In order to gain an appreciation for what soldiers in the Israeli Defense Forces do, students in grades 5 through 8 participated in an informative Yom Ha’atzmaut program at Gesher Yehudah Yeshiva. Reservist Yossi Tenami described what it was like to go into the army to fight for the land and people of Israel.

For seven months, Holocaust survivors and YOF students got together to prepare for a Holocaust memorial program, which was anything but typical. When the program began, 10 Holocaust survivors were tenderly escorted to seats on the stage by their teenage partners, who proceeded to reenact stirring episodes from the survivors’ own lives, accompanied by narration from the survivors themselves. The youngsters had heard the stories during their weekly sessions.

The American Sephardi Federation recently conducted a survey aimed at finding archival collections related to Sephardic, Mizrahi and Bukharian Jews held in synagogues, state archives, cultural organizations, or by individuals in six Mid-Atlantic and New England states.
They learned that somewhere in New Jersey there is a collector who owns a rich collection of correspondence—about 800 pieces, mostly written in Ladino—that originated in Vienna and the Ottoman Empire between 1840 and 1940. Almost all of the correspondence comes from merchants, but not all of it deals exclusively with business matters. Some is about family issues. The collector’s name has not been made public.

Celebrating Israel’s Holiest City

Yom Yerushalayim — Jerusalem Day — is the most recent addition to the Hebrew calendar. It is celebrated one week before the eve of Shavuot. Although Jerusalem has been considered the capital city of the Jewish people since the time of King David—who conquered it and built it as the seat of his monarchy—there was never a special day in honor of the city until the Israeli army took over the ancient, eastern part of the city on the third day of the Six-Day War in June 1967.

Last month Ahi Ezer Yeshiva was full of excitement, learning, and fun. The school celebrated in honor of Yom Ha’atzmaut. Rosh Yeshiva, Rabbi Masalton, said a perek of tehilim for the soldiers in Israel, and spoke to the girls about the importance of Yom Ha’atzmaut and how special Eertz Yisrael is to the Jewish nation. The Holy Land is a place where we can do so many mitzvot, and visit so many tzadikim and holy places. Eretz Yisrael is a place of kedusha (holiness)! All Jews have a special closeness and feel connected to Israel, no matter where in the world they are. We all have a constant yearning to be there.

Eating a dairy meal on Shavuot has become an enduring tradition, but what’s the reason for this? If you check seven sources you’ll find seven different answers. Thus we’re not going to explain why we eat dairy on this holiday, we’re going to provide some sumptuous dairy dessert recipes instead.

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^{by David Harris}

For many nations, a 65th birthday may not generate much excitement. But if the country happens to be Israel, which celebrated its birthday this year on April 15-16, it’s another story.

Israel has the dubious distinction of being the only UN member state whose right to exist is regularly challenged, whose elimination from the world map is the aim of at least one other UN member state (Iran), and whose population centers are deemed fair game by Hamas-controlled Gaza and Hezbollah-dominated Lebanon.

Old Torahs are Collecting Dust

^{by Clement Soffer}

I have been involved in building several synagogues, Ahava ve Ahva in Brooklyn, Commack Jewish Center on Long Island, then the Chabad of Port Washington, Long Island, the great Safra Synagogue in Aventura, Florida and now the new Chabad of West Boynton Beach, Florida.

I am writing this article to make all of our wonderful Sephardic communities aware of an enormous mitzvah that has been forgotten. The mitzvah is the rededication of many of our old Sefer Torahs that are passul (defective) lying dormant, collecting dust and locked away in storage. Most of our synagogues have this dilemma. The rabbis and their committees are correct in removing them from circulation. It is their duty to do so.