Rabbi overseeing Jewish elementary school asked judge to go easy on man guilty of child porn
“Basically what did he do? Did he touch
anybody or just watch a video?” Rabbi Moshe Yosef Unger said when asked
why he sent a letter to a judge seeking leniency for former congregant
Dovid Akiva Shenkman. Unger wrote to the court: “I am confident that he
poses no danger to anyone.”
No Mercy for Monsters: When Rabbis Plead for the Unforgivable
by Paul Mendlowitz
It is an obscenity that in our time, when Jewish children are still healing from wounds inflicted in the dark corners of their own communities, we see rabbis—men who claim to bear the Torah’s moral authority—signing letters begging for leniency for sexual abusers and consumers of child pornography. What Torah are they reading? What G-d are they serving? Certainly not the G-d of justice, nor the Torah of truth.
Let’s be clear: these are not victimless crimes. Every image, every act, every predator represents a human soul shattered. A child’s trust stolen. A life derailed. When a rabbi asks a judge for compassion for such men, he is not showing mercy—he is trampling mercy underfoot. He is siding with the serpent against the child.
This sickness in parts of our rabbinic leadership—the reflex to “protect” the abuser because he once wore a yarmulke and learned in a yeshiva—is nothing less than moral collapse. It reeks of tribalism masquerading as piety. They fear chillul Hashem, a desecration of G-d’s name? The desecration is their letter. The scandal is their silence toward the victims, their eagerness to turn perpetrators into “nebbachs” who “need help,” as if therapy could wash away depravity.
Where is their outrage for the children who can’t sleep at night? For the victims who lost their faith in G-d because the men of G-d defended their tormentors? “Lo ta’amod al dam re’echa”—do not stand idly by your brother’s blood. Yet these rabbis do more than stand idly—they advocate for those who spilled that blood in the first place.
The Torah demands compassion, yes—but compassion for the innocent. The Rambam writes that pitying the cruel is cruelty to the kind. Every plea for a reduced sentence tells victims their suffering is negotiable, their dignity expendable, their pain a PR problem for the community to manage. And Midrash Tanchuma (Metzora 1) warns: “He who shows mercy to the cruel will ultimately be cruel to the merciful.”
This is not mercy. This is betrayal.
It is betrayal of Torah, of justice, and of every survivor still waiting for someone in authority to simply say: I believe you. And I will not protect the man who hurt you.
Until the rabbinate purges this moral rot from its ranks—until letters of “support” for abusers are replaced by public cries for the protection of children—the rabbis who sign them will bear the shame of standing on the wrong side of Heaven. Because Heaven weeps not for the predator, but for the child.
The community must never forgive these twisted rabbis whose confused minds destroy everything that is our most sacred - our children!
The
Jewish school in West Rogers Park is overseen by Rabbi Moshe Yosef
Unger, who wrote a letter to a federal judge seeking leniency for a
former congregant who’s pleaded guilty to child pornography charges.
After Dovid Akiva Shenkman was
arrested last fall on child pornography charges, a federal judge ordered
him held in custody pending trial, citing evidence that he had a
“relentless and longstanding sexual interest in children.”
That involved images of “rape, torture and infants,” as well as “bestiality,” court records show.
A
resident of the New York City region who previously lived in Chicago,
Shenkman sought “even more messed up stuff” to “sexually gratify
himself,” the records say, and he carried child porn on “two different
devices across an international border” — where he was arrested while
returning to the U.S. from Canada.
A
prosecutor asserted in court records that in “graphic” social media
chats prior to his arrest, Shenkman “claimed to have committed hands-on
sexual abuse of children,” though he wasn’t charged with that.
Shenkman
has since pleaded guilty to possession and transportation of child
pornography. Now 40, he was sentenced last week in a Michigan courtroom
to nearly eight years in prison — but not before Jewish religious
figures in the Chicago area and elsewhere sent letters to the court to
seek leniency, with some seeming to minimize his misconduct.
Among
them: Rabbi Moshe Yosef Unger, a North Side resident who oversees an
Orthodox Jewish school for children in prekindergarten through eighth
grade in West Rogers Park, called Yeshiva Ohr Boruch-The Veitzener
Cheder.
Rabbi
Moshe Yosef Unger of Chicago (pictured) appealed to a judge to go easy
on Dovid Akiva Shenkman, who pleaded guilty to possession and
transportation of child pornography. Shenkman got nearly eight years in
prison.
“I am confident that he poses no danger to anyone — young
or old — and my experience has proven that young men drawn to
self-corrosive behaviors usually suffered some serious trauma which can
be healed,” Unger wrote to U.S. District Judge Matthew Leitman.
“He is already bearing the punishment of stigmatization and shaming.”
In
the letter, Unger omitted his connection to the school, which includes
nearly 400 students, instead describing himself as “spiritual leader of
Congregation Shearis Yisroel” that was “attended by Akiva and his family
when they moved to Chicago shortly after his parents divorced” when he
was a youngster.
Although Shenkman later moved to the East Coast,
they stayed in touch, Unger indicated, saying: “Over the years, I’ve
observed Akiva emerging as a kind and socially competent adult. He was
always a welcome guest in the synagogue, admired for his courteous and
warm demeanor.”
Reached through his school’s automated switchboard
more than a week ago, Unger confirmed sending the letter, and said to a
reporter: “Basically what did he do? Did he touch anybody or just watch
a video?”
Unger also said, “How can I be of service to him by talking to you?”
He then said he was “in the middle of a meeting; I will call you back,” but didn’t.
Another
letter writer on Shenkman’s behalf was from Esther Shkop, who described
herself in her letter as director of the Wisdom of Torah Institute and a
longtime former dean and professor at the Hebrew Theological College,
with campuses on the North Side and in Skokie.
A letter from Rabbi Moshe Yosef Unger on behalf of Dovid Akiva Shenkman.
