When the financiers of terror sit undisturbed in Qatar and Turkey, and the lectures are delivered in Jerusalem, the world has turned moral clarity into a diplomatic crime.
There are moments in history when the theater of politics becomes so absurd that even satire bows out, muttering, “I can’t compete with reality.” This is one of those moments. President Trump — self-anointed dealmaker, lover of spectacle, and self-proclaimed “friend of Israel” — is once again dispatching his emissaries, not to the sponsors of Hamas terror, not to the architects of October 7’s bloodshed, but to Israel itself.
One stands bewildered.
Why send envoys to Jerusalem, when the real puppeteers sit comfortably in Doha and Ankara? Why rebuke the patient, while ignoring the infection?
Qatar bankrolls Hamas — proudly, openly, even ostentatiously — hosting its leaders in five-star suites as they sip imported espresso and order more rockets for Gaza. Turkey, under Erdoğan, has turned its once-proud republic into a megaphone for Islamist rage, giving Hamas legitimacy as “freedom fighters.” These two nations don’t hide their intentions. They celebrate them.
And yet, it is Israel that receives the envoys, the lectures, the “urging of restraint.” Israel — still burying its dead, still retrieving the kidnapped, still patching the holes in its soul — is told to “show moderation.” Moderation to whom?
To Hamas, which executed families and burned babies? To the sponsors who cheered it on?
One remembers the old Biblical pattern: the prophets were never sent to the nations who sinned, but to Israel, who could be rebuked. The nations never listen, and Israel, being moral, always listens too much. The modern prophets wear tailored suits and speak from press podiums, but the old script remains.
The bewilderment deepens when one recalls Trump’s boasts — that he was the “most pro-Israel president in history,” the architect of the Abraham Accords, the man who moved the embassy to Jerusalem. But in this new act of political theater, his envoys treat Israel not as an ally under siege, but as a misbehaving child in need of supervision.
Where are the envoys to Qatar, to demand the expulsion of Hamas’s politburo?
Where are the envoys to Turkey, to confront Erdoğan’s poisonous embrace of jihadist rhetoric?
Where are the sanctions, the diplomatic cold shoulders, the grandstanding that Trump so loves to perform when it suits his ego?
Perhaps the answer lies not in diplomacy but in vanity. Sending envoys to Qatar wins no votes.
Confronting Turkey risks oil, trade, and complications with NATO. But pressuring Israel? That’s the easy applause line. It looks “balanced,” it sounds “presidential,” and it costs nothing politically. The irony is bitter — and so typically American.
Trump’s envoys should be landing in Doha, not Tel Aviv. They should be speaking to the financiers of terror, not the defenders of civilization. But perhaps that’s too much to expect from a world where moral courage is inversely proportional to global influence.
Trump didn’t mean to teach Israel a moral lesson, but he did. He reminded us that Israel’s survival can never hang on a foreign vote, a White House whim, or a Pentagon shipment. The Jewish state must be self-sufficient in every realm—military, economic, spiritual. We cannot subcontract Jewish survival to anyone, not even the mightiest nation on earth.
The next time a president promises eternal friendship, we should smile, shake hands, and quietly triple our ammunition stockpiles. Because the day may come—again—when we stand alone. And when that day comes, the world will see what it has always secretly feared: the Jew who no longer begs for protection, but provides it for himself.
America’s friendship is not Torah. It’s policy. And policies change the moment it’s politically convenient. In Washington, loyalty lasts only until the next election or the next oil crisis. A superpower’s love is a transactional love—it comes with a bill attached.
Donald Trump did not come to Jerusalem as a prophet. He came as a showman — a man who loves the sound of his own applause and the grandeur of his own reflection. Yet, for all his vanity, he may have spoken the most important unintended truth ever uttered in the Knesset: Israel must never depend on America alone for its survival.
He stood there, flanked by flags and flattery, proclaiming “America will always stand with Israel.” The applause that followed was dutiful, not devout. Every Israeli statesman and soldier in that hall knew the truth that Trump, in his bluster, accidentally revealed: all alliances are conditional.
