The Jewish people have lost a great leader, and the world has lost a prophet. Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, of blessed memory, left our world this...

On Nov. 24, 1961, in the shadow of the Adolf Eichmann trial, Israeli newspaper Haaretz published a review of journalist and war correspondent William...

When I was growing up in Los Angeles, the way my family finished Passover was very different from how most of my friends’ families...

Editor’s Note: Israeli writer, novelist, journalist and intellectual Amos Oz died Dec. 28 in Tel Aviv. He was 79.  Dear Amos, I’m sitting at my desk,...

May we form a unified community, doing God’s will with a perfect heart. These words from the Rosh Hashanah liturgy will be recited by millions of...

“I cannot live without books.” These famous words were spoken by Thomas Jefferson on June 10, 1815, but they were most likely born on...

As Israel turns 70 today, I give thanks to Hashem, to all IDF Soldiers, and to my personal IDF hero, my father Nessim Bouskila,...

“This year we are here, next year in the Land of Israel. This year we are still slaves, next year may we be a...

“From the moment I arrived in Israel, I hated the people who forced me to speak Hebrew,” wrote Aharon Appelfeld in his memoir, “The...

It was April 1949, and the residents of Jerusalem were in the midst of the first Passover being celebrated in the still young State...

As a child, I always wanted a sukkah. My family lived in a small, rent-controlled apartment in West Hollywood. The space had its drawbacks...

Can the simple arrangement of the Passover seder plate reflect a deeper message? In the Sephardic tradition, the answer is a resounding yes. Unlike the...

Words are powerful. How did God create the world? What were God’s tools for creating the world? “And God said ‘Let there be light,’ and there...

On Dec. 10, 1966, Shabbat in Stockholm ended at 3:55 p.m. This gave Israeli writer S.Y. Agnon; his wife, Esther; and their daughter, Emunah, exactly 35 minutes to travel from the Grand Hotel to the Stockholm Concert Hall, where Agnon would receive the Nobel Prize in Literature.

It was an experience I will never forget. It was Chol HaMo’ed Sukkot, the intermediate days when one can go to work. My father went to work, and my mother and I were going to the synagogue for Sukkot services.

Can the hit Broadway musical “Hamilton” serve up some inspiration for the High Holy Days? Reflecting on how I felt on the night of Feb. 25, on my way out of the Richard Rodgers Theatre in New York after seeing “Hamilton” (yes, with the full original cast!), I think the answer is yes.

Parashat Korach (Numbers 16:1–18:32)

As Israelis prepare for this week’s 68th Independence Day celebrations, fans of Israel’s modern Hebrew literature look forward to a milestone celebration later this year: the 50th anniversary of Israeli author S.Y. Agnon receiving the Nobel Prize in literature.

Parashat Vayikra (Leviticus 1:1-5:26), Shabbat Zachor (Deuteronomy 25:17-19)

In his well written and thought provoking article recently published in the journal Conversations, our SEC President Neil Sheff mentioned that during our annual...

The Honorable Yitzhak Navon, 5th President of the State of Israel, Distinguished Chief of Staff of David Ben Gurion, Member of Knesset, Minister of Education, Author, Diplomat and outstanding representative of Classical Sephardic Judaism died on Nov. 7 at his home in Jerusalem.

While waiting in line at a Los Angeles International Airport gift shop last week, I noticed a colorful display of magnets.

For many years, Tisha b’Av was off the radar of the national Israeli narrative.

I was born in 1964. The Israel I grew up with seemingly could do no wrong in the eyes of the world. This was...

Although we are nearing the end of Passover, we still have a grand event to celebrate this week – the exodus! But didn’t we...

Parashat Tzav (Leviticus 6:1-8:36), Shabbat Hagadol

While the Obama Administration negotiates with Iran over its nuclear program, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepares to come to Washington, D.C. to...

On November 26, 1936, Rav Ben Zion Meir Hai Uziel delivered a lecture to a large gathering of rabbis in Jerusalem. Titled "The Seat...

Parashat Vayeshev (Genesis 37:1-40:23)