RSS
The Jewish Calendar: Sanctifying Time in a Fractured World
Mourners visit the graves of fallen IDF soldiers at Israel’s Yom HaZikaron ceremony. Photo: Israel Defense Forces
Time doesn’t always move the way we expect it to. Sometimes it blurs — with days stretching endlessly, their differences erased. Sometimes, everything happens at once, compressing joy and grief, memory and urgency, into a single, overwhelming present.
Since October 7, I’ve felt both: the loss of rhythm and the intensity of everything arriving at the same moment. I find myself forgetting what came before, uncertain how to prepare for what’s next. The rituals and holidays that once structured the year now land with surprising weight, or else pass almost unnoticed, leaving me searching for a sense of passage.
On November 24, 2023 — just before the release of the first hostages — Rabbi Oded Mazor penned a prayer:
In the days when each hour collides with the next
We have no choice but to cry and to laugh with the same eyes
To mourn and to dance at the same time
And the long arc of history is compressed into one day and one hour…
There is no order in this kind of time. Tears and laughter, mourning and music, are all pressed together. The calendar’s boxes are still there, but what fills them is unpredictable, and often too much to hold.
In the season of the Yamim — Yom HaShoah, Yom HaZikaron, and Yom HaAtzmaut — I’m especially aware of this disorientation. The rituals that are supposed to mark transitions often feel like thin threads pulled through chaos. When time is broken, how do we begin to heal?
Time as an Act of Freedom
While still slaves in Egypt, with no power over their own days or nights, the very first mitzvah ever given to the Jewish people was declaring the new month. God did not hand us a calendar to follow; God gave us the power and responsibility to shape it. Slaves do not own their time. The commandment to sanctify the new month was an act of spiritual agency — a way to say, “We may not control our circumstances, but we can shape our experience of them.” We built the rhythms and boundaries that give life meaning.
That same creative impulse lives in how we’ve shaped the modern calendar, and especially in the sequence of placing Yom HaZikaron directly before Yom HaAtzmaut. This structure was designed not to ease the emotional weight, but to heighten it. To insist that independence could not be celebrated without acknowledging its cost—and that mourning must give way to meaning.
The calendar was built to hold that intensity, and to transform it into something sacred. The emotional whiplash is real, but it is also honest. It says that celebration built on forgetfulness is empty, and that mourning cut off from hope is paralyzing. The calendar itself becomes a ritual, a choreography of the Jewish soul.
Time, Separation, and Sanctity
When time collapses or blurs, I find myself longing for boundaries. Not barriers, but passages that guide us. Judaism offers rituals of separation — like Havdalah at the end of Shabbat — as tools for transition. These rituals bless the space between sacred and ordinary.
This need for sanctity and distinction feels urgent in a time when so much has collapsed. Over the past year, we have seen people invent small rituals to push back against the blur. One I return to often is the Wings of Hope project.
In the summer of 2023, educator and mother Livnat Kutz invited children from her kibbutz, Kfar Aza, to help decorate a local bomb shelter. They gathered broken plastic toys, and — with creativity and vision — formed them into a pair of massive, colorful wings on the shelter wall.
It was a joyful, imaginative expression of freedom and hope. Then came October 7. Livnat, her husband Aviv, and their three children, Rotem, Yonatan, and Yiftach, were brutally murdered in their home. The family was gone — but the wings they built remained. Untouched. Unharmed.
Wings of Hope have been recreated around the world — as rituals of memory, healing, and longing for peace. At a recent M² seminar, educators wrote prayers on paper wings; in schools worldwide, children created “wings of blessing,” honoring lives and hostages. More than a memorial, Wings of Hope shows how Jewish time is marked through lived experience, and how our communities have embraced it as a powerful new ritual — one that expands tradition, sanctifies time, and gives deep emotions a form we can carry together.
Shaping Our Own Meaning Today
Jewish time is not only a record of what has happened. It is an imperative — an opportunity to participate, to shape the emotional and spiritual rhythms of the community. When the calendar feels out of sync, our challenge is not to surrender to the blur, but to to make each passage, however fragile, a place of meaning.