History has a way of stripping illusions. The British once promised to “protect the Jewish national home.” They armed Arab militias and disarmed Jews. In 1939, with Europe’s Jews burning, Britain’s White Paper slammed shut the gates of Palestine, condemning countless Jews to death while promising “stability.” And yet, when the Jews fought for independence in 1948, Britain armed our enemies and blockaded our coast. That was the “friendship” of empires.
America learned well from its imperial predecessors. It mastered the language of moral obligation, the theater of eternal alliance. “Unbreakable bond,” they call it — a phrase used by every president since Truman, as if repetition makes it truer. But it was Truman who refused to send Israel a single bullet during its War of Independence. It was Eisenhower who threatened sanctions if Israel did not withdraw from Sinai in 1956. It was Reagan who sold AWACS planes to Saudi Arabia. It was Obama who sent cash to Iran — the same Iran that swore to wipe Israel off the map. And it was Trump, that self-anointed Messiah of populism, who made Israel’s sovereignty sound like a subsidiary of his “deal-making.”
When Trump spoke in the Knesset, he looked less like a friend and more like a benevolent landlord inspecting his prized tenant. He called Israel “our greatest ally in the Middle East,” but every “our” was a reminder that in his mind, Israel was part of his project — not her own. He meant it as praise. It landed as possession.
The lesson was not new, only clarified. No foreign nation, however powerful, can be trusted as the guarantor of Jewish existence. Not when Rome offered “peace,” not when Britain offered “protection,” and not when Washington offers “partnership.” The Torah teaches, “Cursed is the man who trusts in man” (Jeremiah 17:5). That verse should be engraved above the Knesset chamber door.
Israel’s rebirth was not the result of global sympathy — it was the defiance of it. Ben-Gurion didn’t wait for America’s permission to declare independence; he did it knowing Washington and Moscow might both turn against him. He didn’t ask permission to build a nuclear deterrent. He didn’t outsource the defense of the Jewish people. He understood that the world respects the Jew only when he stands tall, armed, and unafraid. The moment Israel becomes dependent, it becomes dispensable.
Trump’s speech, with all its theatrical patriotism, was a master class in American self-interest. It wasn’t malicious — it was natural. America does what is best for America. That is how great powers behave. But Israel must never mistake the warmth of a handshake for the permanence of protection. One administration calls us brothers; the next calls us occupiers. The applause of the U.S. Congress can turn into the cold silence of the U.N. in a single election cycle.
It is time we end our dependency addiction — the illusion that U.S. aid is oxygen. Israel today is a technological and military superpower. We build Iron Dome, we train elite cyber units, we export innovation to the world. Why then should the State of the Jews still act like a client state, bowing before every “request” to show restraint while our enemies arm to the teeth?
True friendship is welcome. Subservience is not. America’s friendship should be appreciated — never worshipped. Let there be cooperation, not codependence; alliance, not reliance. Let America admire us, but never imagine that we cannot survive without her.
When Trump thundered his promises of eternal loyalty, I heard something else — the echo of our ancestors who stood alone in every generation. From Egypt to Babylon to Spain to the Pale of Settlement, no gentile empire ever guaranteed our safety. Only our God and our courage did. “Am Yisrael Chai” is not a slogan to be underwritten by the Pentagon. It is a covenant of self-determination — a declaration that Jewish survival will never again depend on anyone’s permission.
And if we need a modern example of that courage, we need only recall Ben-Gurion in 1956. The Americans demanded that Israel retreat from Sinai after its lightning victory in the Suez campaign. Eisenhower threatened sanctions. Congress warned of isolation. The world barked. But Ben-Gurion — short, stubborn, and unswayed — stood before the Knesset and declared: “The IDF will not move one step without security guarantees worthy of a sovereign nation.” He faced down the pressure of the world’s greatest power with the confidence of a man who answered to history, not diplomacy. In the end, he withdrew on his own terms — but only after proving that Israel bends to no one.
That is the model. That is the posture of a free people.
Trump, with his oversized ego and his salesman’s charm, only made the lesson impossible to ignore. He spoke as though Israel were a client in his global portfolio—another asset to be managed, not a people whose destiny is their own. “We’ll always have your back,” he said. But the subtext was clear: as long as you play by our rules.
