My wife and I recently toured the excavations at the City of David just below the Old City of Jerusalem. Our guide, Rafi, explained that the unearthed city, right next to the present-day Arab village of Silwan, was far older than the “Old City”, and it had been inhabited by Jewish kings, noblemen and commoners

Bleary-eyed, I nudged the suitcase with my right foot, moving it a few inches ahead. The airport terminal at Ben Gurion was beginning to fill up and I was anxious to check in my baggage. I was next in line for the security check. There was a man who hurried in, making his way to

The IDF Paratroopers are known for their daring, courage and heroism in all of Israel’s wars. They’re also known for the difficult training they must undergo to become combat-ready, and to stay in shape. The intense navigational drills. The jump training with five static line jumps from a C-130 Hercules aircraft. The comprehensive weapons training.

I recently attended a family event over Shabbat in Bet El, in the Shomron. Bet El has over 1,000 families, and is surrounded by Arab areas such as Ramallah, Surda and Dura al Kar. The views are stunning. On Shabbat morning, I found myself wondering whether this was truly the biblical site of Bet El,

It was a sunny November day in Netanya, with a gentle breeze wafting in from the Mediterranean. My wife, mother and I were there for a short vacation, and we decided to visit a neighborhood cafe. It was late in the afternoon, and the locals were starting to arrive. The waitress offered us a table

Everyone who has ever asked for directions in Israel knows that Israelis love to say yashar yashar, loosely translated as “keep going straight.” For me, it will always carry a much deeper meaning. It happened in the spring of 1980, on a warm Friday afternoon. Three of us yeshiva students at Yeshivat Shaalvim were traveling

Shlomo Horwitz is the founding director of Jewish Crossroads, an educational theater project that has provided creative Torah programming across the US, Canada, England and Israel. He studied at Yeshivat Shaalvim and Yeshivat Ner Yisrael in Baltimore, where he received ordination from Rabbi Yaakov Weinberg. Shlomo is a CPA and a director of a consulting

The crisis was real. My wife had tried to bake bread and left it in the oven for the right amount of time at the right temperature. But the results were poor. It wasn’t fully baked. There were other issues as well. Certain foods were undercooked and needed to be reinserted for a longer period.

“The timer’s on!” shouted Effie, his large brown eyes registering a mix of consternation and excitement. When my son Effie was seven years old, he was completely infatuated with wind-up timers. His first-grade teacher used them in class to prod the kids to finish various projects. While the clock was ticking, Effie would be filled

Rabbi Avraham Genachovsky (1936-2013) was the Rosh Yeshiva (Dean) of Yeshivas Kochav MiYaakov, the Tchebiner Yeshiva in Jerusalem. He was beloved and revered by the greatest rabbis of his time as well as the simplest Jews. His profound understanding of Torah and his tremendous sensitivity to others were the hallmarks of his life. These stories