The shin shin program has brought Israeli young people to Wisconsin for decades, but this time the annual visitors know that things are different. This year’s shin shins say the current moment is more important than ever. They have come to represent Israel in a post-Oct. 7 world. The new shin shins for 2024 are Amit Fridman Merav and Maya Eliyahou, Israeli high school graduates who are spending a year in Wisconsin before service in their country’s military. Shin shins typically spend summertime at the Steve & Shari Sadek Family Camp Interlaken JCC in...
Full disclosure: I am a heritage Jew, and while this legacy informs every aspect of my life, I am not outwardly observant. I firmly believe in tikkun olam and am also aware that while I am not obligated to try to repair everything that is broken in the world, I am obligated to not ignore […]
Because COVID had made it difficult to travel to Israel during much of the pandemic, my wife and I decided to spend Sukkot 2023 with our son and his family in Giv’at Shmuel, the central Israeli city where they lived. The first half of the holiday was amazing. To borrow an analogy from Apple, Judaism […]
After Oct. 7, I felt a need to return to Israel. I have been to Israel three times before this summer, and this time I felt a “calling” to be there for my “brothers and sisters” in Israel. I applied as an Israel educator in the Milwaukee area to “A Mifgash That Matters” experience organized […]
For Jews across the world, Oct. 7 created a darkness felt in parts of ourselves that many of us had not yet been acquainted with. Our emotional response came together like a slowly forming shape, with time needed to fill out and find its edges. Almost a year later, we now know some of the […]
One year. As I write this, it seems we are headed for 365 days of war, and beyond. Sometimes it feels like this war has stretched on for a decade. At other moments, it feels like just yesterday that we woke up to the shock and horrors of Oct. 7. As we mark a year […]
One of my favorite pairs in the Talmud are the Rabbis Hillel and Shammai. These two wise sages loved to disagree. They disputed over Hanukkah candle lighting, Sukkot offerings, Torah study, even the telling of little white lies, such as referring to a less than beautiful bride on her wedding day as ‘fair and […]
For Yom HaAtzmaut, Israeli Independence Day, hundreds of people walked from the Harry & Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center, through Whitefish Bay, on May 19. Photos by Rob Golub.
Last month, Milwaukee Jewish Federation’s “Solidarity Mission to Israel” brought 14 witnesses to Israel at a time of crisis. This was not the first time. In fact, it was one more step in a history of mission trips in support of Israel During Israel’s crises, Milwaukee has stepped up time and again. Here are just […]
Both of us have been to Israel many, many times. Both of us left for the Jewish Homeland thinking that we knew a lot about the current situation and the repercussions of the Hamas War on the people in our partnership region of Sovev Kineret. Our four days in the region, from Jan. 15-18, made […]
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