You must observe the festival of Shavu’ot in honor of God, your God. The extent of your generosity in observing this festival should be in accordance with the abundance with which God, your God, will have blessed you. ~ Deuteronomy 16:10
There’s always a Jewish party
around the corner and
our parties have rules.
Passover’s coming. We’re already
thinking about it in August when
the last one is closer.
The pizza I ate tonight will not be
eaten when Passover comes around
again. That’s just one lesson in August
when so much pizza will be eaten
before the months pass and the
seven-day prohibition kicks in.
Shavuot is even further away
or closer if you go backwards.
We must rejoice on Shavuot.
I’m a fan of rejoicing, so this should
be an easy one to follow. Pizza is allowed,
as long as we remember we were slaves.
Sukkot is actually around the corner
and we must observe it. It’s the law.
More rejoicing – everyone’s invited.
Bring your fruit. Your best fruit.
It was all organic back then.
We can learn from that.
There’s always a Jewish party
around the corner. It wouldn’t be
a party without you.
You must come.
Rick Lupert, a poet, songleader and graphic designer, is the author of 29 books including “God Wrestler: A Poem for Every Torah Portion.” Visit him at www.JewishPoetry.net
By Anne Frank (as imagined had she survived the Holocaust)
I was fifteen years old when the Nazis murdered me in Bergen-Belsen. They did not kill me because of anything I had done. They did not know my name, my thoughts, or my diary. They killed me because I was a Jew.
I was one of 1.5 million Jewish children consumed in the Holocaust. Our crime was not treason, not conspiracy, not violence. Our crime was being born. I often wonder what my life would have been had I survived. I might have grown old, written books, married, seen children and grandchildren. But history denied me that chance.
Yet if I am to lend my voice now—it is to say this: the Jewish people must never again be defenseless. Never again can we rely on the “good will” of the nations. Never again can Jewish children be offered up to slaughter without a shield, without an army for protection, without a country of our own.
The Silence That Kills
In Amsterdam, in hiding, I dreamed of freedom. I wrote of my hopes that humanity was good at heart. Yet what I did not fully understand then was how silence kills.
During the war, the world knew of our suffering. Reports of mass shootings, of gas chambers, of transports, reached Allied leaders. And still the trains rolled on. Armies fought Hitler, yes, but no armies were raised with the purpose of rescuing the Jews.
“What would have saved me was not words, but power—the ability of Jews to defend themselves.”
That is why, when I look at the State of Israel and its army—the Israel Defense Forces—I do not see just soldiers. I see the guardians of Jewish existence. Every Israeli soldier is the shield my family never had.
October 7: The Old Nightmare Returns
On October 7, 2023, Jews again saw what happens when their enemies believe they are weak. Hamas, heirs to the same murderous Nazi hatred that consumed Europe, invaded Israel’s borders, massacring families, raping women, burning homes, and dragging children into captivity.
It was a pogrom in the modern age, proudly broadcast on social media.
I saw in those horrors the same dark patterns I once lived: babies torn from mothers, women degraded, Jews shot and burned alive for the simple fact of being Jews.
And just as in my time, there were those who rushed to justify the slaughter. Intellectuals, activists, politicians explained it away as “resistance.”
“The one great difference between my time and now is this: the Jewish people have a state. The Jewish people have an army. The Jewish people are no longer lambs to the slaughter.”
Why Israel Must Fight
Some ask: Is Israel justified in fighting Hamas in Gaza? To me, the very question is obscene. Did the world ever ask if the Allies were justified in fighting Hitler? Did anyone ask if bombing Dresden or Hamburg or Cologne or Berlin was “proportionate,” when that country housed the machine of extermination?
Hamas hides behind civilians, but the responsibility lies with Hamas, not Israel. Israel’s aim is not conquest. It is survival.
I would say to the critics who scold Israel: you did not save me. You did not save my sister Margot. You did not save the children of Poland, Hungary, Holland, Germany, or Greece. You remained silent then. You have no right to lecture now.
The Sacred Duty of Strength
I once wrote, “In spite of everything I still believe that people are truly good at heart.” And I still believe it. But goodness of heart did not save me. It did not stop the trains. It did not dismantle the gas chambers.