U.S. District Court
“Whatever Akiva did — howsoever reprehensible — damaged
only his own soul — he did not harm others, and I am confident that he
poses no danger to anyone,” Shkop wrote, indicating she’s an aunt to
Shenkman.
“I know that he is deeply
regretful and ashamed of his behavior. I ask your honor to give him the
opportunity to rebuild his life as soon as possible. He will continue
to be a valuable and contributing member to society.”
From a
Skokie address, Rabbi Yitzchak Shkop also wrote to the judge, saying, “I
can emphatically state that Akiva would not — and could not — hurt
anyone.”
“He is deeply remorseful and will never repeat his
shameful lapse into immoral ideation. ... He is surrounded by many
loving friends and relatives who have witnessed and come to adore his
kind and gentle disposition.
“We ask that he be given a chance to
rebuild his life as early as possible so he can return to being the
productive and generous member of the community and society at large.”
In
a recent phone conversation, Shkop confirmed sending the letter and
said of Shenkman, “The guy never hurt anyone” — even though prosecutors
asserted in court records that child porn is not a victimless crime
because it creates a marketplace for the sex abuse of minors.
Before
hanging up on a reporter, he said that if a news story is published,
“When time comes, and you go off to God, you’ll have to tell why you did
it. ... If you have the conscience to go and write about someone who
never hurt anybody ... go ahead and enjoy. ... It’s not in the public
interest.”
He added, Shenkman is “not really a criminal but a sick person.”
A
psychological report prepared by Shenkman’s defense team before his
sentencing also references broader child sexual abuse in Jewish
communities — believed to be a serious problem in Chicago and beyond
that is often hidden or otherwise dealt with inadequately by religious
leaders and families.
A letter from Esther Shkop to a federal judge earlier this year.
U.S. District Court
While growing up, Shenkman “experienced sexual abuse by a
babysitter within the context of an Orthodox Jewish upbringing. In that
community, there is a concept of ‘personal modesty’ which takes the form
of suppressing external appearance and action, but most importantly
sexual activity and views of sexuality.”
The report states this “is very likely a contributing factor to the sexual deviance that led to these charges.”
When
Shenkman was arrested Nov. 24 crossing from Canada into Detroit,
federal agents searched his cellphones and found exchanges of child porn
via Telegram, “an encrypted social media application where users can
send each other messages, images, and videos using the internet.”
Some
other videos that had been exchanged were no longer accessible to
investigators, but the accompanying messages were. In one such instance,
Shenkman shared a video and wrote to someone, “These two, I convinced
her to do and now she is hooked, I just need to get her to make more
videos,” court records show.
Prosecutor Tara Hindelang, who sought 15 years in prison
for Shenkman, wrote: “Shenkman’s interest in trafficking in child
pornography has persisted since at least 2021.”
Court records show
a day after his arrest, Shenkman spoke to a man, possibly a relative,
over the phone from jail and encouraged him to visit his apartment — in
what officials suspected was a coded attempt to clear out other
evidence.
“My refrigerator has stuff in there that is going bad.
There is food in there sitting that needs to be cleaned out,” Shenkman
said on the call, which was recorded.
The man responded in Yiddish, “Akiva, when you are among the Gentiles, you have to be totally quiet. Don’t talk at all.”
Three days later, “men were seen going into Shenkman’s apartment removing items.”
Exalted and sanctified be His great Name in the world which He created according to His will and may He rule His Kingdom in your lifetime and in your days, and in the lifetime of the entire House of Yisrael, speedily and in the near future— and say Amein. May His great Name be blessed forever and for all eternity. Blessed and praised, glorified, and exalted and uplifted, honored and elevated and extolled be the Name of the Holy One, blessed is He; far above all the blessings and hymns, praises and consolations which we utter in the world—and say Amein. May there be abundant peace from heaven and life for us and for all Yisrael, —and say Amein. He Who makes the peace in His high heavens may He, make peace for us and or all Yisrael, and say, Amein.
The year is 2025, and Donald J. Trump is apparently still president — not only of the United States, but of Israel too. At least that’s what one might think after his fiery declaration: “I will not let Israel annex Judea and Samaria.”
Donald J. Trump has finally done it. He’s achieved the dream no man before him has dared: he is president of two countries at once. Not satisfied with running America into the ground, he has now taken it upon himself to run Israel too.
When he thundered, “I will not let Israel annex Judea and Samaria,” the world should have asked one simple question: since when does an American president get to veto Jewish sovereignty in Jewish land? Israel has a Knesset, a Supreme Court, and a prime minister. What it apparently also has is a freelance American overseer who believes he has power of attorney over Zion.
This is not “alliance.” This is colonial cosplay. Trump isn’t treating Israel like a partner — he’s treating it like Puerto Rico with better falafel. He imagines he’s the landlord of the Middle East, doling out permission slips for Jews to live where Abraham once walked.
Trump may imagine himself the “best friend Israel ever had,” but the irony is glaring. A true friend doesn’t sit on your couch, eat your food, and then tell you which rooms you’re allowed to sleep in. A true ally doesn’t become a co-president — uninvited.
This is how you manufacture “one president, two countries.” The formula is simple: America pays the bills, Israel fights the wars, and Trump decides the borders. Israel may have the right to self-determination, but only if the White House press secretary approves the press release.
The hypocrisy is staggering. America jealously guards its borders, lectures the world about sovereignty, and celebrates independence every July 4th. Yet when Israel wants to apply sovereignty to its own heartland, suddenly it’s not allowed — because President of Two Countries, Donald J. Trump, says so.
Judea and Samaria aren’t Jewish heritage to Trump; they’re bargaining chips in his Nobel Prize fantasy. Israel’s destiny reduced to a vanity project.
