It’s so good to finally have you home. We’ve waited so long for this moment to greet you, to welcome you home, to hug you. For 471 days, you lived through an unimaginable hell. You are very strong, brave and courageous to have survived the tunnels, the cruelty, the abuse. After this long, dark nightmare, you still have your sweet smiles that illuminate our hearts.
In your long absence, thousands of us gathered regularly at “Hostage Square” to sing songs of hope and lift our voices in prayer. We saw your smiling faces on posters, we heard your names being read – and we cried. We hugged each other and supported one another, hoping that we would see your smiling faces again, not on hostage posters, but in person. Our prayers were answered and our dreams came true: you came home.
Now we wait for those other beautiful faces to also come home. We continue to gather in “Hostage Square” to sing songs of hope and to pray. We continue to hug each other, hoping we will see all the other beautiful smiling faces, just as we saw yours.
Throughout this long, dark period, we’ve worn a yellow ribbon on our clothing, close to our hearts. We vow to not remove this yellow ribbon until every one of the hostages are home. We pray that day comes soon, when we can all remove the ribbon, saying in one voice – “They are all home.”
What will it feel like, to finally remove that yellow ribbon? It will probably be similar to a mourner removing the torn garment they wore during shiva.
After an intense week of mourning, accentuated by tearing a garment and wearing that garment all week, the mourner finally changes the garment, thus removing the external symbol of grief. But the internal grief remains. The outer garment is no longer torn, but the mourner’s heart is torn apart, still in grief. It takes a lot longer than a week for that to heal, if at all.
That’s how it will feel when we finally remove the yellow ribbons. They’ve been our external expressions of pain, grief, fear, anxiety and hope. When we finally remove them, when all of the hostages are finally home, the complex blend of emotions wrapped up in those ribbons will stay with us for a long time. Despite this “deal,” there’s still a long road ahead to our removing our ribbons.
In the meanwhile, Emily, Doron and Romy, we give thanks that you have come home.
By just being your beautiful selves, you’ve inspired and uplifted an entire nation. You are role models of courage, strength and character.
Welcome back, welcome home, with love.
Rabbi Daniel Bouskila is the international director of the Sephardic Educational Center.
As perhaps the only member of the Los Angeles rabbinic community born in Milan, Italy, Rabbi Mendel Lipskier of the Chabad of Sherman Oaks is leading a committed life.
True to his Chabad roots, he spent his youth traveling the globe, delivering teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe that were as new as tomorrow to his audience. In 1996 Rabbi Lipskier and Shterna, his wife of two years, moved to Southern California to serve as an assistant rabbi and assistant rebbetzin at Chabad of Sherman Oaks.
The rabbi’s life never seems to have been in doubt. His parents spent five years in Milan as emissaries of The Rebbe, returning to America shortly before Mendel’s second birthday. He grew up in Morristown, N.J., learning in the Rabbinical College of America. When he reached 13, he transferred to a yeshiva. Rabbi Lipskier studied in Crown Heights for 12 years with other missions in between around the world – a year in Israel, two years in Argentina, a year in Venezuela, a year in Ukraine. “All of those destinations were my choices,” he said. “Israel was the best landing place,” and he laughs deeply. “You can’t argue with that.” Ukraine, where he arrived in 1992, as the country was beginning recovery from its long domination by the Soviet Union, was the place he felt he was the most effective.
When he settled in Dnipro, “the community was just restarting.” With the arrival of a Jewish teacher, “everybody was hungry for Judaism,” he said, stretching out hungry. “So all day, teaching, teaching, teaching. I was there almost a year.”
Looking back on his time there, “it was so sad,” he said, “to see how Communism had eradicated Judaism. People were so pure. They were eager to learn. It was amazing.”
Back then, the U.S. government was distributing butter and all manner of humanitarian aid to Ukraine. They were looking for trusted organizations that won’t siphon off the money, and Chabad was one of them. “All the locals had great respect for the Jewish community because they were getting humanitarian aid through the Jewish community … it was a very positive experience.”
Lipskier retains strong links to Dnipro, Ukraine. His sister and her husband are the Chabad emissaries, the rabbi and rebbetzin based in Dnipro. With the fourth anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine coming up, he has returned to Ukraine a few times and noted that “life there has been very difficult since the war began.”
How did Southern California — where seven of their eight children were born — enter the Lipskiers’ lives? “I was teaching in a yeshiva in New York,” he said. “When my wife and I got married, we decided we wanted to dedicate our lives to the Rebbe’s vision, to be schluchim, emissaries of The Rebbe. So I always kept looking around. The way it happens, you look for a place and it looks for you, and the shidduch happens. There already was a community established, Chabad of Sherman Oaks. They were looking for an assistant rabbi.”
His job, he said, was to assist with everything. “I am the administrator, and I focus on whatever is needed.” Chabad of Sherman Oaks has five rabbis and rebbetzins, and every Shabbat there are two services, Sephardic and Chabad.
The outgoing Rabbi Lipskier said the best part of his job is “seeing families and young people advance in their practice. I love meeting new people.” Addressing changes he’s seen since 1996, the rabbi said, “People are searching for more connection. I have noticed Reform and Conservative congregations becoming more traditional, less political, more spiritual, more Jewish practice.”
What sparked such changes?
“People are looking for truth,” he said. “They are fed up with shallowness in their lives. They want depth, authenticity.” A “combination of many factors” have driven attitudinal changes.“In general, there is more spiritual awareness, mental health awareness. People want to be more grounded, aligned, as they say. They want to connect.”
