With her newfound free time, artist Ita Mond formed “From Under the Hat,” an Orthodox women artists group, with neighbor Shayna Heller. The group composed a mission statement and began reaching out to fellow frum women artists. Five years and some gifted artists later, the group has held exhibitions in museums in Maryland and Pennsylvania, and is planning to appear in exhibits throughout the East Coast.
It is generally thought that scientific knowledge is characterized by objectivity, observation, experiment and reproducibility, whereas knowledge in the realm of religion is thought to be based on subjectivity, holy scriptures, tradition and faith. I shall challenge the above views and demonstrate that there are, in fact, striking similarities between knowledge in the realm of science and knowledge in the realm of religion.
Still staggering from the trauma of the dreadful news of the demise of my niece, Judy Young, I find myself unable to offer adequately either my feelings of bereavement or an evaluation of her short but full life. My initial reaction is to quote Kohelet: "Vehinei dimat ha'ashukim ve'ein lahem menachem, Behold the tears of the oppressed-and they have no comforter" (4:1).
It was a hot Tuesday, three weeks into the summer of 2005. Early that morning, Betty Levy, then sixteen, had enjoyed a few hours of sun at the beach, returned to her home in Netanya and planned to travel into the city to buy a balloons for some friends' birthdays. The balloons were never bought.
On March 21, 2002, a suicide bombing on Rechov King George in Jerusalem killed three people and injured eighty-seven. There must have been something in the papers about a seven-year-old by the name Yehonathon, blinded and paralyzed by shrapnel. But during an intifada, details such as these escaped me.
On Motzei Shabbat, March 9, 2002, just after 10:30 PM, a suicide bomber entered Jerusalem’s bustling Café Moment and detonated the powerful explosives strapped to his body, completely gutting the restaurant, murdering eleven people, wounding fifty-eight others and dramatically changing the lives of all touched by the horror—one amazingly for the better.
It was Ora’s ninth wedding anniversary and she yearned to go to the Kotel and pray. On the No. 2 bus, Ora noticed a very fat Chassidic man pushing open the doors and forcing his way onto the bus. The man made it to the first step of the still-open doors when he detonated the bomb he wore beneath his coat.
Three weeks before the date scheduled for expulsion, Ruthi and Hezi invited Ruthi’s siblings and parents to spend a Shabbat with them. As the family left after Shabbat, Ruthi suddenly received a phone call from her sister Chana, telling her that there were shots on the road. The family frantically began to call one another, but Rachela and Dov were not answering.
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