What protects the Jewish people is not faith in others but strength in ourselves. The IDF exists so Jewish children can live. Israel exists so Jews never beg foreign powers for permission to survive.
If there had been an Israel in 1942, then Auschwitz might never have claimed its victims. Indeed, I was born, not in Amsterdam, but in Frankfurt, Germany. My father escaped Germany to Holland, because there was nowhere else to go, and he thought we might be safe. He tried for years to get into America, and even had a very wealthy and powerful financial sponsor. But the antisemitic State department Head of the Visa section, Breckenridge Log, blocked my family’s visas as well as countless other Jews. Had there been a State of Israel just three years before I perished at Bergen-Belsen, I would have survived. My diary might have been not a testament of a murdered girl but the first chapter of a long life.
The Memory of the Children
I was one child among millions. My name is remembered only because of my diary. But there were so many other Anne Franks —bright eyes, soft voices, children who never had the chance to leave their story.
When Israel fights, it fights in their memory. It fights to ensure that no Jewish child again becomes ash.
“Every soldier of Israel, every battle it fights, is the echo of that vow: Never Again.”
The Eternal Lesson
The Holocaust was not only a German crime. It was the crime of indifference, of silence, of complicity. And the lesson is eternal: Jews cannot survive on the mercy of others.
The world may honor my diary, but it did not save my life. The world may weep at Holocaust memorials, but it did not shield my family.
Only Jewish strength can guarantee Jewish survival. Only Israel ensures that the 1.5 million murdered children did not die in vain.
My Final Word
I was denied a future. But through Israel, the Jewish people reclaimed theirs. Through the IDF, every Jewish child has guardians who will stand between them and the abyss.
I did not live to grow old. But I speak now, in this imagining, to say this: Israel must live. Israel must fight. Israel must win. Because only then can the Jewish people endure, and only then can the children who bear my name, my story, my legacy, grow up free.
The world abandoned me once. Israel ensures it will never abandon Jewish children again.
That is justice. That is life. That is Israel.
Anne Frank (1929–1945) was a Jewish girl who hid with her family in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam during World War II. While in hiding, she wrote a diary capturing her thoughts and experiences, later published as The Diary of a Young Girl. Betrayed in 1944, she was deported and died in Bergen-Belsen at age 15, leaving behind one of the world’s most powerful testimonies of the Holocaust.
We are approaching Elul, the formal period in the Jewish calendar devoted to repentance and repair of the heart. There are different iterations of Rabbi Levi Yitzhak of Berditchev’s relationship to change. One story shares that Rabbi Levi Yitzhak would make a list of all his mistakes and shortcomings over the 40 days of Elul. And as his list grew and grew, his tears would flow. Drop by drop, tears smudged his writing and eventually, his reflected errors were indiscernible to anyone else. In a way, through his heart and through his tears, Rabbi Levi began his Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur with a “blank” list and a “cleaner” slate.
And yet, I would argue that his list wasn’t completely clean. Although the words were smudged, Rabbi Levi knew what was on the list. Perhaps his mistakes were the same as the year before. Maybe some of them were new. His soulful slate was wiped by his emotional turmoil and yet, the dust of his ways remained as a permanent imprint. Think about the dust that built up over time—something must have lingered year after year. His actions give perspective towards sincere goals of our own accounting of the soul. Real mistakes may never be fully wiped out, but instead, we can continue to wrestle with our thoughts and actions. Perhaps our intentions should be less about being “perfect” and more about reaching higher and doing better.
Do your soulful accounting. Make your list of mistakes and errors. Rectify and repair relationships and refine speech and reactions. Let your repentance be personally moving and inspiring for continued change.
Remember, the goal was never to achieve a fully clean slate. That is impossible.
Instead, keep confronting where and when we must progress. As our soul repairs, that is when we know we are making the most of this precious life we are given.
In a heartbreaking video released by Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), 22-year-old Rom Braslavski of Jerusalem appears frail, emaciated, and visibly weak.
“I’m Rom Braslavski, 22, from Jerusalem,” he says in the video segment released earlier in August. “I’ve been in Gaza for two years. I’m suffering in ways that can’t be described. Yesterday, I barely had a plate of rice. I can’t breathe. I can’t live.”