The whole charade is insulting. A true ally doesn’t say, “I won’t let you annex your own land.” That’s not friendship — that’s occupation by proxy. Trump’s slogan might as well be: Make Israel Obedient Again.
Donald Trump has unveiled his “21-point peace plan” for Israel and Gaza. Let’s call it what it is: not a roadmap for peace, but a 21-step audition for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Trump doesn’t just want to end wars—he wants his name engraved next to Mandela and Rabin. He wants the medal, the handshake, the magazine covers. It’s classic Trump: a peace plan with his name in lights and everyone else cast as supporting actors.
But for Israel, the plan is a loaded trap. It calls for troop withdrawals from Gaza, international oversight of security, Palestinian Authority control, and a freeze on annexation. In other words: Israel makes concessions, terrorists reload, and Washington smiles for the cameras. Reject it outright, and Israel risks being branded the peace-killer. Accept it, and Israel risks becoming the security-suicide. That’s the bind.
So how does Israel survive Trump’s peace theater without wrecking his Nobel dreams? By leaning into Trump’s favorite language: optics, branding, spin.
First, give him headlines. Israel should embrace the easy points—hostage release, humanitarian reconstruction, temporary ceasefires. Those alone generate splashy images: aid trucks rolling into Gaza, freed families hugging on TV. Trump gets the photo-ops he craves. He can strut on stage declaring, “Nobody’s ever done peace like this before. Everybody said it was impossible—but I did it. Maybe even Nobel!”
Second, turn the tough clauses into conditions. Want Israeli troops out of Gaza? Fine—after Hamas disarms completely and hands over every rocket. Want the Palestinian Authority running the Strip? Sure—after it reforms itself into something less corrupt and less addicted to “pay for slay.” Want international peacekeepers? Okay—if they let Israel act unilaterally against any terrorist cell. Conditions so steep they’ll never be met, but dressed up as good-faith engagement.
Third, control the story. Israel should say, loudly: “We want peace. We welcome Trump’s vision. But peace must be built on security.” Every delay is responsibility, not rejection. Every objection is prudence, not sabotage. Let the Palestinians be the ones to scream “no.” When they do—as they inevitably will—Trump can still sell the attempt as “historic progress,” and Israel stays out of the blame game.
Critics will scoff: why not just rip the plan to shreds? Because Trump’s ego doesn’t work that way. He thrives on loyalty, flattery, and the illusion of progress. Israel gains nothing by humiliating him. It gains everything by playing along—up to the line, never past it.
This isn’t about peace. It’s about theater. Trump wants a Nobel stage with himself at the center, Israel as the dutiful partner, and the Palestinians as the villains who blew it. Fine. Let him have his play. Israel just needs to make sure it doesn’t confuse Trump’s script with its survival strategy.
The Satmar Rebbe, Rabbi Yoel Teitelbaum, survived the inferno of Europe and built a spiritual empire in America. His searing theology was crystal clear: Zionism was not only a secular rebellion against Torah Judaism but also a cosmic violation of God’s will. In his magnum opus, Vayoel Moshe, he cited the Talmudic “Three Oaths” (Ketubot 111a): that Israel not ascend to the Land en masse, not rebel against the nations, and that the nations not oppress Israel excessively. In his view, Zionism shattered the divine order. Jewish sovereignty before the coming of Mashiach was illegitimate, even dangerous.
This stance gave birth to the Satmar position: opposition to the State of Israel not merely politically, but theologically. The State, in their view, brought divine wrath, endangering Jews everywhere. For decades, Satmar leaders thundered that Zionism itself stoked antisemitism by parading Jewish power in exile and angering the nations prematurely.
Yet today, the world has turned. Israel’s very existence is not the cause of antisemitism—it is the shield against it. The vicious antisemitism erupting in cities across the West—from New York to London, from Paris to college campuses in America—is not nuanced, not theological, not even pretending to differentiate between Satmar, secular, Zionist, or Torah Jew. It is raw Jew-hatred, unmasked. The mobs do not pause to ask: “Are you Satmar? Are you anti-Zionist? Are you pro-Palestinian?” They see a Jew, and that is enough.
The Satmar Rebbe’s fears were that Zionism would bring about pogroms; in reality, it is Israel alone that prevents a second Holocaust. When missiles rain down, when Hamas butchers innocents, it is the IDF that stands in the breach—not any of the Satmar doctrines. The irony is stark: the very state they opposed is the only guarantor that Jews can defend themselves.
But what has history shown us? That while Satmar huddled in Williamsburg and Kiryas Joel condemning the Zionists, it was the very Zionists—religious and secular—who built an army, who gathered the scattered, who gave Jews a homeland that the nations could not strip away. It was not Satmar theology that saved the remnant of European Jewry—it was the State of Israel. Without it, Jews would be scattered, powerless, and hunted like dogs.
And so the Satmar position, forged in the ashes of Auschwitz, now collides with the flames of twenty-first century hatred. Their insularity once insulated them from responsibility, but today, the line is clear: without a strong Israel, Jews everywhere are prey. The antisemite does not distinguish between a Satmar Hasid in Williamsburg and an IDF soldier in Gaza.
He hates both with equal venom.
The Satmar Rebbe lived in a world where the Jewish people were stateless, powerless, and traumatized. But history moved forward, and Heaven granted us sovereignty. To deny that gift, to delegitimize Jewish survival, is to side with our enemies at the very moment when antisemitism has returned in its ugliest, most violent form.
History, then, has delivered its verdict. The Satmar ideology may have been born out of trauma, but today it sounds like a dangerous echo—one that weakens Jewish unity in the face of an ancient, ever-mutating hatred.
Antisemitism is not caused by Zionism.It is the world’s oldest sickness, resurfacing now with renewed viciousness. And the answer is not withdrawal, not denial, but Jewish power, Jewish pride, and Jewish sovereignty.