Yet sadly, he said, most Jews are not affiliated – yet. “That is our mission – for Chabad especially.” With a laugh he said, “We say every moving Jew is a target … We go door-knocking, businesses and homes,” the rabbi said. “We just let people know we are here … We have yeshiva boys come, every Friday and holiday times. We go door-to-door.”
This is how their mission works: “Step 1, we remind persons they are Jewish. They may have forgotten. If they know it already, we ask them to do one more good deed, one more mitzvah.”
How do you know a home is Jewish?
“If there is a mezuzah, you can assume so. Otherwise, you guess. We just go door-to-door. I have not had any hostility – Jews or non-Jews. Just ‘No, thank you.’ Very pleasant. I actually find that in L.A. culture, people aren’t so into knowing their neighbors as much as the East Coast.”
After noting that aloneness is far more common than before, especially among the young, Rabbi Lipskier explained how he attempts to reverse their thinking: “No. 1, there is a God in the world who loves them and cares for them. No. 2, life is good. Bad things can happen, but that doesn’t make life bad. The world is inherently good.
“That was a great call of The Rebbe – bring positive thinking into a world that always is broadcasting negative, negative.”
Fast Takes with Rabbi Lipskier
Jewish Journal: What are your main takeaways from The Rebbe?
Rabbi Lipskier: Three points — the triangle of Torah. Torah is one. Any part of Torah is one, Torah is truth and Torah is life, which means any topic in Torah has to be interconnected to all other topics and everything must be applied to daily living. The takeaway is not to sit on your laurels, but saying how will today be better than yesterday.
J.J.: Is there anything you wish you had done differently in your life?
RL: Studied more Torah with people. Spent more time teaching.
J.J.Do you have unmet goals?
RL: Yes. Personally, to finish the entire Talmud. And to hopefully build a stronger learning center, and a pre-school.
I had a conversation with a devout Jew in synagogue last month, during one of the dark days of a very dark year. He is a regular at a daily minyan and always has a sefer nearby. He asked in despair: Where are our prayers for the God who does not answer, to the God who does not save as opposed to the God who did not save?
I nodded, but now I have an answer: Menachem Z. Rosensaft’s “Burning Psalms: Confronting Adonai after Auschwitz.”
Lawyers are seldom poets, and poets seldom lawyers, but Menachem Rosensaft is both.
The long-time General Counsel of the World Jewish Congress and law professor at Cornell, has written a searing series of poems triggered by and modeled after the 150 Psalms that are at the core of our Biblical canon and at the heart of every siddur. Traditional Psalms are recited to praise God in moments of exaltation and of anguish, in moments of crisis and suffering. They speak to the soul, penetrate to the depth of human experience from ecstatic joy to profound sorrow, from the majesty of nature to an encounter in fear and trembling with the divine.
Rosensaft, the child of two Auschwitz survivors and the brother of five-and-a-half-year-old Benjamin, sent to the gas chambers upon his arrival in Birkenau, was enveloped in the Shoah from his birth in the Displaced Persons Camp at Bergen-Belsen. His very name, Menachem, bespeaks his being: he was his parents consolation. The birth of Jewish children after Auschwitz was the ultimate defiance, the most profound response to death, by recreating life, and the paradigmatic negation of despair for the birth of a child is hope.
His effort is audacious, to write poems that address the absence of God in a tradition that celebrates God’s presence, to shape poems that reflect the fact of God’s hiddenness at Auschwitz – hester panim. The canonical Psalms are directed to the presence of God, often to the saving presence of God – the God who redeemed us from Egypt, the God who has answered our prayers. They speak of reward and punishment and God’s active role in human history.
His effort is audacious, to write poems that address the absence of God in a tradition that celebrates God’s presence, to shape poems that reflect the fact of God’s hiddenness at Auschwitz.
Even for believers it is hard to reflect on such a role for God in the world of Auschwitz. Philosophers and poets have anguished with such issues, believers, nonbelievers, those who lost faith at Auschwitz and even those who found faith have struggled to put into words their experience.
Let’s see how Rosensaft wrestles with God.
He confronts the existential situation of those who went through the Shoah.
Burning Psalm 53
locked in their sanctuary of death
the about-to die said in their hearts
“where is God?”
or
“God has abandoned us”
or
“God is slaughtering us”
or even exclaimed
“there is no God”
but none
in those last moments
thanked God
Rosensaft transforms tradition on its head, Witness his rendition of the next to the last line of Birchat Hamazon, Grace After Meals:
I was young and became old
and I have seen far too many
of your righteous sons and daughters
forsaken by the world,
forsaken by You
and their children begging for bread
starving
There is a legend — undoubtedly true for the pious — that Jews went to their deaths singing Ani Maamin, “I believe with complete faith in the coming of the Messiah and even if he tarries, I shall wait for him every day that he may come.”
Rosensaft presents an alternate Psalm of that last moment:
Burning Psalms 14
for the dead
from the dead
a song for the dead
the pious
deprived of hope
did not say in their hearts
“there is no god”
but knowing
that the end of their captivity
will not be rescue
not from Zion
not from anywhere
asked with their last
zyklon-b breath
“where are You, Adonai?”
Moses in the Torah pleaded with God not to kill the sinful Israelites as it will reflect poorly on the divine reputation. The Burning Psalmist wrote:
when I heard a german scoff
“where is your God”
he was right
You were never here
now all I want to know is
do you know that I am here
that we are here
do you ever look down
even for an instance
and see me
see us
here?
Rosensaft does not blame God for Auschwitz and Treblinka, the Germans and their collaborators are to blame, so too, the indifference of the world, the unbridled use of technology and science to murder.