This year, as the Yamim return, let’s build them — out of memory, out of ritual, out of the full weight of what has been lost and what must still be hoped for. Because the calendar is not something that simply happens to us. It is something we are called, again and again, to create.
Shuki Taylor is the Founder & CEO of M2:The Institute for Experiential Jewish Education.
The post The Jewish Calendar: Sanctifying Time in a Fractured World first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Antisemitic Incidents at Argentina Local Soccer Match Spark Official Investigations, Condemnations
Fans of Argentinian soccer club All Boys marched through the streets before their match against Atlanta soccer club, carrying a coffin draped with an Israeli flag alongside Iranian and Palestinian flags. Photo: Screenshot
Argentinian authorities and soccer officials have launched investigations following antisemitic incidents by Club Atlético All Boys fans during Sunday’s local match against Atlanta.
Atlanta, a soccer team based in the Villa Crespo neighborhood of Buenos Aires, has deep historical ties to Argentina’s Jewish community, which has long been a significant presence in the area.
This latest antisemitic incident took place outside the stadium before the game had even started.
All Boys fans were seen waving Palestinian and Iranian flags, carrying a coffin draped with an Israeli flag, and handing out flyers bearing messages like “Free Palestine” and “Israel and Atlanta are the same crap.”
Before a football match today against the Argentine sports club Atlanta, which is closely associated with the Jewish community, fans of the opposing team, All Boys, waved Islamic Republic and Palestinian flags while parading a coffin draped in an Israeli flag through the streets.… pic.twitter.com/IQs4v6eoFz
— Hen Mazzig (@HenMazzig) June 29, 2025
Then, during the match — which ended in a 0-0 draw — a drone carrying a Palestinian flag flew over the stadium, while some fans reportedly chanted anti-Israel slogans.
Local police confirmed they have issued citations to individuals accused of inciting public disorder and related offenses.
On Monday, the Argentine Football Association (AFA) condemned the incidents as “abhorrent” and confirmed the organization has opened a formal inquiry into the events.
“This is not folklore. This is discrimination,” the statement reads.
Argentina’s Security Minister Patricia Bullrich also announced that a criminal complaint has been filed, citing “acts of violence, expressions of racial and religious hatred, and public intimidation.”
In a post on X, the Delegation of Argentine Israelite Associations (DAIA), the country’s Jewish umbrella organization, condemned the incidents and called on both local authorities and the soccer officials to “take firm action against these acts of hatred.”
“We urge the authorities to take all necessary actions and apply the full force of the law,” the statement reads. “Violence and discrimination must have no place in our society.”
Repudiamos enérgicamente las expresiones antisemitas ocurridas hoy en las inmediaciones del estadio Malvinas Argentinas.
Exigimos a las autoridades correspondientes, a la AFA y al Club All Boys que actúen con firmeza ante estos hechos de odio.
La violencia y la discriminación no… pic.twitter.com/3AmY7IQscY— DAIA (@DAIAArgentina) June 29, 2025
Since the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Argentina has experienced a surge in antisemitic incidents and anti-Jewish hate crimes.
According to a recent report by DAIA, Argentina experienced a 15 percent increase in antisemitic activity last year, with 687 anti-Jewish hate crimes recorded — up from 598 incidents in 2023 — marking a significant rise nationwide.
The study indicates that 66 percent of the antisemitic incidents originated in the digital realm, with a significant rise in Nazi symbols and conspiracy theories, but there was also a 34 percent increase in reported physical assaults, with such hate crimes rising in schools and neighborhoods.
The post Antisemitic Incidents at Argentina Local Soccer Match Spark Official Investigations, Condemnations first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Iranian nuclear program degraded by up to two years, Pentagon says
A satellite image of Iran’s Fordow nuclear facility. Photo: File.
The Pentagon said on Wednesday that US strikes 10 days ago had degraded Iran’s nuclear program by up to two years, suggesting the U.S. military operation likely achieved its goals despite a far more cautious initial assessment that leaked to the public.
Sean Parnell, a Pentagon spokesman, offered the figure at a briefing to reporters, adding that the official estimate was “probably closer to two years.” Parnell did not provide evidence to back up his assessment.