On elite campuses, professors and
students chant for the destruction of Israel, cloaking genocidal hatred
in the language of “justice” and “liberation.”. Anti-Zionism is Claimed To be different than anti-Semitism even by twisted Jews.
The world’s hatred of the Jewish
people is not new. It is the oldest hatred in human history. The script hasn’t changed in three thousand years: the Jew
dares to exist on his own terms, and the nations cannot stand it.
In the Middle Ages, it was blood
libels and expulsions. England expelled its Jews in 1290, Spain in 1492.
Jews were blamed for plagues, accused of poisoning wells, and herded
into ghettos. Not because of crime or conspiracy — but because of
covenant. The Jewish people, stubbornly surviving, were a living rebuke
to Christian theology that claimed we were cast off and abandoned. Our
survival embarrassed Europe. So it tried to erase us.
The Holocaust was not an accident
of German madness. It was the modern, industrialized expression of the
same ancient obsession: the world without Jews would be cleaner, purer,
easier. Six million Jews were murdered not because of what they had done
but because of who they were. The ovens of Auschwitz were stoked with
the same fire that lit the Roman arenas and medieval pyres.
Islamic history offers no respite.
Jews under Islam were permitted to live only as subjugated dhimmis —
taxed, humiliated, and reminded daily of their inferior status. When
Jews forgot their place, pogroms reminded them. The 20th-century rise of
political Islam, fueled by the rhetoric of Hassan al-Banna, Sayyid
Qutb, and Ayatollah Khomeini, only amplified the theological hatred.
Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran speak openly of annihilation. They do not
hide their goal: a world without Jews, starting with a world without
Israel.
And here we are, 2025. Europe once
again trembles with Jewish blood. Synagogues guarded by soldiers.
Cemeteries desecrated. Politicians issue empty condemnations even as
they coddle Islamist votes. In America, Jews are assaulted in the
streets of New York and Los Angeles., cloaking genocidal hatred
in the language of “justice” and “liberation.” The far-right blames Jews
for immigration. The far-left blames Jews for colonialism. The noose
tightens from both sides.
Why? Because the Jew is an eternal
reminder that history has meaning. That God has expectations. That man
is not sovereign. Pharaoh, Haman, Caesar, Torquemada, Hitler, Hamas —
all different faces of the same rage: the world cannot bear a people who
carry a divine covenant. As long as a single Jew lives, mankind cannot
declare itself free from judgment.
And yet — every empire that set out
to annihilate us is gone. Egypt? Dust. Babylon? Ruins. Rome? A broken
memory. The Third Reich? Ashes. The Soviet Union? Collapsed into
history’s trash heap. And the Jew? Still here. Back in his land.
Speaking his ancient tongue.
This is the paradox that infuriates the nations: the more they try to destroy us, the more we prove indestructible. “Behold, a people that dwells alone, not reckoned among the nations” The hatred of the nations confirms the chosenness of Israel.
So let the world rage. Let the UN
pass its resolutions. Let the mobs chant in the streets. We have seen it
all before. The hatred runs deep — but our survival runs deeper. For
three thousand years they have tried to bury us. And for three thousand
years we have risen from the grave.
(Courtesy of PSS) As a father and member of the local
community, I write this with a heavy yet resolute heart. This comes from
a sense of responsibility—not from a place of accusation. We claim to
be shomrei Torah u’mitzvot, yet ignore tragic dangers occurring within our own mikdashei me’at.
We spend time making sure our lulav is straight and that our mezuzot
and meat are kosher, so how can we show less care for the wellbeing of
our precious children?
Our shuls are sanctuaries — places of Torah, tefillah and learning.
Shuls should also be safe spaces, yet in recent years, we have seen
painful reminders that vigilance is so crucial. Sexual abuse,
tragically, does not distinguish between religious and secular. When our
children are left unattended, we risk giving predators the opportunity
they seek.
In our sacred shuls, where the Shechinah rests, it’s easy to assume
that all is safe, all is holy, and that everyone within these walls
shares the same values of yirat shamayim and kedusha.
However, assuming safety is not the same as ensuring it. When it comes
to our children — the most precious treasures that Hashem has entrusted
us with — we simply cannot afford to be complacent.
We are commanded in Devarim 4:9, “Hishamer lecha u’shmor nafsh’cha me’od — Be very careful and guard your soul.” Chazal teach us that this shemirah includes our own safety, but also the protection of others, especially of those who cannot protect themselves.
Unfortunately, the walls of a shul do not automatically protect
children from all harm. In too many communities — yes, even in the
Orthodox world — cases have come to light of children who were abused in
the very places that should have been their safe haven.
Predators do not always look like threats. They may be respected
community members, youth leaders, even family friends. They thrive on
access, opportunity and silence. An unattended child — wandering the
halls, playing behind a mechitza, running unsupervised in classrooms — is a vulnerable child.
Let us not pretend: The yetzer hara does not stop at the doors of the shul. It disguises itself, adapts and waits. Our job is to shut the door before it can enter.
We don’t like to believe that such evils could happen in our
communities. However, both recent and distant history have shown us
otherwise. Sexual abuse has occurred in shuls, yeshivot and camps, often
committed by people known and trusted.
Our local shuls are large and children often wander freely into
coatrooms, unoccupied classrooms or other unsupervised areas. In the
hustle of Shabbat and Yom Tov davening, socializing or kiddush, children
are often left alone. Some play outside. Some explore rooms. The
assumption is that “someone is watching,” but more often than not, no
one is.
What Can We Do?
As recommended by PSS (Project Sarah Services):
Keep Children in Sight
Children should not be roaming shuls without supervision. Parents and
caregivers must remain vigilant, especially during davening. Shuls can
implement designated areas where children are supervised by responsible
adults or teens.
Policies With Rabbinic Backing
Every shul should work with its rabbi and board to create child
protection policies that are in line with Halacha and best safety
practices. These should include:
Two-adult rule: No adult alone with a child in a room.