I do not blame You
Adonai
for auschwitz and treblinka
but after auschwitz and treblinka
I cannot sing Your praises
for wonders
You will not perform.
Unlike the death of God theologians of the 1960s, Rosensaft does not celebrate God’s absence or believe that humanity has come of age. He understands what Nietzsche has said: if God is dead, everything is permissible! Everything, including Auschwitz.
and the beginning of wisdom
is fear
of Your absence
As he goes through the Psalms one by one and writes counter Psalms, burning Psalms one feels the echo of a young Elie Wiesel — wrestling with the burdens of surviving when so many others had been killed, Rosensaft was his teaching assistant more than a half-century ago. Unlike Rabbi Irving Greenberg, Rosensaft does not create a theology of God’s absence, yet like Wiesel and “Yitz” Greenberg, he struggles to reconcile what for some Jews — but certainly not all — is impossible to reconcile, the God who saves in the Bible and recalled again and again in our prayers with the absence of a saving God during the Shoah.
As a coda to Burning Psalms, Rosensaft includes his poetic address at Srebrenica, showing that others too experience that absence.
All Jews are now post-Oct. 7 Jews so Rosensaft also includes the poetry he wrote after Oct. 7, when Jews waited for rescue and it did not come from God or from the IDF. For some it came from brave civilians, and from the police and the IDF, but for thousands, it came too late or not at all.
One must respect Rosensaft’s struggle. He may be a teacher of sacred heresy.
Michael Berenbaum is director of the Sigi Ziering Institute and a professor of Jewish Studies at American Jewish University.
A year after the events that shook Israel to its core—and just before the names of the hostages set to be released were announced—Aviva Gat released her latest book, “We Will Dance Again.”
A fictionalized account based on true events, the novel follows the lives of six characters whose worlds are upended by tragedy: Tehila, preparing a family picnic in her southern kibbutz home; Dana, celebrating love with her boyfriend at an outdoor rave; Shai, a former counterterrorism soldier ready to defend his country for the sake of his young son; Alon, a politician and former chief of staff of the Israeli army; Aisha, desperately awaiting the return of her twins, who were arrested by the Israeli military; and Ethan, a Harvard freshman struggling to understand the conflict—until he himself becomes a target on campus.
Born and raised in Los Angeles, Gat moved to Israel 11 years ago, where she got married and had four children. “My father was born in Israel and moved to the U.S in his twenties. We visited Israel often and I always loved it here. After I went to Israel as part of ‘Masa’ program, I decided that this is where I want to be,” she said in a phone interview from her home in Rishon LeZion, Israel.
In the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attacks, she channeled her emotions into writing. Exactly one year later, she self-published her book.
Though she had self-published before, this time she sought a traditional publisher—only to find that many were reluctant to take on a book with Jewish themes due to rising antisemitism.
“I was told the manuscript was ‘engaging’ and ‘well-written’ but ‘not sellable in the current market,’” Gat said. “Publishers are afraid of backlash for publishing Jewish books.”
Though she wasn’t directly affected by the terrorists attacks on Israel, she said she was traumatized by them, like many people in Israel.
“Writing has helped me process my trauma, and I want to contribute something to my amazing country. So I decided to use my talents as a storyteller and writer to tell the world what happened on that horrible day and after.”
Gat remembers exactly what she did when the sirens started, signaling the beginning of the war. “A year later, I can’t brush my teeth without feeling anxiety. It’s almost like I have PTSD, but we aren’t yet post-trauma.”
Gat explained why she chose to write a fictionalized account rather than a nonfiction book about the victims of October 7.
“I wanted to include multiple stories rather than focus on a single narrative,” she said. “I tried to weave together different people’s experiences to create the most impactful story possible. Also, I didn’t want it to be strictly nonfiction because my expertise is in fiction writing—there are others who are better suited to telling nonfiction stories.”
While Israelis have been inundated with firsthand accounts—stories of hostages, grieving families and those injured in the war—the outside world has not. For Gat, it was crucial that people see beyond the headlines and statistics. She wanted them to understand the personal toll, to see how, in an instant, ordinary lives had turned into a scene from a horror film.
“People around the world read the news, but they don’t know what it’s like to be at ground zero,” she said. “I hoped that by writing this book, I could give readers a deeper perspective — help them truly understand what people here are experiencing.”
Gat had previously written about a dozen books, including thrillers and “My Family Survival,” which is based on her grandmother’s experience during the Holocaust.
Still, she considers “We Will Dance Again” her most important work. As she often does, she shared advance copies with a group of readers in the U.S. to gauge their reactions. They were captivated by the story, giving it five-star reviews.
Although Gat didn’t conduct interviews for this book, she closely followed the news, read articles and watched interviews with released hostages, their families and survivors of the Nova festival. Some readers will easily recognize parallels between her characters and real people—such as Tehila, a mother of two young boys, who bears a striking resemblance to Shiri Bibas and her sons, Ariel, 4 and Kfir, 9 months (their age at the time of their kidnapping).
As of now, the story of the hostages remains unresolved. Israel announced an agreement with Hamas for the release of 33 hostages, with three already released. Shiri and her children’s names are among them, but it is still uncertain whether they are alive or not.
“Last January when I started writing the book, I didn’t know how it was going to end, I was hoping for a happy ending, but as time passed I realized it’s going to take time. Once the war ends, I’ll write a sequel, and hopefully this time, it will have a happy ending.”
“We Will Dance Again” is available for purchase on Amazon
In the early 1900s, Theodor Herzl was worried about Sultan Abdul Hamid of Turkey. For nearly a decade, Herzl had led a quest for the Jews to finally have a state of our own, in our historic homeland. But he was concerned that the Ottoman Empire, which had colonized our land for centuries, would not give its “permission.”
