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How Rabbi Jonathan Sacks Can Light the Way Forward for Today’s Challenges
The late-Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom, Jonathan Sacks, who passed away in 2020. This photo was taken at a National Poverty Hearing in 2006 at Westminster, London. Photo: cooperniall/Flickr.
Last week, the Safra Center in New York City held an event commemorating the 20th anniversary edition of Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks’ A Letter in the Scroll, and his upcoming fourth yahrzeit. I sat down in the packed synagogue and looked up at a compilation video of Rabbi Sacks speaking at different events through the years.
I took one look at his face, and my whole body relaxed. For one brief moment, the tsunami of hate, lies, and violence that now fills our lives faded into the background.
His face represented everything that’s been missing: A rabbinical figure who is warm, wise, sacred — who fully represents G-d — and can help us put today’s ugly reality into a larger historical perspective.
The video that followed is perhaps his most cherished: “Why I am a Jew,” based on the final chapter of the book. At this point, there were very few dry eyes in the room.
A brief excerpt is below:
I am a Jew because, being a child of my people, I have heard the call to add my chapter to its unfinished story. I am a stage on its journey, a connecting link between the generations. The dreams and hopes of my ancestors live on in me, and I am the guardian of their trust, now and for the future.
The panelists that were chosen to discuss Rabbi Sacks’ timeless relevance were well up to the task: Natan Sharansky, who has been appointed the Chair of the Global Advisory Board of the Rabbi Sacks Legacy; Michal Cotler-Wunsh, Israel’s Special Envoy for Combating Antisemitism; Dan Senor, columnist, podcaster, and co-author of Start-Up Nation; and Rabbi David A. Ingber, the founding rabbi of Romemu, the largest Renewal synagogue in the United States.
“Rabbi Sacks was a moral lighthouse,” said Sharansky, who wrote the foreword for the new edition of the book. “And his light is needed more than ever in these dark times.”
Michal Cotler-Wunsh said that Rabbi Sacks predicted today’s collapse of morality in his last book, Morality, and told the audience, “the outrage of the world was at us for refusing to be slaughtered.” Before Oct. 7, “we were living through an anomaly in Jewish history.” This, she said “is the normal.”
But she also sees this as an “opportunity to strengthen our identity: we are a people. We have to lean into this next chapter.” She said that after Oct. 7, “140% of the people called up, showed up. As volunteers and reservists. And that is the most important notion of “Hineni, here I am, ready to heed Your call.”
“This is on us: We are deployed,” Cotler-Wunsh said. “We are one people with one past and one future. We have to fight.”
A couple of nights later, I went to a Shabbat event that can only be described as anti-sacred. Desperate to fit into today’s self-idolatry, it promoted an Instagrammed soullessness. I couldn’t imagine many of the people in attendance showing up “when challenge calls,” unless they could get a selfie out of it.
I tried to see the evening through the larger historical cycle that the panelists discussed: We got through idolatry; now we need to get through today’s self-idolatry. But how is that going to happen when so many of our nonprofits, with the promotion of “influencers” and the Instagram self-adulation bubble, have become part of the problem?
A few days before the Safra event my son, now 15, had exchanged unpleasant words with a rioter holding a “F— Israel” sign. It was not the first time he had stuck up for our people, but I think it was the first time he fully understood the role his generation, Gen Z, is meant to play.
“People do not become leaders because they are great. They become great because they are willing to serve as leaders,” Sacks wrote.
“What matters is the willingness, when challenge calls, to say, Hineni, ‘Here I am.’”
In 2016, I had dedicated my Passage to Israel book to him, using the quintessential Sacks quote below. I pray that more parents begin to understand — using Rabbi Sacks’ extraordinary texts — that the fight for our children’s future begins with their souls.
You are a member of an eternal people
A letter in their scroll.
Let their eternity live on in you.
Karen Lehrman Bloch is editor in chief of White Rose Magazine. A version of this article was originally published by The Jewish Journal.
