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Giving Back to Our Jewish Community and Israel in the New Year and Beyond
Israeli soldiers drape their country’s flag over an IDF tank near the border with Gaza after the October 7 Hamas massacre. Photo: Reuters/Ronen Zvulun
JNS.org – Rabbi Hillel said: “If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?”
If I am not for myself, who will be for me?
Aug. 3, 1990. I was 27 years old and in Jerusalem, about to enter a year of study at a yeshivah. Iraq leader Saddam Hussein had just invaded Kuwait. My parents called me frantic, telling me that a major war was impending. They implored me to leave the country immediately. The fact that my mother is a Holocaust survivor added poignancy to their plea. I was their youngest, whom they had doted on my entire life.
I was torn. I wanted to stay with my people. However, there was a lifetime of warnings from my mother: When the calamity comes, be ready to run to safety. In the end, those warnings and my fealty to my parents won out. I took the first flight I could find out of Israel, which eventually landed me in England. It was there, through some twists and turns of fate, that I met the woman who was to become my wife.
If I am only for myself, what am I?
Oct. 8, 2023. It is 34 years and four children later. Our youngest, a daughter, is 18 and in Israel for a year’s study at a seminary. My wife and I scramble to the phone right after the Simchat Torah to inquire about her well-being. The news of the 1,200 killed in Israel is starting to come into our awareness.
My wife and I are worried, but our daughter knows what she wants to do. Only four girls in her seminary are preparing to go home. She wants to stay. My wife and I, both children of Holocaust survivors, are faced with a choice.
It is one that many Jews have faced over the past year. In its most basic form, it is a choice between fear and love. Fear impels us to flee. Love invites us to approach. This impulse to approach was demonstrated in the outstanding numbers of Israel Defense Forces soldiers and reservists who poured into the country, ready to defend it in the aftermath of Oct. 7.
This approach was also demonstrated by the many Jews who traveled to Israel to pick fruit on kibbutzim, pack food for soldiers, and visit the wounded and traumatized individuals. My wife and I became involved in these efforts when we traveled to Israel in January. We sanitized commodes at a medical center, scrubbed potatoes, packaged food at a food bank and met with a relative who had lost her son—a professor and advocate for Palestinian-Israeli dialogue and peace—on Oct. 7.
While in Israel, my wife and I lent our ears and our hearts to a Russian Jewish convert with whom we were staying as she described her daily fears for her three children who were serving in the IDF. She spoke with a note of defiance in her voice, saying that Israel needed more than American money. Israel needed us to come, live there and stand by our people. It was a challenge that certainly gave us a lot to think about. I did tell her that I may not have come to live in Israel, but my heart has been very much there, and I have cried many times in my prayers for Israel during the prior months. Of all the things that we did when we were in Israel, perhaps one of the most beautiful was when this woman—a hardworking nurse who lived alone—said she had an aching back, and my wife lovingly gave her a back massage, literally bringing a caring hand to where it was needed.
I suppose you can guess by now the choice we made regarding our daughter. We supported her desire to stay. We chose love over fear. That is tremendously much easier to say than it was to do. Nonetheless, our daughter, my wife and I, and all the Jewish people are greater for that choice made over the past year.
Even though my mother, now 94, experienced considerable fear for my daughter, my wife and me being in Israel, I believe that she is also proud of the decisions we made.
And if not now, when?
Now, the Jewish New Year is upon us. It’s a time of reflection and soul-searching. Have we grown through these experiences? And can we hold on to the better version of ourselves that we have become?
The same drama of love versus fear and approach versus self-protection presents itself. As we head into 5785, we need to realize that reaching out to our Jewish brothers and sisters is not just about missions to Israel. We must also reach out to our Jewish neighbors, congregants, spouses, parents and children, who need us now more than ever.
A Jew does not just care about all of his people; he cares about each of his people and does what he can to lend a helping hand. That is just what family does.
And, if not now, when?
The post Giving Back to Our Jewish Community and Israel in the New Year and Beyond first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.