In 2025, the state of Israel finally exists but because of today’s Sultans the promise of Israel — living freely with dignity in our own land — still does not.
The first English-language opera about Herzl, “State of the Jews,” premiered at the Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center last week. It had been conceived before Oct. 7, and an enhanced workshop had been performed at the 14th Street Y in 2019.
But this was the first full production, with a chorus, full-stage lighting, costumes, etc. When librettist Ben Kaplan and composer Alex Weiser first began discussing the idea of creating an opera about Herzl, “the palpable fear of antisemitism in the United States was a distant memory,” Kaplan wrote in his program notes. “Sadly, that is no longer the case,” he told me. “And that fear of physical threat, so deeply felt by Herzl at the time, is now increasingly felt by Jews today, here in New York and around the world.”
Herzl, an Austro-Hungarian journalist and playwright, was not the first to propose a Jewish state, but he is credited with mobilizing Zionism into a modern, global movement, and for devising the political infrastructure that led to the creation of the state of Israel half a century later.
The opera begins in Paris, 1895, with the public shaming of Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish French army captain falsely accused of treason. Herzl, as a reporter, watches the tension build as the chanting of the crowd intensifies. One side chants: “Jewish traitor! Death to Dreyfus!”
Given the antisemitic anarchy on campuses and in the streets of New York City this past year, the wild — savage — chants felt even more uncomfortable than they did in the 2019 workshop production.
Herzl had watched rising antisemitism in Europe — as well as the world’s silence: he foresaw the end of European Jewry. In 1896, Herzl published “Der Judenstaat” (“The Jewish State”) in Vienna. The pamphlet was a call to action for the establishment of an independent Jewish state in the land of Israel, at the time called Palestine.
The opera focuses on the final six months of his life when, knowing he’s sick, Herzl furiously travels to Russia, Basel, and Rome to shore up support. Following the Kishinev pogrom in 1903, Herzl meets with the Russian delegation of Zionists in Verki, Russia. The dinner party is interrupted by a group of young supporters from Vilna who sing “Hatikvah.”
“As long as in the heart, within,
A Jewish soul yearns,
And onward, toward the end of the East,
An eye still looks toward Zion”
The next year, in Basel, Switzerland, heated arguments ensue over Britain’s provisional offer to settle Jews who were in immediate danger in a Jewish colony in what is now part of Kenya. At the opening of the Sixth Zionist Congress, Herzl announces the “Uganda Project.” A divided Congress erupts in discord.
Later that year, Herzl is granted an audience with Pope Pius X. Herzl refuses to kiss his ring, and the Pope flatly rejects any deal on theological grounds — for precisely the reason a plan was essential.
All the while, we watch how Herzl’s noble quest strained his marriage, especially since his wife, Julie, thought of herself as Austrian first, was ashamed of her people (she told Herzl that the Jews coming to visit them “smell”), and had zero interest in returning to the land of Israel. One could call Julie the original status leftist.
Kristin Gornstein and Gideon Dabi as Julie and Theodor Herzl (Photo by Steven Pisano)
Herzl died of a heart condition in 1904, at 44. He never saw the results of all his hard work; he thought it was all for nothing. In 1949, in accordance with his will, he was reinterred in Mount Herzl, Jerusalem.
The opera ends with a Hebrew prayer for peace, “Oseh shalom.” “The questions that plagued Theodor Herzl and his contemporaries remain very much alive for us as Jews living in New York City today,” said Weiser. “How much should our Jewishness define us? What is the best way to fight antisemitism? Where is the future of the Jewish people?”
Indeed, the opera puts in stark relief the promise of Israel — returning to our homeland with dignity, free from the pain of incessant persecution — and the current reality. As Herzl put it: “We shall live at last as free men on our own soil, and die peacefully in our own homes.” It was not a promise of babies held captive, incessant rockets and burials, rapes and beheadings.
Herzl was right to be worried about the Sultan and all that Islamic colonization represented. But as we well know, all of this would be happening in Uganda as well — it has little to do with the land.
The truth is, Herzl — the early Zionist movement — understood the eternal scourge of antisemitism even more than many do today. There’s no question that the threat from Islamic terrorism would be far worse if we didn’t have the IDF and the Mossad; we might not even exist as a people right now. The fact that the promise of Israel hasn’t been completely fulfilled has everything to do with our enemies — and the world’s silence.
How are we supposed to bring light into this world if we can’t even bring it for ourselves? The opera is a stark reminder of what the dream was — and how the current reality falls far short.
Yes, the world is still against us — it may always be. But as Herzl well knew, that doesn’t mean appeasement, acquiescing to relentless violence, negotiating with terrorists. How are we supposed to bring light into this world if we can’t even bring it for ourselves? The opera is a stark reminder of what the dream was — and how the current reality falls far short.
If we are to be a free people — to live in dignity in our homeland — we must fully understand that our current enemies will not change, unless we force them to. Only then will we be able to leave behind the centuries of persecution that propelled this noble quest.
Karen Lehrman Bloch is editor in chief of White Rose Magazine.
In the choking darkness of the smoke of the Palisades Fire, which devastated northwestern Los Angeles and Malibu earlier this month, there was one clear ray of hope this week: the arrival of a team of firefighting experts and emergency responders from Israel.
Originally, according to the Times of Israel, Israel planned to send a “symbolic” team of firefighters as a gesture of solidarity. But that plan was scrapped in favor of a serious effort to share knowledge from Israel’s own experience in battling wildfires — and to learn from California’s experts.
