Inside that room, pale and fragile but alive, Yosef-Chaim Ohana — who had been held hostage in Gaza for 738 days — was ...

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I grew up praying to a god in a language I did not understand. In particular, as an observant Conservative Jewish American (that is, “Conservative Jewish, not “conservative, Jewish”), I grew up ...

Eli Sharabi was abducted from his home in Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7th, and taken hostage by Hamas. Sharabi had never recited the Shema. Until he was in Gaza. Even though he was never a religious man ...

Israeli soldier reciting the Shema prayer near the border in Southern Israel on July 20, 2014. On Monday, July 28, which is Rosh Chodesh Av, Jews around the world are being encouraged to recite the ...

What Jew doesn’t know the Shema, followed by Ve’ahavta, the command to love God with all our heart, soul, and might [Deuteronomy 6:4-9]? We learn it as children and die with it on our lips. But do we ...

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The soul You have given us, oh God, is pure. We make choices that can deepen goodness. And we make choices that can expose inhumanity. And with all your might. It can take an act of incredible might ...

When I was a girl, on Friday nights, I would compete with my sisters for the privilege of fetching my father’s slippers when he returned home from prayers. My siblings and I would beg for the seat to ...

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