So yes, Mr. Trump, thank you for your words. In your speech, you reminded me — and perhaps all of Israel — of a truth older than America itself:
A free Jewish nation must be strong enough to thank its allies — and strong enough to outlive them.
The Ceasefire Illusion and the Long Disease of Jewish Denial
There’s a moment every cancer patient dreads more than diagnosis itself — that fragile instant when the doctor says, “Stage One.” The words are meant to comfort: It’s early. It’s treatable. You have time. But anyone who’s lived through it knows that “Stage One” is still cancer. It’s not the absence of danger — it’s the quiet before it explodes.
Israel, too, has been living in its Stage One for decades. Every ceasefire, every truce, every so-called peace process has been nothing but a medical illusion — a temporary remission of a disease the world refuses to name. The cancer is not Gaza. It’s not even Hamas. The true malignancy lies in the ideology that sanctifies death, glorifies hatred, and feeds its children the fantasy that killing a Jew is holy.
The world, with its infinite moral vanity, still insists that this is a conflict between equals. But the conflict is not between Israel and Gaza. It’s between civilization and barbarism. Between life and the worship of death. And yet, the diplomats and editorial boards prescribe the same familiar therapy — “ceasefire,” “restraint,” “confidence-building measures.” As if human decency were a kind of chemotherapy that might make the cancer see reason.
But cancer doesn’t reason. Cancer spreads.
From 1949’s “armistice” to Oslo’s “peace process,” Israel has been asked to mistake breathing for healing. Each truce was a ritual of denial, an exercise in global self-deception: “We’ve contained it,” the world said, as the next generation of children in Gaza were taught to hate.
After 1948 came the “temporary” armistice lines that froze Israel inside a coffin of geography.
After 1967 came the promise of “land for peace,” and we discovered that surrendering land brought neither peace nor love, only proximity to rockets.
After 1973 came “disengagement.”
After Oslo came “hope.”
After every massacre came “restraint.”
Stage One in 2025 — just another round in the same unhealed wound.
Every ceasefire is Stage One — the illusion of control, the pause mistaken for progress. The tumor sleeps; the world applauds. And then it wakes up again — more aggressive, more resilient, more convinced that Israel lacks the moral will to finish what it starts.
Israel’s wars have never been against one enemy, one border, or one generation. They are against an idea — the idea that the Jew must never be sovereign, that Jewish blood is cheap, and that Jewish power is a cosmic mistake.
That idea has metastasized. It has spread from Gaza to Europe’s capitals, to American universities, to NGOs dressed up as human rights crusaders. The hatred that once wore the uniform of the Egyptian army now wears the mask of “intersectionality.” The rockets have become hashtags, the tunnels have become boycotts, but the ideology is the same: erase the Jew, delegitimize his nation, sanctify his suffering only when he’s dead.
The West doesn’t even recognize its own infection. It still clings to the myth that this is a conflict about borders. But no border will ever satisfy those who believe Israel itself is the disease.
The Torah saw this pathology long before the diplomats did.
“Do not show them mercy, nor shall you make covenant with them” (Devarim 7:2).
Because misplaced compassion — mercy for the cruel — becomes cruelty to the merciful. Rambam wrote that when life is threatened, mercy becomes sin. Pikuach nefesh docheh hakol — the preservation of life overrides everything.
The world worships moral symmetry. The Torah rejects it. There is no equivalence between a nation defending its citizens and a cult that trains its children to die for Allah. Yet every ceasefire pretends there is. The result is predictable: the world rewards pathology and punishes survival.
The pattern repeats: the headlines change, the enemy’s name changes, the years pass — but Israel remains in permanent Stage One. The diagnosis never progresses because the world never allows the cure. “Proportional response,” they lecture, as if morality were measured in matching body counts. “Peace process,” they insist, as if coexistence were possible with those who see your existence as a sin.
Stage One in 1948. Stage One in 1967. Stage One in 1973. Stage One in 2009. Stage One in 2014. Stage One in 2021. Stage One in 2023.
And now, again, Stage One in 2025 — just another round in the same unhealed wound.