His parents, Ofir and Tammy, watched in agony as their son struggled to speak. “I can’t stand or walk to the bathroom. I’ve run out of food and water. If before they gave me a little, now there’s nothing. Today I ate three falafel crumbs —three crumbs.”
At one point, Rom addressed Israeli leaders directly: “You must stop what you’re doing. What’s wrong with you? Why are you doing this to us? Bring in food. I’m surviving on less than a liter of water a day. I lie on a mattress 24 hours a day. I’m on the verge of death.”
His aunt, Anat Braslavski, who lives in Woodland Hills, has been doing everything she can to raise awareness of her nephew’s situation. In an interview with The Journal, she spoke of the shock she felt after seeing the latest footage. “The difference in his appearance from four months ago, when we last saw a video of him, to today is unbelievable. You see a dying man. You can tell that emotionally he is broken. We are trying to do whatever we can. If he isn’t released soon, I don’t want to think about what will happen.”
Her mother, Rom’s grandmother Yael Niinikoski, lives with her; Yael is the daughter of Holocaust survivors who lost many family members in the concentration camps. After the war, they moved to Israel and settled in Kibbutz Yagur, northeast of Mount Carmel. She recently wrote a letter to the Red Cross pleading for help.
Yael Niinikoski with her grandson, Rom Braslavski, during one of his childhood trips to the United States
“I write to you because the International Committee of the Red Cross represents a beacon of humanity and is the guardian of the laws that protect human dignity even in the darkest of times,” wrote the 77-year-old. “As his grandmother, the terror I feel is indescribable. My heart has been torn open each and every day since his capture, and there has seldom been a day since then when my face wasn’t wet with tears. My mental health has been deteriorating more and more, and my only remaining wish in life is to see my grandson again.”
“As his grandmother, the terror I feel is indescribable. My heart has been torn open each and every day since his capture, and there has seldom been a day since then when my face wasn’t wet with tears. My mental health has been deteriorating more and more, and my only remaining wish in life is to see my grandson again.” – Yael Niinikoski
Shortly after Rom was kidnapped and taken to Gaza, Niinikoski attempted to apply for American citizenship on his behalf, hoping it might improve his chances of release. Because he is over 18, the effort was unsuccessful. His aunt, who has lived in Los Angeles for the past 30 years and once owned the boutique “Anat B” on South Beverly Drive in Beverly Hills, has since traveled to Washington, D.C., three times to meet with officials and raise awareness, including a meeting with Deputy Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs Dustin Stewart.
“For the first ten days or two weeks after the Hamas attack, we didn’t know what happened to him. We kept waiting for the worst news, because by then most families had already been notified if their child was kidnapped. In a way, when they told us he was likely a hostage, we breathed a sigh of relief,” Braslavski said.
On Oct. 7, 2023, Rom was working as a security guard at the Nova music festival when he was abducted. According to witnesses, he was able to save many festivalgoers before being taken captive. Since then, his parents have been desperate to see him released. Unable to continue working, they are devoting all their energy to the effort of bringing their son home. Each passing day reduces his chances of survival, as is true for the other remaining hostages.
A new medical report from the Health Team of the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, based on an examination of recently released hostage videos, said that the hostages have lost a dangerous amount of weight. According to the assessment, hostage Evyatar David has dropped from 167 pounds to an estimated 88 pounds, a loss of about 41% of his body weight. Braslavski has fallen from an estimated 143 to between 94 and 103 pounds. Both are severely underweight and face the risk of multisystem failure.
“It’s very hard to sleep. We keep thinking about him and what he’s going through,” Anet Braslavski said. “Our lives revolve around this. At the very least, we want the Red Cross to go in and provide them with food, water and medical attention. We sent a letter to the president of the Red Cross and received confirmation that it was received, so it gives us some hope.”
Like smartphones that have not been closed, we all are flip flaneurs
who walk and run, but fail to jog
our memory regarding what we see. And yet my verse
records what I see through the fog
that wraps my consciousness, and blurs my mental vision
while I am meeting metaphors,
that I mix with reality with which I’m in collision,
oblivious of its closed doors,
imagining that all are open to infinity,
which like reality is quite
incomprehensible, a devilish divinity
by definition out of sight.