Bathroom policies for young children.
No unsupervised access to secluded areas (coatrooms, utility closets, side rooms).
These policies must be public, transparent and enforced.
Education Without Shame
Modesty (tzniut) and safety are not contradictory. It is
necessary to teach children about body safety, personal boundaries and
how to recognize inappropriate behavior, all within a Torah framework.
Parents should have age appropriate conversations with their children on
these topics.
Background Checks and Accountability
Youth leaders, babysitters and volunteers must undergo background
checks and training in child safety. This is not a sign of distrust; it
is a sign of communal responsibility. The same way we ensure our eruv is
kosher, we must ensure our caregivers are trustworthy.
A Community That Supports Reporting
In too many cases, abuse continued because suspicions were silenced.
We must make it clear: Reporting abuse is not lashon hara, it is le toelet — a constructive, halachically permitted act to prevent harm. Gedolei Yisrael have paskened that when there is reason to suspect abuse, it must be reported to authorities.
As we approach Rosh Hashanah, our hearts naturally turn inward. We
examine our actions, our relationships and our commitments to Hashem and
to one another. We plead for a year of life, health and protection for
ourselves, our families and klal Yisrael.
How can we stand before the Kisei HaKavod and ask Hashem to watch over our children if we ourselves have failed to do so?
This year, as we hear the shofar, let it remind us that teshuva is not only about bein adam laMakom, but also bein adam lachaveiro. What greater chaveiro is there than a child, who relies on us to be their eyes, ears and voice?
Kesiva v’chasima tova, may we all be inscribed for a year of health, happiness and safety.
Special thanks to PSS (Project Sarah Services) for instrumental and invaluable expert guidance on this topic.
It’s worth reminding ourselves that guarding our lives includes guarding our mental health. This isn’t a modern twist on tradition—it’s embedded in our halachic framework. The Shulchan Aruch (OC
328) teaches that one must desecrate Shabbat to save a life, even when
the danger is uncertain. The Gemara says that even doubt of pikuach nefesh overrides Shabbat.
This principle applies to mental illness,
too. If someone is in emotional crisis, if they are severely depressed
or suicidal, we are not only permitted but obligated to act, even on Yom
Kippur. We must make the phone call. We must provide the food. We must
remove the shame.
Yet, too many people still suffer in
silence, afraid their struggles make them spiritually unworthy or
religiously lacking. They hesitate to seek help in fear of judgment or
misunderstanding. But our tradition doesn’t ask us to suffer to prove
our faith. It asks us to choose life.
In Sefer Yoel (2:13), the prophet cries, “Tear your hearts and not your clothing.”Teshuvah
is not about theatrics. It’s not about saying the right words or
performing rituals without meaning. It’s about honesty: emotional,
spiritual and psychological.
The deepest form of teshuvah might not come from the pages of a machzor, but from a whisper in the dark: “I can’t do this alone anymore.”
This isn’t weakness. It’s courage.
The Torah was given to be lived—in this
world, in the messiness of human experience. Our sages understood that
physical and emotional suffering are real and that our halachah must
address the realities of life.
Yet too often, mental health remains
hidden in Orthodox circles. We whisper about therapy. We hesitate to
mention feelings of anxiety, depression or grief. But these are real.
They are as real as any illness.
And pretending otherwise is not piety. It’s denial.
A Torah that lives in this world must
address this world. That means supporting each other through struggles,
normalizing help-seeking, and training leaders to recognize the signs of
mental health crisis.
This High Holiday season, may we all remember:
You don’t have to be perfect to come before G-d.
You don’t need to have it all figured out.
You are allowed to bring your questions, your sadness, your fears.
Because G-d doesn’t ask for perfection. He asks for truth.
And as you stand before Him—however whole
or broken you may feel—may you hear in the stillness: “My beloved child,
you are enough. Come home.”
May this be a year of healing, of return and of wholeness.
"In early
September 2025, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced a
permanent and comprehensive ban on selling arms and ammunition to
Israel. The embargo also prevents ships carrying fuel for the Israeli
military from docking at Spanish ports and bans Israeli military planes
from Spanish airspace.Spain
has also banned imports from Israeli settlements in the West Bank and
will deny entry to anyone who participated in what Sánchez described as
"genocide" against Palestinians. Consular services for Spanish citizens
in illegal settlements will also be limited.On
September 15, 2025, Sánchez called on international sports bodies to ban
Israel from competitions, comparing its military actions to Russia's
invasion of Ukraine. This demand followed widespread pro-Palestinian
protests in Spain that disrupted the Vuelta cycling race, in which an
Israeli team was participating.Spain,
along with Ireland and Norway, officially recognized a Palestinian state
in May 2024, a move that drew strong criticism from Israel."
A 1492 Letter Regarding Jewish Property in Spain
The letter, from Spain's King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, is in the Museum's Permanent Collection
In 1492, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella issued the Alhambra
Decree, ordering the expulsion of all Jews from their kingdoms. In a
matter of months, Spanish Jews were forced to renounce their faith or
leave their thousand-year homeland behind. Meanwhile, the Spanish
economy crumbled as hundreds of thousands prepared for departure,
liquidating their assets and scrambling to arrange their affairs.
Amid this chaos, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella wrote a crucial
directive to their agent Rodrigo de Mercado, Governor of Medina del
Campo, regarding the dissolution of Jewish property in Spain. Signed on
December 10, 1492, this letter in the Museum’s Permanent Collection
marks a transformative moment in world history. It tells the story of a
unique culture nearly destroyed, and of a disastrous blunder by the
Spanish government that impacted not only the Jews of Spain but
Christian and Muslim countries across Europe and Africa.