The mission was coordinated by the Israeli Consulate in Los Angeles, with the support of the Emergency Volunteers Project (EVP), an American program that trains Israeli first responders. El Al Israel Airlines made sure there was room on flights for the firefighters.
The team included experts from a variety of fields Avraham Ben-Zaken, head of operations for Israeli firefighting and rescue; Dr. Shay Levy, a wildfire expert; Yuri Novatsky, an expert in water management; Li-shay Amor, head of operations for the Haifa station; David Asraf, head of logistics for the Dan district; and other specialists, including an officer from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) search and rescue unit.
Members of the Israeli firefighting team, together with a Magen Am security guard, pose outside Pita Bu in Malibu, which is serving free kosher food to first responders. The Israelis pronounced the falafel “excellent.”
They arrived on Thursday and hit the ground running, conducting a quick drive-through in the hardest-hit areas, especially the Pacific Palisades, large portions of which were completely destroyed by the fire.
“Since we arrived, we divided the group into teams, went out to the field, and helped literally with putting [out] fires,” said Adi Zahavi of the Emergency Volunteers Project. The Israeli experts worked alongside their California colleagues, he noted, bringing “mutual aid to each other.”
On Friday, the team deployed at sunrise to the Malibu incident base camp, where they received briefings, along with hundreds of other firefighters from across California and the U.S. Firefighters from Cal Fire and from local volunteer fire departments welcomed the visitors warmly, and were eager to meet them and take selfies with them.
One firefighter from the far northern California town of Eureka told the Israeli team that he had been praying for Israel’s success in its war against terror. He was not the only one: again and again, firefighters, police officers, and U.S. Army National Guard soldiers expressed their deep gratitude that Israel had sent assistance to California, even though the Jewish state faced war on every front.
Again and again, firefighters, police officers, and U.S. Army National Guard soldiers expressed their deep gratitude that Israel had sent assistance to California, even though the Jewish state faced war on every front.
By Friday morning, the Santa Ana winds had paused for a few days, and the walls of flame and clouds of flying embers had been suppressed. The visitors, who had been eager to jump into hotspots, took the time to participate in other aspects of firefighting, including the complex analytical and administrative tasks that the profession requires.
At one command post, for example, the Israeli team — joined by volunteers from the U.S. Coast Guard — studied the way in which California firefighters monitor ongoing fires for the presence of drones, which can interfere with aerial firefighting. (Indeed, one of the two “super scooper” planes that dumped water on the fires was grounded for days after colliding with a drone that damaged one of its wings.)
At another post, the Israeli team shared tips with Cal Fire about the use of computer modeling to predict the growth and intensity of fires. One of the problems with the Palisades Fire was that in extreme wind conditions — in this case, upwards of 65 miles per hour, with gusts up to 100 miles per hour at mountaintops — the computer models do not yet work.
The Israeli team had many questions, which mirrored those that local residents have been asking since that fateful day on Jan. 7. What caused the fire? Why had the hydrants in Pacific Palisades run out of water? Why weren’t there more firebreaks in the area? Why did it take so long for first responders to arrive? Why was there gridlock and panic on Sunset Boulevard during the evacuation?
Some aspects of California’s response impressed the Israeli team. They took photographs of this author’s phone, for example, noting the mobile evacuation alerts that Los Angeles firefighters can send, automatically, to everyone in an affected area. Currently, the only Israeli agency that is allowed to do that is the Home Front Command, which warns Israelis about incoming rockets. Having similar authority, the firefighters said, could save lives in Israel during fires.
Some aspects of California’s response impressed the Israeli team. They took photographs of this author’s phone, for example, noting the mobile evacuation alerts that Los Angeles firefighters can send, automatically, to everyone in an affected area.
The Israeli team also shared some of the lessons of their experience. While firefighters from Cal Fire were going from address to address in the affected area, cataloging data about the condition of every single structure within 24,000 acres, there was an easier way to do it. Through the use of artificial intelligence and satellite imaging, the Israeli team explained, the time required for data collection could be cut in half.
Israeli wildlife expert Dr. Shay Levy discusses tactics with firefighters from Boulder, Colorado, who traveled to California to assist local firefighters.
The Israeli team also described volunteer firefighting efforts that had helped contain the damage of wildfires that were deliberately started by terrorists during the war. Many towns in fire-prone areas, Novatsky explained, were equipped with all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) that could reinforce firebreaks and reach hydrants placed at strategic cases around the perimeter of the communities. As a result, he said, while Hezbollah rockets from Lebanon managed to start many brush fires and forest fires, not one Israeli community in the north was burned. (Volunteer Israeli fighters are also armed with M16 rifles, he added, in case they come under fire while trying to extinguish a blaze.)
There was also time for socializing and camaraderie. The Israelis enjoyed meeting the emotional support dog of the Riverside County Fire Department, for example, and taking in the breathtaking Malibu coastline with wildfire teams whose usual missions are in wooded mountain areas. They also enjoyed breakfast with fellow firefighters in the mess tent, for example, where some kosher food was available, served by nonviolent prisoners from state prisons.
Lunch was a different story: since most of the Israeli firefighting team keeps kosher, this author took them to Pita Bu. (They rated the falafel “excellent.”) There, they noticed the work of the Chabad of Malibu next door, as people delivered donated clothes and food. Watching fellow Jews, many of whom had lost everything, browse for much-needed clothing items brought home to them how much the local community — including several Jewish communities — had suffered in the fire and its aftermath.
The Israeli delegation spent Shabbat in the heart of the Los Angeles community, enjoying prayers and meals with Young Israel Beverly Hills. In the days that followed, the Israelis continued their work with the California firefighters, hiking along key ridge lines to assess the terrain, and visiting air bases that were participating in the effort. A helicopter team showed them the origin of the Palisades Fire, where investigators have taped off the suspected burn site.
