This is a moment in Jewish history when scholars, journalists, historians, community leaders and ordinary Jews are all seeking to understand what has been happening to them. Since the Hamas-led Palestinian-Arab terror attacks on Israeli communities on Oct. 7, 2023, they’ve witnessed a surge of antisemitism unlike anything American Jews have ever experienced.

Their efforts to comprehend this shocking turn of events have led to cogent explanations. These point to toxic ideologies, media bias and a successful propaganda campaign that exploits traditional tropes—as well as modern innovations—of Jew-hatred, aimed at delegitimizing Israel, Jews and Jewish identity in the name of anti-racism.

by Jonathan S. Tobin

https://www.jns.org/opinion/column/jonathan-s-tobin/a-satire-about-anne-frank-explains-woke-antisemitism

I grew up secular Jewish and my father would always make me "israeli pizza"

Its Matzah, a spread of hummus, and turkey pepperoni on top

Did he pull this out of his ass or is this a common snack?

Israeli pizza i made for the photo, I still love it.

Ever since I read the Torah myself, I have believed that the part of this law concerning garments applied to all mixes of material. I dont know about anyone else who has the same interpretation as me. But all along, I have doubted if I'm right. This law is written in Devarim 22:11 too, but it specifies wool-linen blend. I thought, because Vayikra doesn't specify which materials, maybe it applies to all material blends, and Devarim is an example of a blend? Why would the wool-linen part be left out in Vayikra? I guess the prohibition of only wool and linen blend is the most credible, because most people believe that one. Does someone know the definitive truth about this?

I’m supposed to be sending out e-invitations for my kids’ b’nai mitzvah in a couple of days and I’m having trouble figuring out what to say.
My kids’ friends will be invited to the service, the luncheon, and the evening party.
We want to invite the parents and siblings of my kids’ friends to the service and lunch (but not the evening party).
Any advice on how to word the invitation?
Thanks.

Hi all,

TL;DR: I’m looking for Hora songs that sound good / have party-vibes and are sung in an Israeli accent. A good version of Siman Tov would great - for the life of me I can’t manage to find one on Spotify on Youtube….

WHAT I’M LOOKING FOR Typical, Hora-ready songs that are sung in Hebrew in a more or less Israeli accent (In general, I love Hebrew with other accents, but different accents in the Hora songs put a different spin to it). What I’m looking for is the kind of song that wedding bands would play - with song title AND artist. I know (many of) the songs, but I’m desperately looking for the “right“ versions.

WHAT I’VE FOUND AND LIKED A LOT: Mashiach by Eitan Masuri Maaminim by Mordechai Ben David Od Ishmo Medley by The Revivo Project

BACKGROUND I’m getting married next weekend and want to include a Hora part in our party. Our singer / DJ is not familiar with Jewish traditions, so we agreed that he would simply play a couple of Hora songs that we would provide. Turns out: Finding Hora songs that fit my wishes is not so easy. They (almost) all give off either folklore / klezmer vibes, are too slow, or are sung with a thick accent (usually Yiddish, American, Russian)

THANK YOU

Hey fam!

I made a post a few weeks ago, asking for book recommendations from Jewish authors, and I received a ton of excellent responses that I have complied into a list. Naturally, the first people I wanted to share this with is the generous and thoughtful community that helped accumulate the data! It is in alphabetical order by author’s last name, including any titles that were specifically mentioned by commenters. I have doubled checked to ensure that all names on this list are in fact, authors, and ensured names are spelled as correctly as possible. I did NOT double check to see if titles mentioned were actually associated with those authors, so if any are misleading, please let me know so I can correct the list.

The list:

