The Jewish people face a period of profound tumult. Elections loom in both Israel and the United States. Debates over security, democracy, and the balance of power have grown bitter.
Artificial intelligence is quietly challenging one of education’s oldest assumptions. For thousands of years, if you wanted to understand other people, you had to learn their language.
Military campaigns can destroy launchers, command centers, and weapons stockpiles. They cannot, by themselves, create a durable security reality.
Israel has gradually adopted the logic of a fortress: defend the center, harden the perimeter, and intercept whatever penetrates it. But a fortress cedes the initiative to the besieger.
Who is wise? One who learns from all people. – "Ethics of the Elders"
Teachers must convey this history clearly: Zionism did not arise in opposition to justice, peace, or human dignity. It arose to make their Jewish expression possible in a hostile world.
The old claim has always found new hosts: banks, media, governments, wars. Now Jews, or “Zionists,” control the game. The institution changes. The accusation survives.
Many commentators understandably focused on whether equating a Jewish organization with “monsters” echoed one of history’s oldest antisemitic tropes. The real issue is not the word but the vision.
Perhaps the rebuilding of Jerusalem begins when we become what Isaiah called repairers of the breach, and every act of education becomes another stone in that rebuilding.
The strange doings in Washington were just a small component of the “what were they thinking?” march of folly in this surrealistic new world.
The selection of targets by the US signals a transition from a conventional military campaign to a broader strategic effort aimed at disrupting Iran’s ability to function.