The world around us is a world we never closely read,
like a discarded catalogue
we choose to never open, confident we do not need
to do so while we walk our dog.
If only everyone could see it as I do, its rhymes
would open consciousness’s locks,
as I believe I do, not often, but at least sometimes,
inside and outside my box,
echoing the divine consciousness whose shrinkage
is called tsimtsum by kabbalists,
generating pixels which provide the cyber-inkage
of my head’s rasa tabul-ists.
The last quatrain of this poem was inspired by Julin Ungar-Sargon, MD, PhD, who informed me that he regarded as “divine unconsciousness” the kabbalistic concept of tsimtsum. This is a mystical term describing the contraction of the infinity of Ein Soph, the Infinite Divinity, a process that generated this contraction in order to create a void in which there was room for the universe after the tsimtsum of the Infinite Ein Soph.
Gershon Hepner is a poet who has written over 25,000 poems on subjects ranging from music to literature, politics to Torah. He grew up in England and moved to Los Angeles in 1976. Using his varied interests and experiences, he has authored dozens of papers in medical and academic journals, and authored “Legal Friction: Law, Narrative, and Identity Politics in Biblical Israel.” He can be reached at gershonhepner@gmail.com.
I recently captured this photo of the sunset. I stood still, watching as the horizon seemed to swallow the sun, marveling at this breathtaking gift of creation. A sunset carries with it both beauty and melancholy. It enchants us in the moment—yet reminds us that the moment will not last.
The wisdom of Ecclesiastes teaches: “The sun rises, and the sun sets—and hurries back to rise again” (Ecclesiastes 1:5).
The poet is reminding us: life moves in cycles:
A chapter closes. Another begins.
A door shuts. Another waits to open.
A loved one dies. A new life enters the world. (And no—the new life does not replace the one we lost. It is simply part of the eternal rhythm.)
Our task is twofold: to cherish the goodness that is placed before us, and to keep our hearts ready to recognize the moment in time when the light returns.
I’m incredibly honored and grateful to share that at the 67th Southern California Journalism Awards, hosted by the Los Angeles Press Club, I received my first-ever First Place award — in the Lifestyle Feature category for my podcast, Make Your Own Map — and was also awarded Third Place for Online Journalist of the Year.
These honors mean the world to me — not just for the awards themselves, but for what they represent: years of storytelling, reinvention, and the courage to keep creating across new platforms.
This year, I was named a five-time finalist, and throughout my career, I’ve now received more than 40 nominations from the Los Angeles Press Club. I’m proud to have been recognized for work in broadcast, print, digital, television, and podcasting — a full-circle moment for someone who believes in telling stories that move, inform, and inspire.
As a TV host, travel journalist, and creator of both We Said Go Traveland the Make Your Own Map podcast, I’ve built my career around curiosity, connection, and the joy of saying yes to new adventures.
Whether I’m interviewing changemakers, exploring new destinations, or writing about reinvention, my goal has always been to encourage others to explore boldly, ask big questions, and — most of all — make their own map.
Thank you to the judges, the Los Angeles Press Club, and to everyone who has supported me on this journey. I’m so grateful — and excited for what comes next.
I’m honored and thrilled to be named a 5-time finalist in the 67th Southern California Journalism Awards, presented by the Los Angeles Press Club. With more than 2,500 entries submitted—breaking all previous records—this year’s awards spotlight the most impactful storytelling across media.
My work has been recognized in four categories—spanning podcasting, TV, travel, and digital journalism—and reflects my continued passion for sharing powerful, meaningful stories of place, purpose, and people making a difference. From TV segments and podcast episodes to lifestyle features, each piece honors the culture, connections, and experiences that move us.
Lifestyle Feature (Podcast)“How Alex Jimenez Transformed Her Passion into a Thriving Travel Community” On Make Your Own Map, Alex opens up about building Travel Fashion Girl and Women’s Travel Fest into vibrant communities for women travelers. Her entrepreneurial journey and empowering message earned recognition in this lifestyle storytelling category.
