Rabbi Hanan Porat, 67, the iconic face of Gush Emunim settlement movement died on early Tuesday at Kfar Etzion, the prewar kibbutz that he helped reestablish after the Six Day War. A paratrooper in that war, he rose to lead the movement to settle the territories beyond the Green Line, serving in the Knesset as a voice of opposition to land concessions. more

Rabbi Hanan Porat was just another face in a crowd, and then it lifted him above their shoulders, as they demonstrated in 1975 for the right to build Jewish housing beyond the Green Line. Through his efforts, there is Elon Moreh, Kedumim and Shavei Shomron. But those are just the early communities, founded through Gush Emunim, the “bloc of the faithful.” Today, a half million Jews live in these communities, including eastern Jerusalem. more

Seems like President Barack Obama just can’t seem to catch a break in his efforts to maintain Jewish support ahead of his 2012 reelection bid. His speech before the United Nations and use of the veto power to delay Palestinian statehood have been noted in the Jewish community. more

A poem for Yom Kippur more

Dear Aviva, My wife is pregnant and I feel like she is a different person! She blames it on the hormones and being pregnant, but it’s really taking a toll on me. According to her, I’m always either saying the wrong things, looking at her the wrong way, or I smell bad. Whatever I say or do seems to just anger her more and it’s frustrating for me, not to mention I don’t want to be around her! I want my wife back! -Sad (soon-to-be) Dad more

More than what he was saying, it was his face that caught my attention. Flicking on the television absent-mindedly as I was getting dressed for a wedding, I came across the middle of a program on what, after a moment, I realized was a story from the Second Lebanon War. more

Calendar for the week of Sept. 28, 2011 more

For the past two years, Woodmere resident Mindy Shachar stood before the class as a teacher at Midreshet Shalhevet, the North Woodmere girls high school. This year, she is out of the class, but busy … more

The arrival of Coffee Bean in New York was accompanied by internet-driven hype, making it seem like it was the greatest kosher thing to happen to New York City. Everywhere you clicked, there were tweets, status updates and blog posts extolling the virtues of this LA-based coffee chain. I absorbed volumes of information about their jalapeño cheddar bagel and was told that their coffee was so good it was the rival to any boutique café with their pompous baristas and handpicked (conflict free) beans. more

The very word itself, teshuvah, brings to mind the very essence of the element and experience of spiritual return. Teshuvah is the experience of returning, not to the good old days, but rather to a new world experience, one that is G-d centered and ordered. more