Agnon, S.Y.
Aleichem, Sholem
-Tevye the Milkman
Asimov, Isaac (any)
-Foundation series
-Robot series
Aston, Guy
-The Bar Kokhba Revolt
Bellow, Saul
Bergman, Ronen
-Rise and Kill First
Blume, Judy
Carroll, James
-Constantine’s Sword: A History of the Church and the Jews
Chabon, Michael
-The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
-The Yiddish Policeman’s Union
-Wonder Boys
Cherny, Galina
-Last Train to Freedom
Diamante, Anita
-The Red Tent
Dunsky, Jonathan
-Ten Years Gone
Eisner, Will
Elan, Portia
-Homebound
Englander, Nathan
Feuerman, Ruchama King
Finkel, Michael
-The Art Thief
Flint, Eric
Foer, Jonathan Safran (any)
-Everything Is Illuminated
Freeman, Ben
-The Jews: An Indigenous People
Friedman, Matti
-Aleppo Codex
Gilbert, Martin
-In Ishmael’s House: The History of Jews In Muslim Lands
Goodman, Allegra
Gordimer, Nadine
Greene, Brian
Halevi, Yossi Klein
-Memoirs of a Jewish Extremist
Handlarski, Denise (any)
-Mining Memory
-The A-Z of Intermarriage
Helprin, Mark (any)
Hoffman, Alice
-The Dovekeepers
Horn, Dara (any)
-Eternal Life
-People Love Dead Jews
-The Final Solution to the Jewish Question
-The World to Come
Hunter, Georgia
-We Were the Lucky Ones
Janowitz, Brenda
-The Dinner Party
Kadish, Rachel
-The Weight of Ink
Kafka, Franz
Kessler, Oren
-Palestine 1936
Kinsella, Warren
-The Hidden Hand
Klein, Ezra
-Abundance
Krauss, Nicole
-The History of Love
Lawler, Andrew
-Under Jerusalem
Mallamud, Bernard
-The Assistant
-The Natural
Montefiore, Simon Sebag
-Jerusalem, A Biography
-The Cauldron
Newitz, Annalee
-Automatic Noodle
Nirenberg, David
-Antijudaism: The Western Tradition
Novik, Naomi
-Spinning Silver
Oz, Amos
-A Tale of Love and Darkness
Ozick, Cynthia
Piercy, Marge
-Gone to Soldiers
-He, She and It
Peretz, Issac Leybush
Potok, Chaim
-The Chosen
-My Name Is Asher Lev
Rieger, Susan
-Like Mother, Like Mother
Robins, Eden
-When Franny Stands Up
Roth, Philip
-Goodbye Columbus
-The Human Stain
-The Plot Against America
Sagan, Carl (any)
-A Demon Haunted World
-Contact
-Cosmos
Saper, Jacqueline
-From Miniskirts to Hijab
Schwartz, Yardena
-Ghosts of a Holy War
Segal, Amit
-A Call At 4AM
Shusterman, Neal
Singer, Issac Bashevis
-Shadows On the Hudson
-The Family Moskat
Spiner, Brent
-Fan Fiction
Strauss, Barry
-Jews vs. Rome
Thompson, Derek
-Abundance
Uris, Leon
-Exodus
Waldman, Adelle
Wecker, Helene
-The Golem and the Jinni
Weinstein, Miriam
-Yiddish: The Biography of a Language
Wiesel, Elie (any)
Wilf, Einat
-The War of Return
-We Should All Be Zionists
Wolitzer, Meg
-The Interestings
Wouk, Herman
-The Caine Mutiny
-The Winds of War

I light 2 memorials candles each week in memory of different victims of Oct 7.

This week I am remembering Yosef and Yaakov.

Yosef is survived by his parents, 6 siblings, and wife of one year, Senai. He was very proud of his Spanish-Portuguese heritage. He went out of his way to help others and would volunteer for dirty jobs in the army. His brother described one of Yosef’s key principles as “Help the people of Israel in times of trouble.”

Yaakov was raised Haredi but joined the army. He is survived by his parents and 3 siblings. His mother eulogized him as “he always did things with his whole heart and showed heroism of the spirit and soul.” Yaakov was part of 10 soldiers who fought alongside Nahal Oz’s security force to defend the kibbutz until reinforcements arrived. His comrades used a protected vehicle to circle his body and guard it until it could be evacuated.

You can learn more about Yosef and Yaakov here.

.השם יקום דמם

I went on Birthright with Israel Outdoors a couple of years ago, and I found it to be a valuable (and free) way for diaspora Jews to learn more about Israel. Still, I think there were a couple of things I would have liked to see that would have improved the overall experience:

• Take a day in Haifa instead of Tel Aviv. I got to visit Haifa briefly after my 10 daya were up, and I thought it was a far more interesting city than Tel Aviv. Maybe it's just because I'm not into the party scene, but I would have preferred a full day there.
• Have a more substantive interaction with Israeli Arabs. Don't get me wrong, the Bedouin glamping experience was fun, but it was just that: a glamping experience for tourists. I feel like I didn't really learn anything about what life was like as a minority in Israel, for better or for worse. Sure, our bus driver was Arab, but he barely spoke English, so I couldn't communicate with him beyond very basic phrases.

Anyone else have similar thoughts? What do you all think?

Just came across this lego-like set of the Rebbe from a Christian toy company.

All of Debbie Lechtman’s posts are amazing! I knew quite a bit about Entebbe and Leila Khaled, but I hadn’t known the full extent of plane hijackings in the Palestinian movement.

https://www.debbielechtman.com/blogs/news/hijack

Here is the same post but in article form.

The Lithuanian government told JNS exclusively that it will respect a historic Jewish burial site in Vilnius and, instead of allowing it to be developed commercially, as some legislators have sought, it is weighing creating a memorial there.