On Monday, they returned to the Malibu base and met with local officials, including newly-installed Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan Hochman. He has been front and center since the fires began, warning looters that they will be caught. Several police officers on the beat told me that his commitment to locking up looters had boosted their morale. Hochman said that while the cause of the fire was still being determined, federal investigators were following up on a theory that a small fire sparked by illegal fireworks on New Year’s Eve in calm conditions could have smoldered and re-ignited in the fierce Santa Ana winds a week later.
Newly-installed L.A. County District Attorney Nathan Hochman speaks with Ventura County firefighter and chaplain Mike Katan, and with an officer from the IDF search & rescue unit.
There were also animated conversations with local firefighter Mike Katan, a chaplain who serves in the Ventura County Fire Department. He explained to the Israeli team — in fluent Hebrew — that the complexity of relationships between water agencies and firefighting services in California was one reason that there had been so little water available, at least at required pressures, during the worst hours of the fire. He added that it might not have made a difference in the high winds, which sent fiery embers shooting across the landscape.
At base camp, the Israeli presence drew wide praise and attention. Only a few other countries sent firefighters to help, including Canada, Mexico, and Chile. (A widely-circulated video of South African firefighters turned out to be fake news.) Of those countries, only Israel is at war — and the Israeli firefighters were glued to news of the imminent release of several hostages, whose fate haunts Israelis and Jews around the world.
In the midst of that war, the Israeli team brought hope to Californians, especially the Jewish communities that were affected by the fires. Many Jews, including several rabbis, lost their homes; a synagogue burned down in Pasadena. Thousands of Jewish families remain displaced.
The importance of the firefighters’ visit was perhaps best expressed in the reaction of one Magen Am security guard near the Malibu Chabad, who could barely contain his excitement when he saw Israelis in uniform in California, including the olive green of the IDF.
It was a great kiddush hashem, and a reminder that with Israel as a friend, you never fight alone.
Joel B. Pollak is senior editor-at-large at Breitbart News in Los Angeles.
There’s nothing like good music to bring a community together and lift its spirits. Cantor Jacqueline Rafii of Valley Beth Shalom (VBS), who joined the Encino temple in 2022, had that in mind when she announced a concert series featuring renowned musicians such as the Moshav Band and Nefesh Mountain, a bluegrass band that bridges elements of American folk and Appalachian bluegrass with Celtic folk and Jewish melodies. Most recently, she invited Israeli singer David Broza to perform.
Although the singer/songwriter had performed a concert at the Saban Theater in Beverly Hills a few months ago, he still drew a full house of Israeli and American fans alike, filling up almost every seat ofVBS’ event hall.
Broza entered through the front door, just like the rest of the audience, and was immediately surrounded by both children and adults eager to take photos with him. Smiling warmly for the cameras, he graciously posed again and again before stepping onto the stage.
Broza’s music reflects a rich fusion of the cultures of Israel and Spain, and he sings in both Hebrew and Spanish. He’s regarded as a soulful guitar player, and his playing on “A Bedouin Love Song,” “Sigaliyot” and “The Woman By My Side,” made it easy to hear why.
Looking ahead, Rafii is planning the next concert on Feb. 2, which is nearly sold out. The concert will feature seven cantors performing a mix of Broadway and Disney musical favorites, both classic and contemporary. “It’s going to be a spectacular concert,” Rafii said. “We have a visual director creating graphics on a massive nine-foot LED screen and we are planning some surprises for the audience.”
Rafii doesn’t like to take full credit for the concert series, emphasizing the inspiration she draws from her predecessors. “These are the people who built the foundation of VBS,” she said. “Cantor Ami Aloni was a prolific composer and choir director who created music specifically for VBS. Cantor Herschel Fox dedicated 40 years to this community and Cantor Phil Baron, who is currently my co-cantor, has also contributed immensely. They all brought so many melodies and laid the groundwork that allowed me to thrive.”
The concert series will continue this summer, with an outdoor festival on June 11, featuring Jewish musicians and songwriters performing a variety of Jewish music. Participants are welcome to picnic on the grass and enjoy dancing under the stars.
“I wanted to create something like a Hollywood Bowl experience,” Rafii explained. “People can get a season pass and enjoy three concerts throughout the year.”
Each concert celebrates a different style of Jewish music, from folk to Hebrew pop show tunes and klezmer, including acclaimed violinist and composer Yael Strom, who performed last year.
“I think the primary goal with these concerts is to celebrate and elevate the talent of Jewish musicians that we have in Los Angeles,” said Rafii. “We want to celebrate Jewish culture and its richness, bring the community together and uplift it. VBS is working hard to become the center of Jewish culture.
“The concerts aren’t just for VBS members; they attract people from across the Jewish community in the Valley who come to feel connected, share in the music and enjoy a sense of belonging — all close to home.” ■
For more information about the concert series and to purchase tickets, visit: https://www.vbs.org/concertseries/2024-2025
As the Los Angeles community recovers from the devastating wildfires, The Collective Book Studio, a woman-owned independent publisher, based in Oakland, is donating hundreds of books to libraries, bookstores and families.
By donating a large selection of baby board books and children’s picture books, the Collective Book Studio hopes to help replenish shelves and bring comfort and joy to young readers.
“This devastating catastrophe for so many brings to mind the coming together not just as Jews but as people to have genuine respect for everyone and to do all we can to help one another, especially in times of crisis,” Angela Engel, founder and publisher of The Collective Book Studio, told the Journal.