Ferdinand and Isabella initially signed the decree for the expulsion
of all Jews residing within their domain on March 31, 1492. Spanish
Jews, who numbered around 300,000, were required to emigrate or convert
to Catholicism by the end of July the same year, giving them a period of
four months to liquidate all of their property, vacate their homes and
businesses, and venture abroad. The magnitude of the undertaking and the
timeframe given resulted in social and economic chaos, to which this
letter responds directly.
It reads: “As regards what you say about the goods which some people
have taken from the Jews in their towns and lands, as well as
outstanding debts, we command you to find out which goods were seized
and the number of debts that remained and they are collecting.”
Letter from Ferdinand and Isabella, King and Queen of Spain
The King and Queen of Spain’s instruction alludes to the issues that
immediately arose following their March order. Four months was
insufficient time for the liquidation of all Jewish-owned assets. Where
liquidation was possible, Jews were unable to sell their property at its
real value due to the saturation of the market as hundreds of thousands
of people simultaneously placed their land, homes, tools, and
belongings up for sale.
Compounding these difficulties was the
prohibition against Jews’ owning the standard currency of the day: gold
and silver. In addition, Jewish creditors would have no means of
collecting money from their non-Jewish debtors after their departure.
Likewise, non-Jewish creditors would be unable to retrieve debts owed to
them by Jewish debtors who were being forcibly expelled.
The letter
further instructed, “Stop seizing or expropriating what each one [Jew]
has in their own towns and lands. However, whatever you find outside of
their towns and lands in goods and other assets, seize it all according
to the provision you have.”
Within the year, 175,000 Jews left Spain, while those who stayed were
forced to renounce their faith. The Jewish presence in Spain was
virtually extinguished for the next several hundred years. This letter
chronicles a moment in that tragic and transformative episode in Jewish
history, after which Jews went on to disseminate Sephardic culture and
innovation around the world.
Times of Israel Headline Screams:
“In Israel, Sec. of State Rubio Reaffirms US Ties”
The headline looks harmless enough. A senior American official lands in Israel, flashes smiles, pledges “ironclad” support, and recites the well-rehearsed script of eternal friendship. But beneath the pleasantries lurks a darker question: why does Israel look like the supplicant, waiting for reassurance, as though its sovereignty and survival depend on the blessing of Washington?
Israel was reborn in 1948 so Jews would never again live as dhimmis—a tolerated but humiliated minority, second-class in their own land or any land. Yet reading the headlines, one wonders: have we traded one master for another? Once, Jews looked nervously over the shoulder of the local sultan or czar; today we look toward Foggy Bottom and Capitol Hill.
Of course, Israel needs allies. No nation, especially one surrounded by implacable foes, survives in isolation. But there is a line between alliance and dependency, between partnership and patronage. When every Israeli military move is prefaced by, “Will the Americans approve?”—when every headline trumpets the reassurance of a visiting dignitary rather than the confidence of our own leaders—we risk internalizing the mentality of second-class status.
The irony is painful. In the Arab world, Jews once endured dhimmitude—paying the jizya, bowing their heads, living under the whim of rulers who allowed their existence but never their equality. In the modern State of Israel, founded with blood and faith precisely to end that degradation, headlines now hint at a different but parallel subservience: Jews waiting for the nod from a foreign power before daring to act like a sovereign people.
What does it say about us if Israel’s legitimacy is measured not by its eternal right to the Land of Israel, not by the covenant of Tanach or the sacrifices of our soldiers, but by the reassuring words of an American politician whose tenure will be gone in four years? What happens the day that reassurance is not offered—or worse, is withdrawn?
The danger is not only strategic, but spiritual. A nation that defines itself by foreign approval will inevitably forget its own essence. Israel’s essence is not as a “strategic asset” for America, but as the covenantal homeland of the Jewish people, answerable to Hashem, to history, and to its own people’s destiny.
By all means, let American officials come, shake hands, and reaffirm ties. But Israel’s headlines should not scream with relief at their patronage. They should scream with the confidence of a sovereign nation that knows who it is, why it exists, and Who brought it back to life.
Israel cannot afford to live as dhimmis in its own state. Not before America, not before Europe, not before anyone. We are not guests here. We are home.
Gaza is not about 1967. It’s not about settlements. It’s not about humanitarian aid, water rights, or another donor conference in Geneva. Gaza is not even about Gaza.
The war Israel fights today is the same war our ancestors faced 1,400 years ago — the Arab–Jewish war. It began when Islam declared that Jews were a cursed people, fit only to be humiliated, ruled, and ultimately erased. It has never ended.
And what drives them mad is not “occupation.” It is Jewish sovereignty. The very existence of Israel is the unforgivable crime. For 1,400 years Jews were allowed to live — but only as dhimmi, broken, subordinate, grateful for the scraps of tolerance thrown their way. Then came 1948. For the first time in Islamic history, Jews stood up, armed, independent, and sovereign in their own land. That is the “Nakba.” That is the real wound that never heals.
Every Western diplomat and well-meaning pundit insists the “conflict” between Israel and Gaza has a solution: a two-state arrangement, land swaps, economic aid, confidence-building measures. They propose endless conferences, road maps, accords. They speak the language of compromise. But the truth is harsher: Gaza is not a land dispute. It is not about settlements or 1967 borders. It is not even about statehood. Gaza is simply the latest battlefield in a 1,400-year Arab–Jewish war that has never ceased — and for which there is no neat solution.
Since the 7th century, when Islam burst out of Arabia, Jews have lived under Muslim domination as dhimmi: tolerated but humiliated, allowed to survive only as long as they knew their place. The Jew could live — but never stand as an equal. This was not colonialism or modern geopolitics. This was theology. The Quran and subsequent Islamic tradition carved out a worldview: Jews rejected Muhammad, and thus they are forever marked as enemies. The Hadith even anticipates the apocalypse in which Muslims will hunt down Jews hiding behind rocks and trees. When Hamas screams that they are “carrying out the will of Allah,” they are not inventing anything new. They are quoting scripture.
