The World Zionist Organization is holding a special Hanukkah candle-lighting ceremony at its Jerusalem headquarters on Sunday morning, connecting via live video broadcast with the Sydney, Australia Jewish community in a powerful show of solidarity following last week’s devastating terrorist attack at Bondi Beach.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog, Australian Ambassador to Israel Ralph King, representatives of bereaved families and Chabad, and 10th-grade students from a Sydney Jewish day school currently visiting Israel will participate in this meaningful ceremony bridging two continents in shared grief and resilience.
Omer Shem Tov, held hostage by Hamas in Gaza for 505 days, is speaking at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest on Friday. He plans to share his captivity story and discuss the critical U.S.-Israel relationship.
“We can see on social media that something is changing on the American right,” Shem Tov told Jewish Insider. “You can see more and more people coming out with all kinds of antisemitic statements and anti-Israel statements. It’s very concerning, because these are people who vote for Trump, people who are supposed to be good for us.”
The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, Rabbinical Assembly and Cantors Assembly released their Joint Intermarriage Working Group Report on Thursday, apologizing for hurt caused by previous policies viewing interfaith marriage as a threat to Jewish survival.
After receiving over 1,200 responses to a February survey—including hundreds from once-active members who felt rejected for falling in love with non-Jews—the movement acknowledged causing pain through its policies and attitudes.
Rabbi Ariana Capptauber of Beth El Temple in Harrisburg, Pa., argues that while teaching about Jewish persecution is important, the focus should shift to what Jews are fighting for, not just against.
“Like film directors, the rabbis of the Talmud are very intentional about how they tell the story of this holiday. They have placed God and the miracle of light in the center of the frame, and the historical conflict in the margin,” she writes, urging a reframing of Jewish identity beyond victimhood.
🔍 In-Depth Analysis
Rabbi Simcha Scholar, CEO of Chai Lifeline, reports that crisis professionals responded to hundreds of calls after the Bondi Beach attack from witnesses, terrified parents, educators and families worldwide experiencing acute distress.
“Mental health response should not be viewed as optional or secondary to security measures. It is a core component of resilience,” Scholar writes, emphasizing that delayed support allows fear to harden into long-term trauma.
Tel Aviv’s Institute for National Security Studies, in collaboration with the Ruderman Family Foundation, is hosting a conference examining the Israel-U.S. relationship, including the vital connection between Israel and American Jewry.
The conference comes at a critical time as both nations navigate complex geopolitical challenges and evolving domestic political landscapes.
📚 Worthy Reads
In a Times of Israel opinion piece, Mijal Bitton recalls the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s insistence on public Hanukkah candle-lighting despite opposition from other Jewish groups.
“The Rebbe rejected a posture many Jews had internalized: that Judaism belongs in private spaces but not public ones. Pirsumei nisa — publicizing the miracle — was never a ritual technicality. It was a philosophy of Jewish dignity.”
In The Wall Street Journal, Arsen Ostrovsky, injured in the Sydney attack, reflects on becoming a victim after years of advocating for terror survivors.
“Doctors later told me it was millimeters between life and death, ‘a miracle’ I survived. What I saw on Bondi was pure evil. It felt like the Nova Music Festival all over again, except this time it was on the beach I’d grown up on.”
Liz Hirsch Naftali, whose great-niece Abigail Mor Edan was held captive after her parents were killed on October 7, demands a serious inquiry into the failures that preceded the Hamas attacks.
“I ask these questions not out of anger, but out of responsibility. Because silence, when it comes to truth, is not loyalty — it is complicity,” she writes on Medium.
About The Author
Discover more from Faith & Freedom News - FFN
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