The Journal asked Engel what inspired her to help, the role of books in healing and how others can help.
What inspired this initiative?
We have many close relationships in Southern California between the amazing authors and individuals who work on our books, our peers in the close-knit California publishing circles, the amazing bookstores that we love to support and our CFO’s childhood friend, [who] have all felt the effects of the wildfires.
So many of these people feel like family to us, and, as much as we wish we could be there in person cleaning up the rubble with them, we just aren’t able to at this moment. By offering these books, we’re hoping to help offer a bright spot for the people who were affected. Being based in Northern California, we understand this devastation firsthand, and we know that any bit of help can be beneficial during these difficult times.
Which books are you sending to where?
We are focusing on sending brand new children’s books to organizations that are helping teachers, librarians and families to rebuild their libraries. Our goal is to help give everyone something new that’s just for them so they’re able to make new memories with these books, and have something to call wholly their own.
We are currently working on sending packages to individuals that have reached out to us directly, but we’re also working with an awesome organization called Equity Through Lit! They have a goal of donating 1000 books to those affected by the wildfires. We’re super excited to be working with them, and have already pledged to donate 200 books with more to come.
What is the role of books in healing?
We believe that books change lives. The power of reading has the ability to bring a lot of healing and there is a sense of escapism that can be really important in times like this. Reading and writing [is] interesting in the sense that it’s both introverted and extroverted. You can do it with a group or do it on your own, so it gives you the power to seek out what is the best escape for you at the time.
“We believe that books change lives. The power of reading has the ability to bring a lot of healing and there is a sense of escapism that can be really important in times like this.”- Angela Engel
We’re also donating a collection of journals we released with the publication of our book, “Malkah’s Notebook,” in hopes that people can write and find the words they need.
What are other ways authors and publishers can support those impacted by the Los Angeles wildfires?
We recently did a shout-out to people in our publishing community that are offering resources to those that have faced loss due to the fires. The American Library Association (ALA) and the Book Industry Charitable (Binc) foundation both have fantastic disaster relief funds to help booksellers in the area. We recommend that publishers from other places in the country tap in and donate to them.
Coming back from this devastation is a marathon, not a sprint and there is a lot of trauma that can be associated with it. To help with individual healing, we have two authors in the mental health and parenting spaces who are offering free resources to families, and little acts of kindness like that will truly go far.
Sara Raoof Jacobs escaped Iran with her family after the revolution, when she was only 15 months old. They settled in Los Angeles.
“My mom died when I was younger, but we had such a great support system around us,” she told The Journal. “I have eight aunts and uncles, and my mom had so many friends, so there was always someone with us — grocery shopping, helping and filling the house with joy. I realized that other families don’t have that, so I wanted to give back and share with others what I’ve experienced.”
Sara Jacobs
In July 2022, Jacobs founded her nonprofit organization for people in the community who are battling illness. She named it “Maman“ (“mother” in Farsi). Last year, after Oct. 7, it shifted its focus to helping people in need — displaced individuals, massacre survivors and IDF soldiers. Maman sent over $700,000 in humanitarian funds to Israel and more than two tons of supplies within two weeks of the massacre.
The organization also brought 15 children from the Gaza envelope who had to flee and evacuate their homes to Los Angeles for a healing and transformative retreat. Community donations funded the entire trip.
Just a couple of days after the Palisades fires began, Jacobs sprang into action, organizing support for displaced families from Pacific Palisades and Altadena. She already had plenty of experience from the previous year. She knew they would be in desperate need of everything — including toiletries, clothes, food, baby food, cribs and, of course, a place to stay.
“We made sure people had housing,” she said. “We connected them with individuals we knew who had available Airbnb units or guest houses. We arranged for whatever they needed and created an Amazon Wish List with essential items. In addition, we established multiple donation hubs.“
Knowing that some families might feel uncomfortable receiving help, she kept the names of those requesting assistance anonymous. People could submit requests for what they needed and then pick up the items from the organization’s offices. Donations of clothing and skincare products and makeup continue to come in. Evacuees are welcome to pick whatever they need on top of what they requested on their wish list.
“The kids of Chabad of Palisades were all displaced, and the rebbetzin was saying she wants the children to have toys,” Jacobs said. “We got 100 Magna-Tiles for them.”
Artist Tomer Peretz also teamed up with Maman to collect and deliver large items like furniture and refrigerators to families in need. He had volunteered with the organization last year, providing art therapy for children, Nova Festival survivors and soldiers who came to LA.
Jacobs didn’t stop there. Her dedicated team of 500 volunteers has been tirelessly delivering meals daily to 1,000 firefighters at various stations, ensuring they’re well-fed as they battle the flames. “We teamed up with Dani Goldblatt from Holy Smokes Kosher BBQ, Sivan from Sivan’s Kitchen, Chef Bae and Ma’ayan from Vegan Sis,” said Jacobs. “We have a team that calls each fire station to make sure there are no double deliveries and checks how many people work there to ensure there is no waste.”
Then, volunteers help pack the food in plastic containers and deliver it to each fire station. When one of her volunteers told her that the firefighters needed chargers and generators, Jacobs arranged for those to be delivered to them within 15 minutes – faster than Amazon. “They are always so grateful — it gives them so much strength. They feel supported. They are risking their lives to keep us safe right here. Whatever we can do to give them strength to keep going, it’s our duty,” said Jacobs.
Then, a few days after the operation started, something unthinkable happened — Goldblatt’s car was stolen at night, right from her driveway. “She didn’t skip a beat and continued preparing the food the next day,” said Jacobs. “We had volunteers deliver the food, and thankfully, 24 hours later, she got her car back.”