What Israel represents is not just a piece of territory in the Middle East. Israel is the ultimate rebellion against 1,400 years of Muslim domination. For the first time since the rise of Islam, Jews are not a tolerated minority under Islamic power, but a sovereign people in their ancestral land, armed, independent, and unwilling to bow. That fact alone is intolerable to the ideological heirs of the Caliphate. No peace plan can erase that humiliation.
The Arab–Jewish war is therefore not cyclical violence; it is the continuation of an ancient clash. Gaza’s rockets and Israel’s responses are modern expressions of an old pattern: Islam’s refusal to accept Jewish sovereignty, and the Jewish refusal to disappear. Every cease-fire is a pause in a centuries-old war of civilizations. Every attempt at compromise founders on the same reef: Israel insists on being, and the Arab world insists it cannot be.
Western negotiators, sitting in air-conditioned hotels, refuse to hear this. They treat Gaza as a solvable border dispute, as if Shimon Peres and Yasser Arafat could sign away 1,400 years of theology. But ideas rooted in scripture do not vanish with diplomatic signatures. That is why every “peace process” has failed, and why each new round of violence erupts with greater ferocity.
Does this mean Israel is doomed? No. It means Israel must stop believing in fantasies. There will be no permanent peace, no handshake that “ends the conflict.” Israel survives, and thrives, by strength — by recognizing that survival is the goal, not utopia. The only “solution” is deterrence, vigilance, and a clarity of vision: we are not engaged in a border squabble but in an ancient war, with no expiration date.
The Gaza war is not 2025. It is 732, 1099, 1929, 1948, 2023. It is the same story told over centuries: the Jew insists on life and sovereignty; the Arab world insists he cannot have it. That is why the Gaza–Israel war is not solvable — because it is not a conflict at all. It is the continuation of the Arab–Jewish war, 1,400 years old, and still raging.
There is no solution. There is only survival. Israel’s only path is to fight, win, and keep winning. To crush those who rise against her. To stop yearning for the photo-op handshake that will never come. This war will not end in our lifetime because it did not begin in our lifetime. It began in Medina in the 7th century. It roared in Hebron in 1929, in the refugee camps in 1948, on the Temple Mount in 2000, and in the skies over Gaza today.
WE DO NOT CARE:The challenges include “a shortage of staff, with a ratio of 1:750
patients per rehabilitation worker; the need to simplify bureaucracy;
and new and unique needs required for the newly wounded”
More than 10,000 IDF soldiers have been treated for mental health issues since Oct. 7
Defense Ministry says 45% of 20,000 wounded
soldiers have physical injuries, 35% have PTSD or other mental ailments,
and 20% are suffering both physically and mentally
Wounded
IDF soldiers arrive for the funeral of a comrade at Mt. Herzl Military
Cemetery in Jerusalem, July 8, 2025.
The Defense Ministry’s Rehabilitation Department said on Sunday
that it has treated some 20,000 wounded soldiers since the beginning of
the war on October 7, 2023, more than half of whom are suffering from
mental health conditions.
According to the Defense Ministry, some 56% of those treated by the
rehab centers amid the war are suffering from post-traumatic stress
disorder and other mental health conditions.
Some 9% of the wounded are defined as having moderate-to-severe
injuries; 56 soldiers are classified as having over 100% disability —
the most severe level of injury; 24 wounded have 100% disability; 16 of
those wounded are paralyzed; and 99 are amputees who received
prosthetics, the ministry said.
Each month, around 1,000 wounded soldiers from the war are treated by
the rehab department, in addition to around 600 requests from previous
wars.
Israeli soldiers wounded in the war
with Hamas walk in the rehabilitation division of Sheba Medical Center
in Ramat Gan
Including previous wars, the ministry said the rehab department is
caring for a total of 81,700 wounded veterans, including 31,000, or 38%,
suffering from mental health conditions. It forecasts that by 2028, the
center will be treating some 100,000, with at least half of them
suffering from PTSD and other mental health conditions.
The rehab department’s budget stands at NIS 8.3 billion ($2.5 billion),
NIS 4.1 billion of which is dedicated to treating those with mental
health conditions, the ministry said.
Officials at the rehab department say they have identified that “in
the coming years, alongside the national challenges of the increase in
the number of wounded, the continuation of the war, the treatment of
those dealing with mental health conditions, the concern about suicide,
and the shortage of therapists, there are challenges that require
immediate response.”
The challenges include “a shortage of staff, with a ratio of 1:750
patients per rehabilitation worker; the need to simplify bureaucracy;
and new and unique needs required for the newly wounded,” it said.
The Defense Ministry’s Rehabilitation Department said on Sunday
that it has treated some 20,000 wounded soldiers since the beginning of
the war on October 7, 2023, more than half of whom are suffering from
mental health conditions.
According to the Defense Ministry, some 56% of those treated by the
rehab centers amid the war are suffering from post-traumatic stress
disorder and other mental health conditions.
Some 9% of the wounded are defined as having moderate-to-severe
injuries; 56 soldiers are classified as having over 100% disability —
the most severe level of injury; 24 wounded have 100% disability; 16 of
those wounded are paralyzed; and 99 are amputees who received
prosthetics, the ministry said.
Each month, around 1,000 wounded soldiers from the war are treated by
the rehab department, in addition to around 600 requests from previous
wars.
Israeli soldiers wounded in the war
with Hamas walk in the rehabilitation division of Sheba Medical Center
in Ramat Gan
The rehab department’s budget stands at NIS 8.3 billion ($2.5
billion), NIS 4.1 billion of which is dedicated to treating those with
mental health conditions, the ministry said.
