When Joy Gets In: From Fenway to Yom Kippur – Yom Kippur Kol Nidrei 5787

“You can go through. But you, please step over here.” “This isn’t good.” The woman at the metal detector had stopped Ben, Talya’s brand-new husband. It had been only 24 hours since I even had a son-in-law, and now I was already...

Oct 13, 2026, 10:31 AM

A list of the people you have lost

Every Jewish calendar I have used has a page most people never look at until they need it. It holds a short list: a name, a Hebrew date, sometimes a relationship. Father. Grandmother. A brother. It tells you when...

Oct 9, 2026, 6:39 AM

The Letter My Grandfather Will Never Read

In loving memory of my grandfather, Brig. Gen. Zvi Amid "I will never be Prime Minister, because I don't want to get killed." I was only four years old when I said that to my parents. I grew up in an...

Michael Laitman

Oct 8, 2026, 11:54 PM

What Does It Mean to Be Jewish in Modern Israel?

The key to a good life is in harmonious human connections. If we build a society that feels like a family, the problems from which we all suffer will be resolved. Where do these ideas come from, and why...

Tony D. Senatore

Oct 7, 2026, 2:49 PM

Mom’s Thoughts on Labor and Immigration

My mother, age 90, often says that the government should pass laws requiring business owners to provide healthcare to their employees. She may be 90, but she's smarter than most people I know. She's neither beholden to a major...

Oct 5, 2026, 12:06 PM

Three years on, fare well

Illustrative: Israeli soldiers gather near the border with Gaza before entering the Hamas-run enclave on October 31, 2023. (Gil COHEN-MAGEN / AFP)

In war, we learned to carry one another despite our differences. Now I am trying to bring that way of being together home

Oct 1, 2026, 1:23 PM

David Citadel – where Old Jerusalem meets Modernity

There is a famous saying in real estate: "location, location, location…." to justify premium real estate value. This phrase just about captures the essence of what makes the David Citadel Hotel in Jerusalem so unique. The David Citadel Hotel first...

Mordechai Soskil

Sep 30, 2026, 12:23 AM

Happiness is Overrated

Of all the Jewish holidays, the one most closely associated with happiness is Sukkot. The prayer service calls Sukkot Zman Simchateinu – the time of our happiness. The Torah instructs us to take the Lulav and Etrog and “rejoice”...

Janet Bond Brill

Sep 28, 2026, 9:24 PM

She Danced for the Gestapo. Then She Danced the Hora

One of my favorite photographs of my mother-in-law, Edna, sits on my desk. She is high above a dance floor, lifted on a chair during the hora. Her platinum curls are immaculate. Her mouth is wide open in a...

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