Over the past several months families from all over the country have been coming to Kfar Darom to see our community and consider living here. Most of the families come for a Shabbot, so as to receive the complete Kfar Darom experience (i.e. Sabbath prayers, meeting the families in a more intimate atmosphere – as […]

Will Shimon Peres outlive Israel? If his appeasement policy towards the Palestinians manages to convert Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, no savvy bookmaker would lay more than 6-5 on the Jewish state. Peres has survived failure better than any Hollywood mogul in history. He lost five elections, he was the father of the disastrous Oslo peace […]

Part 2: The Debate over Political and Moral Legitimacy The dispute about the legitimacy of suicide attacks is not the exclusive territory of Muslim religious figures. Politicians and columnists too expressed their opinions on the matter. For example, columnist Muhammad Masharqa wrote in Yanabi’ – the supplement of the PA newspaper, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, under the […]

In 1642, when the 600 Jews of Recife (Pemambuco), Brazil, felt secure enough to establish a synagogue and worship openly, they summoned Rabbi Isaac Abcab de Fonseca of Amsterdam, Holland, to serve as their first hocham (spiritual leader). Aboab de Fonseca became, thereby, the first congregational rabbi in the New World. When the Portuguese explorer […]

Part 1: The Debate over Religious Legitimacy The Arab media has recently plunged into a debate concerning the religious, political and moral legitimacy of the Palestinian suicide bombings against Israel. The leading Sunni-Islamic authorities, as well as political officials and columnists took part in the debate. The question of the religious legitimacy of suicide attacks […]

(JPFS) – JERUSALEM – In a marked boost in military cooperation, the Israeli Air Force held a joint exercise recently with the U.S. Air Force over the Negev involving midair refueling, dogfighting, and air-to-ground attacks. While the American and Israeli air forces have a long but quiet tradition of exercising in Israel, it was the […]

Beit El resident MK Rabbi Benny Elon (National Union) was asked by Arutz-7’s Haggai Segal how he feels traveling almost every day along the route on which Assaf Hershkovitz was murdered today. Elon’s response: “For myself it’s one thing, but what’s harder is to send my 12-year-old daughter every day to school in Ofrah. But […]

Harper’s, the literary magazine founded in 1850 and celebrated in its early years for featuring the works of Herman Melville, Henry James and Mark Twain, has for most of its history been an insomniac’s delight – a snooze-inducing bore found mainly in the waiting rooms of doctors who hope to impress patients with a little […]

Part I E. Initial Restoration Attempts – 1931 Following the riots and deportations, the reinnants of the Jewish community strove unceasingly to restore Jews to the city of their forefathers. One leading figure in these efforts, despite his own horrendous personal tragedy, was the aged Rabbi Yaakov Yosef Slonim, Chief Rabbi of Hebron, whose family […]

Israel’s leaders express understandable concern when Secretary of State Colin Powell referred to recent Israeli counter-terror measures as “excessive and disproportionate.” After all, America’s armed forces have repeatedly used massive force against its enemies (sometimes under the direct command of Powell himself, a former head of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff) even when those […]