Every ceasefire has been another denial of diagnosis. Every truce, another postponement of the inevitable surgery. The world prefers Israel “contained.” It cannot stomach a Jewish state that cuts out its own cancer without permission.
Real peace, like real healing, requires clarity. It requires the moral courage to destroy what threatens life, not manage it. Israel must finally stop believing that evil can be persuaded into remission. It cannot. Evil doesn’t compromise; it consumes.
The world calls it “de-escalation.” Heaven calls it procrastination.
Israel has tried the treatments: restraint, diplomacy, land concessions, apologies, press releases. None have cured the disease. The only cure is the same now as it was in Sinai: moral certainty. To defend life without apology. To stop measuring survival by the standards of those who prefer Jews quiet, weak, or gone. Stage One is the moment of mercy — when there’s still time to act. Stage Two is the obituary.
Israel stands again at the edge of that decision. It can live in remission — endlessly negotiating with its own destroyers — or it can choose life. U’vacharta ba’chaim. “And you shall choose life.” (Devarim 30:19)
But choosing life sometimes means refusing a pretend peace. It means refusing to pretend that a ceasefire with death is anything but suicide by increments.
Because history has taught this patient one brutal truth: There is no peace with cancer.
Only cure — or collapse.
And the time to choose has come again.
Because make no mistake: it’s just a matter of time.
תּוֹרַת ה' תְּמִימָה, מְשִׁיבַת נָפֶשׁ, עֵדוּת ה' נֶאֱמָנָה, מַחְכִּימַת פֶּתִי
"The Torah of Hashem is perfect, restoring the soul; the testimony of Hashem is trustworthy, making the simple one wise." (Tehillim 19:8-Pesukei D'zimra for Shabbos/Yom Tov)
After two years meditating on the future of American Jewry, reflecting on faith, exile, and Jewish destiny, I say this with love and urgency: if you are in Israel now, stay. This is home.
To the young American Jewish couples now walking the streets of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, or Beit Shemesh — studying, learning, and beginning your married lives together — this is a letter born of two years of meditation. Two years of reflection, heartbreak, and clarity about what awaits you if you go back “home.”
Because home, dear brothers and sisters, is not where your passport was issued. Home is where your soul is safe. And that home is here.
When I began this meditation, I wanted to believe that America — my America — was different. That the Jews had finally broken the ancient pattern of exile. That history had changed its tune.
But history never changes; it only repeats itself in more sophisticated language. The same pattern has returned — quieter this time, polite, “progressive,” even righteous in tone.
The universities where your parents proudly sent you now drip with hatred. “From the river to the sea” is not a debate — it is an indictment. The professional world, once a safe haven for Jews, is turning cold. Colleagues avert their eyes; friends grow cautious; your moral worth is questioned if you refuse to apologize for Israel’s right to exist.
October 7 tore away the mask. The slaughter of Jews was not met with outrage — it was met with excuses. When Jews were murdered, many of the “enlightened” explained why it was justified. The same society that wept for every other victim of violence found its empathy gone when the victims were us.
That day exposed the great illusion: America’s golden exile is dimming.
And so I turn to you — the newlyweds living in Israel for a year or two, planning to “go back” when life feels more stable, more practical, more predictable. I beg you: do not go back.
You are already standing on the only soil in the world that does not question your right to stand upon it. You are breathing the air of your ancestors. You are raising your voices in the land that remembers every word of your people’s story.
Yes, Israel is hard. It’s noisy, expensive, and often infuriating. But it is ours. The arguments here are family arguments. The chaos is Jewish chaos. And every frustration is still part of a miracle.
In America, your Jewishness must be managed — measured, softened, explained. Here, it is lived.
Aliyah is no longer a dream of idealists; it is the only rational conclusion of history. Exile is temporary by design. Every exile ends — not with a headline, but with a silence. You are living at the hinge of that ending.
My two-year meditation has made this clear: Jewish life in America is approaching twilight. It still glows — but it glows like the last light before dusk. Meanwhile, here in Israel, the sun keeps rising — bright, harsh, holy, alive.
So before you board that plane back to your “real life,” ask yourself one question: Why would you leave the only place where being Jewish is not an act of courage, but an act of living?
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.