Unlike many non-profit organizations, this one is purely volunteer-based. No one takes a salary and there are no outrageous operational costs. Every donation received is used for the purpose it was donated for.
It’s clear to see that Jacobs is very passionate about what she does. She understands what it’s like to start all over again from scratch. She grew up with parents who needed to do just that when they arrived in the U.S.
“My mom had to redo her nursing exams, my father too,” she said. “We know what it’s like to start from nothing.”
Jacobs understood that through her organization, she could not only provide immediate support to those in need but also use it to build bridges with other communities in town. A month before the fires, she reached out to the African-American communities in Compton and the Church of Zion and had an event at the church. “It’s important to help that community because they need it, and they don’t have the same support we have,” she said. She also partnered with actress Patricia Heaton and her organization O7C on events that promote unity and stand against antisemitism.
The facility where Maman is operating is Eretz Synagogue in Tarzana. For Jacobs, it has significant meaning. “My grandfather was one of the founders, and my uncle is the president of the synagogue,” she said. “So for me, it’s coming full circle.”
AHA Nixes Resolution Condemning “Scholasticide” in Gaza
The American Historical Association’s (AHA) Elected Council nixed a resolution on Jan. 16 passed by its members condemning the “scholasticide” in Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
According to InsideHigherEd, the council voted 11-4, with one member abstaining, against adopting the resolution. “The AHA Council deplores any intentional destruction of Palestinian educational institutions, libraries, universities, and archives in Gaza,” the council said in a statement. “The Council considers the ‘Resolution to Oppose Scholasticide in Gaza,’ however, to contravene the Association’s Constitution and Bylaws, because it lies outside the scope of the Association’s mission and purpose… After careful deliberation and consideration, the AHA Council vetoes the resolution.”
Prior to the council’s veto, the American Jewish Committee and the Academic Engagement Network sent a letter urging the council to veto the resolution, contending that “the AHA should steer clear of weighing in on contentious political conflicts, particularly when so many members vehemently disagree” and that the resolution would “create a hostile and unwelcoming environment for scholars and students who identify as Zionists and those with strong personal, academic and professional ties to Israel.”
Anti-Israel Activist Pleads Guilty to Firebombing UC Berkeley Police Vehicle
Casey Robert Goonan, 34, plead guilty on Jan. 14 to firebombing a UC Berkeley police vehicle and setting fires elsewhere on the campus, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced.
According to the DOJ, Goonan admitted to putting six Molotov cocktails under a University of California Police Department (UCPD) patrol car on campus on the morning of June 1 and setting them on the fire; he also admitted setting fires on the campus on June 1, 13 and 16. Goonan said that they committed these crimes “ to influence and affect the conduct of governments by intimidation and coercion and to retaliate against the governments of the United States and the State of California for their conduct,” per the DOJ. Goonan is officially pleading guilty to one count of maliciously damaging or destroying property used in by means of fire or explosive. They face up to 20 years in prison.
Goonan’s attorney, Jeff Wozniak, told KQED that “Casey has long been an activist, long cared about Palestinian liberation and been very vocal against the ongoing genocide. This is not the type of action that Casey was involved in before, and so we’re going to provide more information, more context about Casey’s mental health struggles and specifically what was going on before these acts happened.”
Palo Alto School District Announces Pause in Ethnic Studies Requirement
Palo Alto Unified School District Superintendent of Schools Don Austin announced in a Jan. 16 message to the community that their Board of Education has indefinitely paused the ethnic studies requirement.
“This decision stems from recent statements by Governor Newsom and other officials indicating that Ethnic Studies is not yet a mandated graduation requirement,” Austin explained. “Our concerns remain two-fold. First, the legislature has increasingly intervened in matters such as the unfunded addition/expansion of transitional kindergarten, school start times, and adding course requirements for which they are neither fully trained nor directly elected to oversee. Their early attempt at creating a statewide Ethnic Studies ‘model curriculum’ proved so problematic that it had to be largely discarded and rewritten, resulting in a broad, ambiguous document that has led to local divisiveness across California.” He pointed out that State Sen. Josh Becker (D-Menlo Park) has stated that part of the ethnic studies classwork has “obvious factual inaccuracies” that run afoul of state law. This, Austin contended, highlights “the pitfalls of rushed or loosely monitored mandates.”
Oakland School Investigation Finds Former Teacher Fostered Hostile Environment Against Jewish Students
An investigation conducted by a third party found that a former teacher at Montera Middle School in Oakland Hills, CA fostered a hostile environment against Jewish students in her classroom.
The Jewish News of Northern California (The J) reported that Oakland Unified School District hired the investigator to respond to a complaint filed by Jewish families against Arvind Reddy, who was an English teacher at the school. The complaint alleged that Reddy had put posters up inside and outside his classroom during fall 2023 stating “end genocide now,” “from the river to the sea,” a Nelson Mandela quote that “our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians,” and depicting Jesus after the crucifixion alongside pictures of Palestinian victims. When confronted about the posters, Reddy insisted that he had every right to display them, per the complaint. He is no longer employed by the district.
Four University of Rochester Students Expelled Over Antisemitic “Wanted” Posters
Four students at the University of Rochester have reportedly been expelled over their alleged involvement in distributing hundreds of “wanted” posters targeting various Jewish faculty members.
According to the Rochester Beacon, the expelled students have been identified as Jefferson Turcios, Jonathan Bermudez, Naomi Gutierrez and Samantha Escobar and are being charged with second degree criminal mischief. The university’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter said in a statement posted to their Instagram page that the expulsions are “unjust” and is petitioning the university to rescind the expulsions.
