Last Shabbat afternoon, 30-year-old Bar Asraf shot himself at the gravestone of his girlfriend, who was killed by Hamas terrorists at the Nova Festival on October 7, 2023. Even three years later, he had not yet gotten over her loss. The wounds run deeper than we thought. We
What the German-Persian writer Navid Kermani demonstrated in his speech at the swearing-in ceremony for recruits at the Bendlerblock in Berlin—repeating the old mantra of pacifism and thereby demotivating and discouraging young German recruits even before they had to fight at all, telling them that refusing to
Surprising information in newspaper Jerusalem Post, 1st of August, 2026 : "Despite fierce rabbinic opposition, haredi (ultra-Orth0d0x) enlistment (in Israeli Army IDF) is rising. The numbers suggest changing incentives may be altering the draft calculus. According to a Yediot Aharonot report on Wednesday, at least 4,000 haredim enlisted
In the Journal du Dimanche, Dr. Gudrun Eussner, a blogger living in Perpignan and a reader of these notes, found, after some searching, information about the arsonists of the forest fires in southern France "that goes beyond the one Tunisian from CNews (...) Laurent Nuñez reported on Friday about 308
The young Berliner Abdul B., who deliberately drove a rented van into the crowd at Christopher Street Day on the evening of July 25th, injuring 29 people and killing one woman, is presented to readers of the German magazine Stern as a young man "with the heart of a
When I posted my short notice about "Queers for Israel" in the morning, I hadn’t yet looked at the German newspapers and knew nothing about the Islamic attack on participants in Berlin’s Christopher Street Day. What was intended as a showcase of tolerant, "colorful"
(In the following text I presented my thesis on the "flexible ego of Israelis". It was written for an American Jewish magazine, below you will find a German version, published in print magazine Opus (Nr. 101, Nov. 2024). An extended German version was published on Achgut.com on
"Queers for Israel" appeared in my Facebook feed, which is why I googled them last night. It's predominantly Anglo-Saxon community, Americans, Australians, Brits. The idea of creating a pro-Israel counter to the "Queers for Palestine" movement (founded by potential suicides), seemed sensible
After a week packed with work and exciting affairs, I stumble into Shabbat half-conscious and confused. I couldn’t even recite the Kaddish properly in synagogue, although I’d said it a hundred times before. Now, on Saturday evening, after the Torah reading, lunch with my wife, and a
Today is Tisha B'Av, the ninth day of the Jewish month of Av, our day of mourning. It commemorates the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple of Solomon by the Babylonians in 586 B.C.—an event that took place over two and a half millennia ago. According
Anti-Semitism is, from the very beginning, a destructive attitude. Its essence is rooted in rejection and aversion. Throughout history, anti-Semitism has often been the starting point for broader attitudes of contempt and rejection; in most cases, it did not stop at the Jews, but began with them only
It's reasonable that we fight anti-Semitism. And try to get rid of it. But I don't truly believe in a world without hatred against Jews. For the extraordinary achievements of the Jewish people in the past, in the present, and—hopefully—in the future will