By Jonathan Tobin
I was poised to go on a live broadcast of WION, an English-language Indian television network, last week to discuss the war against Hamas. But before my turn to speak came, I was startled by the program host’s introduction to the segment. He spoke of images that were shocking the world and the world’s outrage about them, and gave what might be termed a trigger warning for those about to see them for the first time.

By Rabbi Moshe Dov Heber
Chanukah is when we celebrate our existence as a nation separate from the goyim. A special nation with our own “culture”, the culture of the Torah and not of the goyim that surround us.
Yaakov Kramer is a nursing home administrator in Greenwich, CT, an hour drive from his home in the vibrant Waterbury community.
Last week, Yaakov was conversing with a speech therapist employed by the nursing home and the discussion turned to music. Yaakov is very into music, even singing on a professional level, and organizing the music at the last siyum hashas. The woman asked him if he is into music, to which he answered “yes, I listen to Jewish music and not the music of the general world.” 

Achai verei’ai,
Thanks to all of you who participated in the Agudah Convention, whether for Shabbos or one of the sessions. Perhaps you were one of the over 100,000 guests who logged in to watch it online- whatever the case, we appreciate your joining us.
Every convention has its “chidushim,” but to me, one of the most important moments took place just before the convention itself started- at about 4:00 pm on Thursday, in a conference room on the second floor of the hotel.
It was a meeting between members of the Moetzes Gedolei Hatorah and the executive committee of our Board of Trustees.

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz
The Gemara (Me’ilah 17a) cites a story to depict the ongoing confrontations during the period leading up to the Chanukah miracle between the Jews and their oppressors, the Greeks.
Rabi Reuvein Ben Istraboli was going to meet with Greek officials. Prior to the meeting, he had his hair cut in the style of the Greeks, so that he would not appear as a Jew. He began his discussion with them, expressing why the gezeiros they placed on the Jewish people made no sense. He discussed the three main edicts they had established and enforced in a bid to separate the Jews from their religion.

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz
The news since Simchas Torah has been downright frightening. Twelve hundred innocent people were killed just because they were Jews. They weren’t just killed. They were brutalized in a most gruesome manner. Hundreds more were wounded. Some 240 were captured and brought back to the terror swamp that is Gaza, to be held in primitive conditions.

By Rabbi Ron Yitzchok Eisenman
Part One- To Go or Not To Go
I wanted to go.
I felt it was important.
Numbers count.
We live in a country where we are allowed and expected to express our feelings.
I wanted to go.
Yet, there were many reasons not to go.
A friend who is somewhat older and much wiser and also a Rebbe advised me not to go.
“You are not as young as you once were and are not in the greatest health. It will be a long, tedious day with lots of walking and many unknowns.
The Event is very critical, and you must encourage the Shul to go; however, you should not feel personally obligated. It’s a very long trip.”
That was on Thursday night, November 16.

By Alan Dershowitz, Newsmax
At the end of the Second World War, many Germans who actively supported Adolf Hitler and the Nazis acted as if they actually had nothing to do with genocide inflicted on the Jews.
They pretended that Hitler and a few handfuls of Nazis had suddenly come down from Mars and had taken over the bodies and souls of ordinary, innocent and decent German people.
In his masterful book, “Hitler’s Willing Executioners,” Daniel Goldhagen destroyed that myth and proved conclusively that Hitler and the Nazis had widespread support among ordinary Germans, and that many, if not most, of them were aware of Hitler’s final solution.

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz
We are familiar with pictures from the Holocaust period. The truth is that as gruesome as those pictures are, until October 7th, people viewed them and turned the page without the photos making a dent. When people look at pictures from eighty or ninety years ago, they think to themselves that it was a terrible period back then, but it happened so long ago that it is not really relevant to our lives in this modern period. Hitler was a once-in-history phenomenon. The Brisk and Kishinev pogroms happened so long ago that most people don’t know anything about them.

By Jennifer Rubin
For weeks, many mainstream media outlets and Israel’s harshest critics around the world have condemned Israel for fighting in and around the al-Shifa Hospital in the Gaza Strip. Doctors there denied there were terrorists present. They denied it was a legitimate military target. No hostages there, we were told. Now we know those assertions were flat wrong.
News of an agreement for the imminent release of dozens of hostages, a five-day pause in fighting and a surge of humanitarian aid should not obscure the controversy surrounding the hospital.

Dear Friends,
We have each other and we must treasure each other.
For the nation that dwells alone and has had good reason to feel alone, Monday and Tuesday were days of incredible strength and hope. On both days, we rallied together in the hundreds of thousands and reminded ourselves that we are never alone because Hashem is with us and because we stand together with and for each other.