The post How Rabbi Jonathan Sacks Can Light the Way Forward for Today’s Challenges first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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US Independent Director Jim Jarmusch Proves Surprise Venice Winner
Jim Jarmusch receives the Golden Lion for Best Film for “Father Mother Sister Brother” during the closing ceremony of the 82nd Venice International Film Festival, in Venice, Italy, September 6, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Yara Nardi
US indie director Jim Jarmusch unexpectedly won the coveted Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival on Saturday with “Father Mother Sister Brother,” a three-part meditation on the uneasy ties between parents and their adult children.
Although his gentle comedy received largely positive reviews, it had not been a favorite for the top prize, with many critics instead tipping “The Voice of Hind Rajab,” a harrowing true-life account of the killing of a five-year-old Palestinian girl during the Gaza war.
In the end, the film directed by Tunisia’s Kaouther Ben Hania took the runner-up Silver Lion.
Divided into chapters set in New Jersey, Dublin and Paris, “Father Mother Sister Brother” features an ensemble cast including Tom Waits, Adam Driver, Mayim Bialik, Charlotte Rampling, Cate Blanchett, Vicky Krieps, Indya Moore and Luka Sabbat.
Each installment drifts gently through domestic encounters where nothing much happens, but small gestures and silences sketch out the generational awkwardness that can beset families.
“All of us here who make films, we’re not motivated by competition. But this is something I truly appreciate, this unexpected honor,” said Jarmusch, who made his name in the 1980s with offbeat, low-budget works such as “Down by Law.”
In other categories, Italy’s Toni Servillo was named best actor for his wry portrayal of a weary president nearing the end of his mandate in “La Grazia,” directed by his long-time collaborator Paolo Sorrentino.
China’s Xin Zhilei won best actress for her role in “The Sun Rises On Us All,” a drama directed by Cai Shangjun that delves into questions of sacrifice, guilt and unresolved feelings between estranged lovers who share a dark secret.
The Venice festival marks the start of the awards season and regularly throws up big favorites for the Oscars, with films premiering here over the past four years collecting more than 90 Oscar nominations and winning almost 20.
GAZA TO THE FORE
Venice has often been seen as the most glamorous and least political of the major film festivals, but in 2025 the movies that made the strongest impact focused on current events, with the ongoing Israeli invasion of Gaza casting a long shadow.
As he unveiled his own picture last weekend, Jarmusch acknowledged that he was concerned that one of his main distributors had taken money from a company with ties to the Israeli military.
“The Voice of Hind Rajab,” which uses the real audio of a young girl’s desperate pleas for help as her car comes under Israeli gunfire, was the fan favorite, winning a record 24-minute standing ovation at its premiere.
“Cinema cannot bring Hind back, nor can it erase the atrocity committed against her. Nothing can ever restore what was taken, but cinema can preserve her voice, make it resonate across borders,” Ben Hania said on Saturday night.
“Her voice will continue to echo until accountability is real, until justice is served.”
The best director nod went to Benny Safdie for “The Smashing Machine,” which starred Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson in the role of the real-life mixed martial arts pioneer Mark Kerr.
“To be here amongst the giants of the past and the giants here this year, it just blows my mind,” said Safdie, who has previously co-directed films with his brother Josh.
The special jury award went to Italy’s Gianfranco Rosi for his black-and-white documentary “Below the Clouds,” about life in the chaotic southern city of Naples, marked by repeated earthquakes and the threat of volcanic eruptions.
Among the movies that left Venice empty-handed were a trio of Netflix pictures, Kathryn Bigelow’s nuclear thriller “A House of Dynamite,” Guillermo del Toro’s re-telling of “Frankenstein,” and Noah Baumbach’s comedy-drama “Jay Kelly.”
“No Other Choice” by South Korea’s Park Chan-wook also failed to secure an award, despite strong reviews, likewise “Bugonia” by Yorgos Lanthimos, which starred Emma Stone.