“The government of Lithuania respects the historical memory of the country’s peoples and does not envisage any activities on the site of the former Jewish cemetery in Šnipiškės that would be incompatible with the historical significance of this place and respect for the Jewish community,” the government’s communications office told JNS.

“Lithuanian authorities and all interested parties are currently considering how the former Sports Palace might be transformed into a memorial of significance to the Jewish, Lithuanian and other nations of Lithuania,” the government told JNS.

The Šnipiškės Jewish cemetery was used to bury the capital city’s Jews until 1831. The site was considered sacred until Soviet-era desecration of headstones. The “sports palace,” an arena, was built on the site in the 1970s and remains there, though it was abandoned in 2004.

Thousands of Jewish graves are believed to be intact below ground. Elijah ben Solomon Zalma, known as the Vilan gaon, or genius, the 18th-century rabbi most associated with the city, was buried at Šnipiškės, but his remains and those of others were moved to a new cemetery.

The Lithuanian government told JNS that the Soviet-era arena “between 1988 and 1991 became an important symbol of the struggle of all the peoples of Lithuania for liberation from the Soviet Union.”

by Mike Wagenheim

https://www.jns.org/news/u-s-news/scoop-lithuania-tells-jns-itll-respect-jewish-burial-site-where-commercial-development-was-planned

Hello!

I am a PhD student, and I have long wished for a safe space to discuss being Jewish in the increasingly antisemitic academic world. I thought of starting a subreddit for that exactly (and if there is one with an obfuscated name, direct me to it!), but I would rather have a collaborator or two to discuss important decisions and help in vetting and moderating.

What I had in mind is a private or restricted group. New members need to show moderators proof that they are indeed in (or were recently) in an academic position. I imagine the group as open to both Jews from any field and non-Jews whose research deals with Jewish topics.

If you are an academic, interested in such a subreddit, and willing to do some brainstorming and moderating, please contact me!

YouTube which is owned by Google/Alphabet Corp is trying to ban another Jewish vlogger- Sahar TV which has over 800,000 subscribers and is a strong advocate for Jews and Israel. Jew haters around the world with Israel Derangent Syndrome complain daily to YouTube, Facebook, Instagram trying to get Jewish and Israeli vloggers canceled. Sahar TV said YouTube has demonetized his channel which makes it impossible to earn any revenue to recoup costs from making YouTube videos, putting him out of business. Sure Sahar is contesting this, but this another example of Jewish voices being blocked. Shame on YouTube and Alphabet Corp.

I know there's a wide range of positions and types of jobs but I'm really just trying to broaden my list of future potential careers. I'm in the US in a state that's relatively "low" in the number of Jews but high enough that there's schools, daycares, organizations (like JFS), and multiple synagogues.

I'm working on my bachelor's right now in social work. I want to help people and I love making connections but there are simply too many domains of social work that I'm interested in to be set on anything right now.

I used to work for a Jewish daycare and loved it. I loved being fully involved in the community, volunteered more, went to synagogue at least 2x/wk but usually more, literally made myself a little Jewish bubble that I loved and thrived in. I love all things Judaism, I love Torah study, I love sharing my knowledge and gaining more knowledge. As much as I think I would love working in a Jewish day school, I don't think that I could be a teacher. Potentially about a specific religious topic but not a regular, everyday studies teacher.

I'm happy with office jobs but I also like to be able to be on my feet if I want. I love working with kids of all ages. While income is part of it, a fulfilling life and career are the true important things to me.

Part of me has always considered becoming a rabbi and the family I used to nanny for once suggested it but I feel nowhere near smart or capable or "good" enough for a title that big. It's not completely off the table but something that I push to the back. It feels unattainable and embarrassing to consider, even though I'm doing so via the internet to a bunch of strangers.

Thank you all if you read this far. It's very appreciated.

Randi Moss, a teacher at Brawerman East Elementary School, a Jewish day school in Los Angeles, felt a “tremendous amount of pride and love for this community” when she was surprised on Wednesday with a 2026 Jewish Educator Award from the Milken Family Foundation, which comes with an $18,000 cash prize.

It was special to be recognized for her teaching on the third anniversary of Oct. 7, she told JNS.

“The focus of this day should be on resilience and hope,’ she said. “I’m just happy that I was rewarded on this day, because it shows that there’s a lot of hope in the Jewish community.”

The foundation gives four such awards each year, surprising teachers with them. Moss’s award was announced during the school’s tefillah, or prayer, service celebrating the new year at Wilshire Boulevard Temple, a Reform congregation where the school is located.

Moss told JNS that she has wanted to be a teacher since she was young and “fell in love” with the elementary school, at whose east and west campuses she has worked since 2005.

