“We are in America but our hearts are in Israel,” read the graffiti art on the paddle ball courts at Camp Lavi. This art exemplifies what all Jews in America felt this summer, and that is not forgotten by the nearly 800 campers and staff at Camp Lavi. more

MVP, the Jewish orthodox boys basketball camp at Camp Seneca Lake, celebrated its sixth consecutive season of record breaking registration and enrollment. more

Chabad of the Five Towns staged its annual welcome back barbecue on Labor Day. more

This summer’s 50-day conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, which has come to a close if a cease-fire reached last week holds, has spurred a sharp rise in both anti-Israel and anti-Semitic incidents around the world. At the same time, the boundary between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism has become increasingly blurred, particularly on American college campuses. more

“Tefilla (prayer) is a journey,” says Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, former chief rabbi of the United Kingdom. This school year, some students will better be able to experience that voyage with the release of the first two volumes in the Koren Magerman Educational Siddur Series, a joint project of Yeshiva University (YU) and Koren Publishers Jerusalem. more

From the one time in Re’eh to the three times in Shoftim to the five times in Ki Tetze, the Torah tells us nine times to eradicate evil – “Uvi’arta hara” – from either amongst you, or amongst all of Israel. It would seem that in most of these cases, as well as others in our parsha, the Torah is advocating for a death penalty kind of punishment for those who are either guilty of a crime, or are in violation of a mitzvah. more

With Labor Day now safely behind us, it is time to give serious thought to the upcoming High Holidays of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. For this week, I will focus on the importance that music plays in the liturgy of this sacred season. more

Today’s comedy superstars, especially those whose careers are driven by television, may well owe their success to pioneering Jewish entertainer Milton Berle. Born Mendel Berlinger in Manhattan in 1908, Berle became America’s first small-screen star. more

On Aug. 30, Palestinian terrorists set a Jewish man on fire in Jerusalem, and on Sept. 1, other Palestinian terrorists tried to set an entire bus full of Israeli Jews on fire. Yet I couldn’t find any mention of these horrific attacks in the New York Times, the Washington Post, or any other major American news outlet. more

Although his background was suppressed while he was captive, after his murder, news reports mournfully acknowledged that Steven Sotloff, a”h, was Jewish ­— an American raised in Miami who attended a Reform day school and made aliyah in 2005. A fellow captive, who was released, reported that Sotloff surreptitiously fasted on Yom Kippur and prayed facing Jerusalem. more