Sivan Says

Liora Ben Tzur of Kibbutz Ein HaShlosha gave birth to her third daughter just 30 hours before the events of Oct. 7, 2023. Her mother, Marcelle Talia, came from her home in Kiryat Arba to the kibbutz to help Liora’s husband with the children.

Rabbi Kalman Topp and his wife Jordana recently announced that they are making aliyah to Israel. For the past 17 years, Rabbi Topp has led Beth Jacob Congregation in Beverly Hills, Calif., one of the area’s largest and most influential Jewish communities. Now he is coming to Israel to establish a new community for new immigrants in Jerusalem.

A thanksgiving celebration was recently held for Elkana Levi, an officer in the Golani Brigade who was badly wounded in Khan Yunis a year ago and lost both his legs.

Sasha Troufanov and Sapir Cohen were abducted to Gaza two-and-a-half years ago. Recently they were married and began building a home together in Israel. That sentence is worth re-reading.Every word spoken beneath the chuppah took on a deeper meaning.

Moriah Chen from the Hidabroot website published the following questionnaire for anyone who wants to gain a clearer picture of themselves and of their mission in the world: 1. What would you do for free? Think about the activities you do without noticing the passage of time. What makes you forget to eat or sleep? What subject can you talk about for hours without stopping? Sometimes your profession or direction in life is hidden in the things you would do even without being paid.

Odelia Eliav is the mother of Adiel, a paratrooper who was moderately wounded in Lebanon and is now hospitalized at Rambam Medical Center in Haifa. From there, she began sharing updates unlike any others. At first, she simply kept people posted about the injury, the surgery and the recovery. But by the next day, I saw a different kind of update from her: a list of thank-yous, one after another.

Chaim Elchanan Idan lives with cerebral palsy. He cannot walk, eat or speak on his own. A few years ago, when he tried typing on a computer as usual, he felt once again that his fingers weren’t responding quickly enough. His nose, on the other hand, tapped out letters in rapid succession. “Right now I’m typing to you with my nose,” he wrote when I reached out to him on WhatsApp.

Last week, in a single moment of terror, a missile fell near the home of the parents of the Peretz family in Bet Shemesh. The house that had been filled with memories and warmth was reduced to a pile of rubble.

I recently had the opportunity to spend Shabbat in Jerusalem with 100 Israelis, most of whom were observing Shabbat for the first time. The Kesher Yehudi organization has been pairing haredi and secular Israelis for Torah study for many years. Lately, though, there has been a growing demand for something else: Shabbatot for those who want to experience Shabbat up close.

I recently spoke with Phil Rosen, chair of World Jewish Congress (American division) and a board member of Yeshiva University. He is intimately familiar with the situation of the Jewish people both in Israel and in the US, and is optimistic about our future. “I’m not worried, because we have the best youth in the world. The younger generation shows us what our future will look like. Take a look at the role models of young people in the West today. For example, Greta Thunberg. She is a young woman with mixed-up values who has become a symbol without really knowing anything at all, not about climate change nor about terror. Her values are so confused that she is supportive of Hamas. Is this a suitable role model for young people?”