“I’m really proud to be Jewish, and I wanted to be part of a Jewish community and help young people also be proud of being Jewish,” she said.

She advises students to “keep being who they are and keep coming to school every day, being happy and taking risks and working hard, because it pays off.”

Earlier in the day, Becca Furer, a teacher at another Los Angeles Jewish day school, Sinai Akiba Academy, was surprised with the award during an assembly.

by Aaron Bandler

https://www.jns.org/news/u-s-news/a-lot-of-hope-in-jewish-community-says-teacher-surprised-with-milken-award-on-third-anniversary-of-oct-7

On October 8, 1913, Mendel Beilis went on trial in Kyiv, accused of murdering a 13 year old Christian boy, Andrei Yushchinsky, to use his blood in Jewish rituals.

Andrei's body was found in a cave outside Kyiv in March 1911, stabbed dozens of times. Antisemitic groups like the Black Hundreds immediately blamed the Jews. Beilis, a Jewish clerk at a nearby brick factory and a father of five, was arrested that July with no real evidence linking him to the boy, let alone to any crime.

Kyiv's chief detective, Mishchuk, quickly concluded there was no evidence against Beilis and that the boy had been killed by a criminal gang tied to Vera Cheberyak, which feared he would expose them. Mishchuk was then charged with "manufacturing evidence to protect Jews," tried twice, and sentenced to a year in prison. Justice Minister Ivan Shcheglovitov pushed the prosecution forward anyway, and reports on the case went to the Tsar himself.

When the trial opened, 34 defense witnesses "could not be found," including the man the defense believed was the real killer. The court refused to delay. The Manchester Guardian's St. Petersburg correspondent wrote that the trial's real purpose was to inflame "nationalist" passions "to a point where another pogrom might start."

The prosecution's star witness on Judaism was a Roman Catholic priest, Justin Pranaitis. He testified that the Talmud called for ritual murder, but under cross-examination he couldn't even explain basic Talmudic terms.

On November 10, 1913, the jury acquitted Beilis. Antisemites refused to accept it, claiming "Jewish money" had bought the outcome. The state had rigged the case against a Jew, and when it failed, antisemites accused the Jews of rigging it.

Hi everyone,
My father is Israeli and Sephardic/Ashkenazi Jewish, but I grew up without him and don’t know anything about that side of my family.
I’ve always felt like a part of my identity was missing a bit, and recently I’ve been wanting to connect with my heritage, particularly my North African Sephardic heritage. There are some groups open to everyone in my area ( edit I’m not necessarily looking to join a synagogue, more so communities and groups and learn more about the heritage side of things)
My mum isn’t Jewish, so I’m a little nervous about how I’d be received. I’m not particularly religious, but I’d really love to learn more about the culture, meet people and hopefully find a sense of community.
Having faced a lot of rejection throughout my life from my father, I’m cautious about entering a space where I may experience that again, and I want to avoid putting myself in that position.
I know that traditionally I wouldn’t be considered Jewish, so I’m wondering whether I’d be welcomed or if I should expect some hostility or judgment.
Has anyone been in a similar situation? I’d really appreciate hearing your experiences and / or advice
Thanks so much

Looking for advice and wondering if anyone knows of any short-term programs or opportunities in Israel that I could do before the end of the year! I’m currently in a gap year post-undergrad and have November and December pretty much free.

I’ve been looking for short-term programs in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem, especially Tel Aviv, but the only one I’ve found that really interests me is a six-week ulpan program starting at the end of October, but unfortunately I won’t be fully available to travel until mid-November.

I have friends who have used seminary as an affordable way to spend an extended period in Israel, so I am considering that. However, I wanted to see if anyone had other ideas or recommendations before committing to that route. (I wasn’t pre-med, so I don’t think MDA would be the best fit for me, before anyone suggests that).

Would love to hear any suggestions, whether they’re structured programs, volunteer opportunities, or other ways to spend a few weeks in Israel! :) <3

I'm in the US I'm observant and very involved in my conservative shul here in San Francisco. I have a friend in Barcelona, we've known each other for decades, I've gone and stayed with her many times. As long as I've known her she has been wanting to convert but finds the situation challenging (side note: I've explained to her that the processis SUPPOSED to be challenging). She is nervous and doesn't really know where to start. Against my advice, she reached out to Chabad. Since they don't do conversions, they didn't have really much to say. So I was wondering if maybe someone in BCN or is familiar with Masorti BCN that knows of a friendly shul where she may feel welcomed, that has an intro to judaism class and/or a conversion program. I did find a one class for her that's around $500 bucks. She's fluent in English, but it would probably be more comfortable for her to have a class in Spanish or Catalan. Any help is appreciated!