“We have degraded their program by one to two years, at least intel assessments inside the Department [of Defense] assess that,” Parnell told a news briefing.
U.S. military bombers carried out strikes against three Iranian nuclear facilities on June 22 using more than a dozen 30,000-pound bunker-buster bombs and more than two dozen Tomahawk land attack cruise missiles.
The evolving U.S. intelligence about the impact of the strikes is being closely watched, after President Donald Trump said almost immediately after they took place that Iran’s program had been obliterated, language echoed by Parnell at Wednesday’s briefing.
Such conclusions often take the U.S. intelligence community weeks or more to determine.
“All of the intelligence that we’ve seen [has] led us to believe that Iran’s — those facilities especially, have been completely obliterated,” Parnell said.
Over the weekend, the head of the UN nuclear watchdog, Rafael Grossi, said that Iran could be producing enriched uranium in a few months, raising doubts about how effective US strikes to destroy Tehran’s nuclear program have been.
Several experts have also cautioned that Iran likely moved a stockpile of near weapons-grade highly enriched uranium out of the deeply buried Fordow site before the strikes and could be hiding it.
But US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said last week he was unaware of intelligence suggesting Iran had moved its highly enriched uranium to shield it from US strikes.
A preliminary assessment last week from the Defense Intelligence Agency suggested that the strikes may have only set back Iran’s nuclear program by months. But Trump administration officials said that assessment was low confidence and had been overtaken by intelligence showing Iran’s nuclear program was severely damaged.
According to Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, the strikes on the Fordow nuclear site caused severe damage.
“No one exactly knows what has transpired in Fordow. That being said, what we know so far is that the facilities have been seriously and heavily damaged,” Araqchi said in the interview broadcast by CBS News on Tuesday.
The post Iranian nuclear program degraded by up to two years, Pentagon says first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Switzerland Moves to Close Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s Geneva Office Over Legal Irregularities
Palestinians carry aid supplies received from the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in the central Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed/File Photo
Switzerland has moved to shut down the Geneva office of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a US- and Israeli-backed aid group, citing legal irregularities in its establishment.
The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza in late May, implementing a new aid delivery model aimed at preventing the diversion of supplies by Hamas, as Israel continues its defensive military campaign against the Palestinian terrorist group.
The initiative has drawn criticism from the UN and international organizations, some of which have claimed that Jerusalem is causing starvation in the war-torn enclave.
Israel has vehemently denied such accusations, noting that, until its recently imposed blockade, it had provided significant humanitarian aid in the enclave throughout the war.
Israeli officials have also said much of the aid that flows into Gaza is stolen by Hamas, which uses it for terrorist operations and sells the rest at high prices to Gazan civilians.
With a subsidiary registered in Geneva, the GHF — headquartered in Delaware — reports having delivered over 56 million meals to Palestinians in just one month.
According to a regulatory announcement published Wednesday in the Swiss Official Gazette of Commerce, the Federal Supervisory Authority for Foundations (ESA) may order the dissolution of the GHF if no creditors come forward within the legal 30-day period.
The Trump administration did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the Swiss decision to shut down its Geneva office.
“The GHF confirmed to the ESA that it had never carried out activities in Switzerland … and that it intends to dissolve the Geneva-registered branch,” the ESA said in a statement.
Last week, Geneva authorities gave the GHF a 30-day deadline to address legal shortcomings or risk facing enforcement measures.
Under local laws and regulations, the foundation failed to meet several requirements: it did not appoint a board member authorized to sign documents domiciled in Switzerland, did not have the minimum three board members, lacked a Swiss bank account and valid address, and operated without an auditing body.
The GHF operates independently from UN-backed mechanisms, which Hamas has sought to reinstate, arguing that these vehicles are more neutral.
Israeli and American officials have rejected those calls, saying Hamas previously exploited UN-run systems to siphon aid for its war effort.
The UN has denied those allegations while expressing concerns that the GHF’s approach forces civilians to risk their safety by traveling long distances across active conflict zones to reach food distribution points.
The post Switzerland Moves to Close Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s Geneva Office Over Legal Irregularities first appeared on Algemeiner.com.