The main jury was chaired by US director Alexander Payne, joined by fellow filmmakers Stéphane Brizé, Maura Delpero, Cristian Mungiu and Mohammad Rasoulof, alongside actresses Fernanda Torres and Zhao Tao.
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Almost 900 People Were Arrested at London Palestine Action Protest, Police Say
Demonstrators attend the “Lift The Ban” rally organised by Defend Our Juries, challenging the British government’s proscription of “Palestine Action” under anti-terrorism laws, in Parliament Square, in London, Britain, September 6, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Jasso
British police said on Sunday they had arrested almost 900 people at a demonstration the previous day in support of Palestine Action, and the government appealed for people to stop demonstrating in support of the banned campaign group.
Britain proscribed Palestine Action under anti-terrorism legislation in July after some of its members broke into a Royal Air Force base and damaged military planes.
That followed vandalism and incidents targeting defense firms in Britain with links to Israel. The group accuses Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government of complicity in what it says are Israeli war crimes in Gaza.
Hundreds of Palestine Action supporters have since been arrested at demonstrations, many of them over the age of 60. London police said 890 had been held following a protest near parliament in central London on Saturday, the highest number of detentions from a single such protest to date.
Of those, 857 were detained for showing support for a banned group, while 17 were arrested for assaults on officers after police said the protest turned violent.
“The violence we encountered during the operation was coordinated and carried out by a group of people … intent on creating as much disorder as possible,” said Deputy Assistant Commissioner Claire Smart.
The protest organizers, a group called Defend Our Juries, said that among those arrested were priests, war veterans and healthcare workers, and that they included many elderly and some disabled.
“These mass acts of defiance will continue until the ban is lifted,” a spokesperson said.
Palestine Action’s proscription puts the group alongside al Qaeda and Islamic State, making it a crime to support or belong to the organization, punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
Human rights groups have criticized the ban as disproportionate and say it limits the freedom of expression of peaceful protesters.
Defense minister John Healey said the firm action was needed to counter accusations by right-wing critics of “a two-tier policing and justice system.”
“Almost everyone shares the agony when we see the images from Gaza … and for people who want to voice their concern and protest, I applaud them,” he told Sky News. “But that does not require them to link it to support for Palestine Action, a proscribed group.”
Many of those arrested in recent weeks are released on police bail, and it was unclear how many were still in detention.
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Witkoff Reportedly Conveys Principals for Ceasefire Proposal to Hamas
US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, Washington, DC, Jan. 20, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Barria
i24 News – United States (US) Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff conveyed a message to Hamas behind the scenes regarding the conditions for negotiations — involving freeing the 48 remaining hostages in exchange for ending the war — Israeli media reported Sunday morning.
Witkoff’s message was relayed to Hamas through Israeli activist Gershon Baskin, who had also helped broker messages in the 2011 Gilad Shalit negotiations, a source told Israeli reporter Barak Ravid. He delivered the message through senior Hamas official Ghazi Hamad.
The proposal included several general principles in addition to the release of all the hostages in exchange for ending the war, Ravid reported.
i24NEWS correspondent Guy Azriel reported that Israel is not responding to reports of the document of principles, saying, “This is a matter of correspondence between the Americans and Hamas.” The only message from Jerusalem at this stage remains, “We are adhering to the five conditions that the cabinet voted on to end the war.”
Meanwhile, Hamas released a statement Saturday evening expressing their readiness for a ceasefire agreement, saying, “We renew our commitment and adherence to the agreement we announced together with the Palestinian factions regarding the mediators’ proposal for a ceasefire on August 18.”
The annnouncment included their willingness to agree to a ceasefire under conditions including the withdrawl of Israeli forces and release of the hostages, but did not meet Israel’s conditions for ending the war which include the full disarmament of Hamas, demilitarization of the Strip, and Israeli security control over Gaza.
“We emphasize our openness to any ideas or proposals that would achieve a permanent ceasefire, a complete withdrawal of the occupation forces from the Gaza Strip, the unconditional entry of aid, and genuine prisoner exchanges through serious negotiations mediated by intermediaries,” Hamas added.