I always look forward to. For eight days, I get more and more excited as the day continues and the next night of Chanukah approaches. While life will always have its share of dark moments, the opportunity to spend a week surrounded by close family and friends, re-telling the story of the miracle of the Jewish people’s survival, against all odds, in their battle against the mighty Greek empire, is always uplifting. more

May 1948. Tough times for the Jewish people, particularly for Jews struggling to claw out a place for themselves in a land they hoped to claim as their own. A few months after the United Nations … more

A black and white image of a Jew being beaten in the streets of Vienna. Jews being forced onto trains and deported. A column of Jews with despairing faces, forced out of town, herded down a … more

One of the conclusions of an IDF review of the Tzuk Eitan (Defensive Shield) war fought in Gaza in the summer of 2014 was that it was a bad idea to have encouraged soldiers to write letters to their … more

More than what he was saying, it was his face that caught my attention. Flicking on the television absent-mindedly as I was getting dressed for a wedding, I came across the middle of a program with a … more

S he was the Other Doctor of Auschwitz and I recently read a story about her in Yitta Halberstam’s small miracles series.  A young woman (we’ll call her Chaya) had just arrived … more

I can still see the terrified look on his face as we both realized, in the same moment, that we had been set up. more

One of the most challenging experiences I had in the Israeli army had nothing to do with combat or being in the field, but transpired during a moment of relative calm, when things were looking pretty good. We were at the tail-end of a harrowing month of reserve duty in the Gaza strip in the midst of the intifada. It was my first stint as an officer in the reserves. more

Human beings will go against every natural instinct for reasons that often cannot be explained. We will give away our food, despite being hungry, when others are in need. We will give another our … more

One of the guys I was in yeshiva with tried to convince me not to sign up for Officer’s course. I would be forced to spend an additional year and a half in the army, without any spiritual … more