Lifestyle Feature (Podcast) & Travel Reporting (Podcast)“Neville McConachie’s Tales of the Giant’s Causeway” This episode, also from Make Your Own Map, was recorded as part of my Jet Set TV travel special on Ireland—recently honored with a Telly Award. Neville’s storytelling brought the magic and mystery of Northern Ireland’s Giant’s Causeway to life and earned recognition in two categories.
TV/Streaming/Radio FeatureIcon of the Seas – The World’s Largest Cruise Ship Featured on The Jet Set TV, this segment explored Royal Caribbean’s record-breaking ship. It’s a story of innovation, scale, and the joy of cruising—nominated in a category alongside some of the industry’s best travel broadcasters.
Online Journalist of the Year I’m especially proud to once again be a finalist for Online Journalist of the Year, honoring the full spectrum of my digital reporting, interviews, and multimedia storytelling. This is my 3rd finalist nomination for Online Journalist of the Year!
I’m incredibly grateful to The Jet Set TV team, my podcast guests, and the editors and collaborators who help bring these stories to life. Thank you for traveling this journey with me—can’t wait to see what’s next!
5x Finalist! Travel, TV & Tales That Made the Judges Take Note
A6. ONLINE JOURNALIST OF THE YEAR, Independent/Freelance
Samantha Bergeson, IndieWire, “Hallmark Holiday Stars Won’t Be Ignored by Hollywood Anymore: ‘I Treat Each Production Like a Martin Scorsese Film’”
Mesfin Fekadu, The Hollywood Reporter, “‘Abbott Elementary’ and The Glow Up of Janine Teagues”
James Hibberd, The Hollywood Reporter, “How ‘The Chosen’ Creator Turned the Bible Into Binge TV”
J. Kim Murphy, Variety, “Welcome to ‘Ren Faire’: Lance Oppenheim’s HBO Docuseries Follows a Festival Trapped in a Real-Life Game of Thrones”
The Jet Set TV: Lisa Niver takes us onboard the ICONIC Icon of the Seas
https://youtu.be/kN89NZeBv5o
Jet Set Correspondent Lisa Niver set sail on the World’s Largest Cruise ship to give us a look inside!
Thank you The Jet Set TV, Nikki Noya & Bobby Laurie for allowing me to share about Royal Caribbean International’s brand new ship, ICON OF THE SEAS on your travel TV show.
Thank you to the INCREDIBLE & ICONIC production team — Option A Group, Lisa Williams, Sam Harris, Jason Mangini and Patrick Gruss for this amazing segment.
Thank you to TEAM Ketchum –Aaron Kokoruz Jessica Milton Spencer Bullard Amanda Gadaleta Alonso–for another amazing adventure, especially saving me a spot on Crown’s Edge 🙂
Lisa Niver won a 2025 Telly Award for her Travel TV special about Ireland which aired on The Jet Set TV!
https://youtu.be/h1rIvYuti6U
Lisa Niver has won many awards including a TELLY! From 2017 to 2025, in the Southern California Journalism Awards and National Arts and Entertainment Journalism Awards, she has won eleven times and been a finalist forty times for a variety of broadcast, print, podcast and digital categories.
2025 Winner: Silver Telly Award for Celtic Charm travel special!
2025 5x Finalist: Southern California Journalism Awards for Online Journalist of the Year, TV/Streaming/Radio Feature, Lifestyle Feature (Podcast) & Travel Reporting (Podcast)
2024 Winner: National Arts and Entertainment Journalism Awards Diversity in the Entertainment Industry
2024 4x Finalist: National Arts and Entertainment Journalism Awards finalist for Online Journalist of the Year, and for three of my podcast interviews with Beth Santos, Wanderful, Carolyn Ray, JourneyWoman, and Samantha Brown, Places to Love.
2024 6x Finalist: Southern California Journalism Awards for Online Journalist of the Year, Podcast Host and for my podcast interviews with Andrew McCarthy, Samantha Brown, Tony Phelan and Christie Tate
2023 Winner: National Arts and Entertainment Journalism Awards Diversity in Entertainment
2023 3x Finalist: National Arts and Entertainment Journalism Awards
2023 2x Finalist: Southern California Journalism Awards for Travel Reporting and Podcast Interview