Officials at the rehab department say they have identified that “in
the coming years, alongside the national challenges of the increase in
the number of wounded, the continuation of the war, the treatment of
those dealing with mental health conditions, the concern about suicide,
and the shortage of therapists, there are challenges that require
immediate response.”
The challenges include “a shortage of staff, with a ratio of 1:750
patients per rehabilitation worker; the need to simplify bureaucracy;
and new and unique needs required for the newly wounded,” it said.
IDF troops simulate an aerial evacuation
of wounded soldiers near the West Bank city of Tulkarem, in images
cleared for publication on March 26, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)
In light of the challenges, Defense Minister Israel Katz and Finance
Minister Betzalel Smotrich recently announced the establishment of a public committee
headed by Prof. Shlomo Mor-Yosef, chairman of Leumit Health Services,
to formulate recommendations on how to expand the treatment and
rehabilitation of wounded IDF soldiers.
The new initiative plans to examine and recommend improvements in key
areas, including recognition of wounded veterans, streamlining medical
and psychological rehabilitation, employment integration, family support
systems and allocation of budget and manpower resources.
Since the war began with the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led invasion, 904 IDF soldiers have been killed across the various arenas of conflict.
That figure includes 329 soldiers killed during the October 7 attack
and 460 during the ensuing ground operations in Gaza and amid operations
on the border. It also includes 29 soldiers killed in Hezbollah attacks
inside Israel, and 51 soldiers who were killed during ground operations
in Lebanon.
Two soldiers were killed in a drone attack from Iraq, and one soldier was killed in a ballistic missile attack from Iran.
The military’s list also includes a soldier killed by friendly fire
in the West Bank, a soldier killed due to malfunctioning ammunition on
the Lebanon border, two soldiers killed in a tank accident in northern
Israel, and a number of other deadly incidents amid the war that were
not directly related to the fighting.
Friends and family attend the funeral of
Sgt. Shlomo Yakir Shrem, who was killed during an Israeli military
operation in the Gaza Strip, at the military cemetery in Kfar Etzion,
July 15, 2025.
Twelve soldiers were killed in terror attacks in the West Bank and
Israel, and five soldiers were killed during counter-terrorism
operations in the West Bank.
September 11, 2001, and October 7, 2023, are not two separate events.
They are chapters in the same book, authored by the same ideology: radical Islam’s war against Jews, Christians, and the West. The methods differ—planes into towers, paragliders into kibbutzim—but the theology behind both atrocities comes from the same place: the conviction that Islam must rule the world, and that Jews especially must be destroyed.
Let’s stop deluding ourselves. The terrorists are not vague “militants.” They are not “resistance fighters.” They are theological warriors, quoting chapter and verse as they slaughter. Al Qaeda on 9/11 and Hamas on October 7 were not acting despite Islam, but in their own eyes, because of it.
Hamas’s founding charter quotes the Quran directly: “The Day of Judgment will not come until the Muslims fight the Jews, and the Jews hide behind the stones and the trees, and the stones and the trees say, O Muslim, O servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him” (Sahih Muslim 2922). That isn’t a fringe idea—it’s a Hadith considered authentic in Islamic tradition. For Hamas, this is not metaphor. It is policy.
When Al Qaeda struck America, bin Laden declared it was a holy war. He quoted the Quran: “Fight them until there is no more fitnah [unbelief] and religion is all for Allah” (Quran 8:39). His target was not just the U.S. military—it was the very existence of a free, pluralistic West. The Jews were the “little Satan,” America the “great Satan,” both obstacles to a world submitted to Allah.
October 7 was soaked in the same theology. Hamas fighters stormed Israeli towns screaming “Allahu Akbar,” not “Free Palestine.” Their goal was not territory, but theology: the humiliation of the Jews. In their eyes, this is obedience to the Quran: “Humiliation and wretchedness were stamped upon them [the Jews]… They incurred wrath from Allah” (Quran 2:61). To Hamas, slaughtering Jews is not a crime—it is a divine command.
And the hatred is not limited to Jews. The Quran describes Christians, too, as destined for defeat: “They have certainly disbelieved who say, ‘Allah is the Messiah, the son of Mary’” (Quran 5:72). This is why 9/11 targeted America, not only Israel. It is the same war, the same creed, the same script.
The echoes between 9/11 and October 7 are therefore not just tactical, but theological. Both were sermons with bullets. Both were commentaries on scripture written in Jewish and American blood. Both were acts of worship as much as they were acts of war.
What does the West do? Deny it. Whitewash it. Pretend this is about borders, poverty, or politics. After 9/11, intellectuals rushed to insist “Islam is a religion of peace.” After October 7, the same voices bend over backwards to claim Hamas does not represent “real Islam.” Meanwhile, Hamas clerics broadcast weekly sermons dripping with Jew-hatred, quoting Quran 5:82: “You will surely find the most intense of the people in animosity toward the believers [to be] the Jews…” These are not marginal verses. They are mainstream. And jihadists act on them.
The tragedy is not only that Jews were butchered on October 7. The tragedy is that we still pretend this has nothing to do with religion. The West hides behind illusions of “coexistence.” Israel clings to hopes of “managing” Hamas. But the killers have told us in plain Arabic: they are obeying God.
The echoes of 9/11 on October 7 ring with one command: believe your enemies when they tell you who they are. Radical Islam wants the West humiliated, America dethroned, and the Jews eradicated. If 9/11 was a wake-up call, October 7 is the alarm blaring again.
Israel must respond not as if this is a border dispute, but as if it is a holy war—because that is exactly how our enemies see it. Hamas must be crushed, not contained. And the West must face reality: the jihad that hit New York and the jihad that hit the Negev is the same jihad. If Israel falls, the towers will fall again—whether in Manhattan, London, or Paris.
The towers burned. The kibbutzim burned. The texts that inspired both burn still. Until we take them seriously, the echoes of 9/11 and October 7 will not fade. They will grow louder.
