{image_1}The possibility of war remains a great concern for Israeli political and military leaders as well as residents of the Golan Heights. Evidence of increased tensions in the North have been felt near the Mt. Avital Israel Defense Forces (IDF) base just opposite the cease-fire line with Syria. Israeli jet fighters and Apache helicopters have been heard overhead patrolling the skies. An IDF combat engineer unit has been preparing for maneuvers for months. However, very few tanks or other heavy military equipment have been seen.
Continue Reading »{image_1}“Now the whole congregation of the children of Israel assembled together at Shiloh, and set up the tabernacle of meeting there. And the land was subdued before them.” Joshua 18:1
Continue Reading »{image_1}During times of war, much talk and space is given to missile attacks, bombings, and catastrophe. Wild exchanges on the streets of Gaza crowd the TV news services. Often the service rendered by Magen David Adom (MDA) is taken for granted, but their team of well-trained Israeli professionals are on call whenever and wherever needed. Magen David Adom, which means “Red Star of David,” is the efficient Israeli ambulance service.
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{image_1}“I lift up my eyes to the hills—where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, the maker of heaven and earth.”
Psalm 121:1–2, NIV
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At 36, Sandy Koufax made baseball history by becoming the youngest player ever inducted into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame. In his short career with the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers, this left-handed Jewish pitcher managed to earn three Cy Young Awards and was voted the World Series Most Valuable Player in 1963 and 1965, despite refusing to play in the first game of the 1965 Series because it was scheduled on the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement). At 71, Sandy Koufax has made baseball history again by being symbolically drafted to the Modi’in Miracle, one of six teams that make up the new Israel Baseball League (IBL).
Continue Reading »{image_1}“For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth; the time of singing has come…” (Song of Songs 2:11–12a). What are the signs that Israel’s long awaited spring has arrived? Are they the final passing of winter’s cold, wet weather, the budding of almond trees, the joyful songs of birds, or perhaps the red poppies and cyclamen carpeting the hillsides? According to the Hebrew Scriptures (Gen.–Mal., Tanach), the coming of spring is marked by the arrival of Pesach (Passover). “Observe the month of Abib [spring], and keep the Passover to the LORD your God, for in the month of Abib the LORD your God brought you out of Egypt by night” (Deut. 16:1).
Continue Reading »{image_1}The liberation of Jerusalem on June 7, 1967 (Iyar 28 on the Hebrew calendar) marked the first time in thousands of years that the entire city of Jerusalem, the holiest city in Judaism, came under Jewish sovereignty.
Continue Reading »{image_1}The Hebrew word tzedakah is often translated as “charity.” However, when understood from a Jewish viewpoint, it is much different. The root word for tzedakah is tzedak, which means righteousness, justice, or fairness. “In Judaism, giving to the poor is not viewed as a generous, magnanimous act; it is simply an act of justice and righteousness, the performance of a duty, giving the poor their due” (www.jewfaq.org). Maimonides, a 12th-century Jewish sage, organized tzedakah into eight levels, from giving begrudgingly (level one) to giving when neither party knows the other’s identity (level seven). However, “the highest degree of tzedakah,” said Maimonides, “is helping others help themselves.”
Continue Reading »Special Olympics Israel made a big splash when nine of its athletes traveled to California to participate in the Robert C. Placak Tiburon Mile. Athletes swim one nautical mile from San Francisco Bay's Angel Island to the shores of downtown Tiburon. This is not a Special Olympics event, but the world's biggest and most competitive open-water swim, in which Olympic and World Champion swimmers from the nations participate.
Continue Reading »We are dedicating this center spread to Yom Hashoah or Holocaust Memorial Day, which falls this year on April 15. At a time when Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is asserting that the Holocaust is a Jewish myth, we believe it is vitally important to publish the truth. Thousands will be participating in a March of the Living in Poland, walking 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) from Auschwitz to Birkenau, two of Hitler’s concentration camps, in remembrance of the 6 million Jews who died during the Holocaust. In Israel, at the sound of a siren, everyone will stop to observe two minutes of silence, and memorial ceremonies will take place throughout the Land.
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