Yom Yerushalayim, which commemorates the reunification of Jerusalem following the Six-Day War in June 1967, 49 years ago, is observed on 28 Iyar (this year, June 5). Jewish Star columnist Rabbi Binny … more

His eyes haunt me. His name was Martin Shtiebel, and his picture is one of many on display in the museum at Dachau, the first and longest standing concentration camp. In 1933, the year Hitler … more

A number of years ago, I met a fellow with whom I struck up a friendship, over Pesach, and I discovered he was a Holocaust survivor who had been first in the Janowska road camp and later in Auschwitz. Towards the end of the week, I summoned up the nerve to ask him if there was anything in particular that stood out in his mind as the reason he had survived. Without hesitation, he responded: “It was one mitzvah: the Sukkot I spent in Auschwitz.” more

Every year on Rosh Hashana, we read of the expulsion of Yishmael (Avraham’s first son with his handmaiden Hagar), and the binding of Yitzchak. Both are stories of the sons of Avraham, and both … more

Developments in Israel have co-opted Rabbi Freedman writing time, so we’re reprinting his column from the week of Parsha Noach in 2012. He looked like a teenager, until he began to tell his … more

I was at a wedding in LA when the family of the groom decided to daven mincha. Someone immediately asked, “Which way is east?” I was struck by the fact that in Israel, no one … more

Twenty-one-year-old Zvika Greengold had just been accepted into the prestigious Company Commanders course and given two weeks’ leave. He was home on his Kibbutz Lohamei HaGeta’ot near … more

A peaceful stretch of road on a quiet summer’s night; a young couple with a four month old baby in an infant seat is driving home; nothing out if the ordinary. Except that they were driving up from Beer Sheva. As an IDF officer in the Paratrooper reserves, our son-in-law Eliel might be called up at any moment. And it seemed prudent for Maayan, our daughter, in the midst of her medical school finals, not to have to negotiate the air raid sirens alone. As such, they were driving up from Beer Sheva with our grandson Amitai to stay with us. more

Akeidat Yitzchak, the binding of Isaac, one of the most challenging stories in Jewish history. A parent is asked to do the unthinkable: to sacrifice his beloved only son, in the name of … … more

Recently, on a Pesach program, an elderly gentleman named Yaakov Gross asked a few of us if he could speak before the Yizkor service. He wanted to share the story of his bar mitzvah in the … more