Joining the OU Israel program at the David Resort and Spa at the Dead Sea will be Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz. Rabbi Breitowitz is a senior faculty at the OU Israel Center and a Senior Lecturer in Yeshivat Ohr Somayach in Yerushalayim. Until April 2010, he was the Rabbi of the Woodside Synagogue in Silver Spring,Maryland

On Tuesday morning I woke up and got ready for work as usual. I kissed my kids goodbye for the day and left my house around 7:00 AM. Only on the way to work did I hear on the news that half of my country did not have a typical morning. Tens of thousands of

Just as in the past, Jews will flock to their synagogues throughout Israel this High Holiday season, but the difference will be that this year they will be joined by the largest contingent of North American Jews – olim, students, tourists – than ever before. Israel has become the place where older Americans retire, younger families elect

As Selichot commence this Saturday night (for Ashkenazim), the buildup to the Great Days begins in earnest. These are days of judgement, of pronounced Divine Presence but also days of identity-crafting. During this period, we fashion the person we would “like to be” from the shards of the person we “have become.” Teshuva and penitence

A minuscule 7th century BCE clay sealing reading “Belonging to Adoniyahu, the Royal Steward,” was recently discovered in the City of David’s sifting project. In earth excavated from the foundations of the Western Wall under Robinson’s Arch in 2013, a national service volunteer some three weeks ago unearthed the one-centimeter inscribed letter sealer bearing the

Five years ago, IDF 2nd Lt. Hadar Goldin was abducted by Hamas and was tragically killed in the ensuing firefight as IDF forces tried to rescue him. Since then, Leah and Simcha Goldin, Hadar’s parents, have tried desperately to secure the return of the remains of their son so that he might have a proper

Fourteen years ago this week, 10,000 Jews were expelled from the twenty one diversified communities of Gush Katif. They lost their homes, their livelihoods, their shuls, their yeshivot, as well as the cemetery where forty-six of their beloved ones were buried. With the black cloud of being expelled from Gush Katif hanging over their heads,

JNS.org has the remarkable story of a number of teens who participated in NCSY Hatzalah Rescue this past summer. The program trains the next generation of responders by teaching them, among other things, CPR and hemorrhage control. Read about a couple of experiences where the teens, serving on ambulance crews, directly helped bring patients back

Mevo Modi’in, a moshav of approximately 250 residents, nestled into the Ben Shemen Forest east of Tel Aviv, was one of a number of communities completely evacuated last week on Lag B’Omer, due to approaching fires. More than a thousand firefighters throughout the country battled 1,023 blazes over a period of 41 hours, which translates

Goldie Warhaftig first came to Israel in 1966 to learn for a year in Machon Gold. She recalls what she experienced as a newcomer to Israel during the Six-Day War just months after her arrival. Recorded at OU Israel’s L’Ayla Rosh Chodesh Iyyar 5779 Women’s Event sponsored in memory of Mrs Linda Pruwer-Brachfeld, מרת חיה