Thank Goodness it is Friday (and Sabbath)
“On the Seventh Day God ended His Work and He Rested”. The Book of Genesis describes how the world was created and the overwhelming interpretation of the story comes from this Seventh Day. For thousands of years, the Jewish people have looked at the seventh day as the day of rest. The Sabbath quickly became […]
Jewish Law or Democratic Rule?
In January of 2020, the High Court in Israel ruled that during Passover, hospitals do not have the right to prevent visitors or patients to bring non-kosher (“hametz”) food into the facility. The court declared that it is an infringement on basic rights of citizens to eat what they prefer, even if it means eating […]
When a Refugee knocks on your door
The war in Ukraine has been raging for two weeks now and the humanitarian situation is deteriorating fast. More and more Ukrainians are attempting to escape the fighting and borders to Poland and Moldova are swamped with refugees who want to cross into safety. More than one and a half million people have already fled […]
Of Civil Marriage and Racial Purity
This week it was reported that Religious Services minister Matan Kahana is considering legislation that will allow civil marriages to take place in Foreign Consulates in Israel. However, he is demanding that as compensation for this (some say) dramatic gesture, the coalition will agree to amend the Law of Return and repel the so-called grandchild […]
PEGASUS: The Flying Horse that should urgently have its wings clipped.
Pegasus, the white, winged horse, and its story, is a favorite theme in Greek mythology and has often been regarded as a symbol of poetic inspiration. So how did an Israeli cyber technology company come up with the idea to name its most successful product after the mystical flying white horse? It is hard to […]
The Absurdity of Invoking the Holocaust in Corona Protests
The Corona pandemic has been with us for two years now and chances are it is here to stay at least for a while longer. All over the world, governments are trying to cope, trying to keep the spread of the virus under control and limiting the number of sick that need to be cared […]
The Politics of Illegal Israeli Settlements
The illegal settlement Homesh was originally established as a Nahal (military) outpost in the occupied West bank but turned into a civilian village shortly after that. While it was originally inhabited mostly by secular right-wing Jews, the Second Intifada convinced most of those to leave and their place was taken by mostly religious (orthodox) Jews […]
Israel and Iran: Verbally at Each Other’s Throats
With the renewal of the negotiations between Iran and the Western powers, in an effort to renew the agreement on the nuclear activities of Iran, the background noise from the two main players in this dragged out conflict, Israel and Iran, is becoming stronger and stronger and is at times overwhelming the news from the […]
West Bank Settler Violence: The Salt of a Scorched Earth
This week a Yeshiva student was killed by Palestinian terrorist near the illegal settlement Homesh. The 23-year old Israeli was killed by gunfire and two of his friends that were with him in the car were injured. The attack occurred after a week in which the Minister of Public Security came under fire from both […]
Daniel Lev: A Small Girl in a Jewish World
This is not a story from Apartheid South Africa. And not from Nazi Germany. This is a story from Israel in the year 2021. A little girl, Daniel, only seven years old, is experiencing the full force of Israeli racism, and the main reason for her suffering is because her father died. Shmuel Lev spent […]
