Author: Sara Wood

Photo Credit: Jewish Press “The children agitated within her, and she said, ‘If so, why am I like this?’ She went to inquire of Hashem who said to her, ‘Two nations are in your womb; two regimes from your inside will be separated’” (Bereishis 25:22-23). The Degel Machane Ephraim comments that the Torah is teaching […]

Photo Credit: United Kingdom Armed Forces; Imperial War Museum Cheerful women inmates collect their bread ration after the Liberation of Bergen-belsen, April 1945 A rabbinical court’s register concerning the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany, covering the dates from May 12, 1947 to January 7, 1948, and containing about 85 court rulings permitting Holocaust survivors to […]

[embedded content] In a Tuesday interview with Andrew Neil on BBC, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said he “regrets” the anti-Semitic incidents in his party, but stopped short of personally apologizing, in response to UK Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis’s harsh criticism. Piers Morgan said on Good Morning Britain the next day that Corbyn “must be anti-Semitic.” […]

Photo Credit: Jewish Press It’s a haunting question. Why did Yitzchak love Eisav? The verse says so explicitly: “Yitzchak, who had a taste for wild game, loved Eisav, but Rivka loved Yaakov” (Bereishis 25:28). Whichever way we read this verse, it is perplexing. If we read it literally, it suggests that Yitzchak’s affections were governed by […]

Photo Credit: Wisam Hashlamoun/Flash90 Israeli security forces demolish the home of an Arab terrorist who took part in last August’s murder of Dvir Sorek, November 28, 2019. IDF, Border Police and Civil Administration forces on Wednesday night demolished the homes of the families of Ahmad Aref Asafreh and his brother Qassem, Naseer Saleh Asafreh and […]

Photo Credit: Flash90 Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then Finance Minister Yair Lapid, July 3, 2013. Twelve days are left for the Knesset’s dispersion and Israel appears to be running for third elections, but Likud negotiators, in a last-ditch effort to resolve the political crisis and prevent the elections, has offered Blue&White a unity government […]

Photo Credit: Courtesy IDF Cpl. Dvir Yehuda Sorek Hy’d IDF forces on Thursday morning demolished the homes of four terrorists who murdered Dvir Sorek, in Gush Etzion, in August 2019. Qassim Araf Khalil Asfara, Nazir Saleh Jaber Asfara, Ahmed Araf Khalil Asfra and Yosef Said Attia Zahor of the village of Beit Kahil near Hebron […]

Photo Credit: Wikipedia Drawing of Lord George Gordon After Conversion to Judaism. (From a drawing by Polack.) With the prevalence of conversions to Judaism today, some may be surprised to learn that only a few recorded cases of conversion in modern times exist before about 50 years ago. Indeed, probably more halachic responsa on conversions […]

Photo Credit: Jewish Press Hakofos with the Rebbe on Shemini Atzeres and Simchas Torah were always a high point of the year. Chassidim thronged from around the globe, sometimes staying in Crown Heights for just those two days to imbibe the unbridled enthusiasm and simcha shel mitzvah and get the burst of super inspiration they […]

Photo Credit: Hassan Jedi/Flash90 A rocket fired at Israel from Gaza. {Originally posted to the JNS website} Once again, Israel and Gaza have briefly traded rocket fire only to quickly deescalate. However, this time Hamas mostly stayed out of the fighting, leaving Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) to fight Israel alone. This shift suggests that the […]