Between the ages of 6 and 13, I attended Hebrew School three times a week at Temple Ansche Chesed on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.  This was in the 1950’s and Israel was a big part of the curriculum.  We even constructed a table size sand model of Israel, each of us contributing tiny toy people, cars and houses for the model, to fill the new country with life.  And of course, every year of my life, I prayed along with everyone else at the end of the Passover seder, “Next year in Jerusalem.”

As the son of holocaust survivors and as ...

D'var Torah by Guy Izhak Austrian, Social Justice Rabbinical Intern, and Ari Lev Fornari, Cooperberg-Rittmaster Rabbinical Intern

In the past few years, we have both taken the opportunity to spend some time in Hebron – a city located south of Jerusalem in the West Bank. It was a priority for us to personally witness the occupation, to talk with Palestinians and Jewish settlers who live there, and to support struggles for peace and justice.

Walking through the streets of Hebron today feels a bit like an archaeological dig. The Old City of Hebron has become a ghost town—virtually a ...