When Bergen-Belsen was liberated on April 15, 1945, the sight that greeted the British soldiers was hellish, even by concentration camp standards. In a desperate attempt to bury the dead before the … more

Walk through the Old City, and you will find one of the oldest streets in the world. Known as the Cardo, it was built by the Romans nearly 2,000 years ago and was the main thoroughfare in Jerusalem … more

Maxim Cohen was born in Morocco and made aliyah as child. He enlisted in the IDF, but left Israel with his parents after the Six-Day War to live in France. On Yom Kippur in 1973, … more

I still remember the moment, 30 years later. Rav Aharon Lichtenstein zt”l, our rosh yeshiva at Har Etzion, was giving his advanced Talmud lecture to about 60 students. As he looked up from … more

One of the saddest “what might have been”s of the Holocaust was the story of Joel Brand. In the spring of 1944, the Jews of Poland, Western Europe, Belarus and the Ukraine were largely … more

There are so many things in life that are impossible to understand. Yet every now and then, we are afforded a glimpse, as if through a momentary clearing of the fog, of what it’s all … more

A friend of mine once shared part of the process he used to interview prospective students at his high school. The boys were invited to a full day of interviews, tests and experiences. In the … more

This week’s parsha, Sh’lach, contains one of the most challenging stories in the entire Torah: the story of the spies. It’s an incredible moment in Jewish history — with … more

Our son Yair, after a grueling process, was recently accepted into an elite unit within the paratroopers, and we were invited after two months to visit his base for a special “parents’ … more

M any years ago I read a story regarding Rav Yitzchak Eisenbach from Jerusalem. As a young boy, Yitzele was walking to the Kotel through the Jaffa gate one Shabbat afternoon, in a section of the … more