Yom Ha'atzmaut

In the spirit of Yom Ha'atzmaut, I wanted to share an incredible video which I showed my Gemara class this morning. It's called "The Volunteers: Answering the Call of History" and it tells the story of different young men and women who left their homes in the USA, England and South Africa to volunteer to help Israel in 1947-1948. They helped smuggle Ma'apilim (illegal immigrants) past the British, joined the Palmach and helped smuggle guns to the new Israeli State and put their lives on hold in order to help Am Israel and Eretz Israel. One of the people being interviewed talks about why he left Harvard Law School in order to smuggle immigrants into Palestine in 1947. He says that he couldn't continue life as normal in Boston knowing that Jewish History was unfolding in Israel and that he could be a part of it. I found this to be an extremely powerful statement and I think it sets a tremendous example of the personal sacrifices one can make on behalf of Medinat Israel. Chag Ha'atzmaut Sameach!

Yom HaZikaron

As we are about to start commemorating Yom HaZikaron, I wanted to share two stories that I found to be especially powerful: "The Club No One Wants to Belong To" and "Dudu and Moshe: A True Yom HaZikaron Story".