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Three Teachings for a Time of Rebuilding in a Time of War
The Israeli flag at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. Photo: Hynek Moravec via Wikimedia Commons.
Each summer, Jerusalem fills with the sounds of the Torah — teenagers on travel programs, college students in immersive fellowships, and adults in seminar rooms. The city becomes a meeting place for Jews from around the world who come to study, reflect, and reconnect. Israeli educators travel abroad to camps, campuses, and communities — bringing with them a spirit of learning and encounter.
This year, that rhythm has fallen quiet.
The war with Iran has changed the summer entirely. There are the loud and obvious consequences of the war; for those in Israel, families shelter in safe rooms and people are killed and injured among the destruction of buildings. In the US, fractures in communities become deeper or in some cases become temporarily mended while record antisemitism continues to build.
A quieter consequence is the loss of shared learning — of people encountering one another through Torah and then taking these lessons, encounters, and values back to their communities. Living in Jerusalem, I feel this absence deeply. I miss seeing groups walking to class, overhearing debates over texts, or passing a café and hearing the sound of someone studying aloud. These should be the sounds of Jewish life in motion.
The loss of this learning is more than a missed summer of knowledge or an insight forever lost; the silence is reminiscent of similar absences of Torah study in previous generations amid war, infighting and disagreement of the time. This isn’t the first time the Jewish people globally are fractured by religious, political, and ideological differences. We are in a time that requires rebuilding.
Early Teachings Offer a Blueprint
Just before Shavuot, my family gathered for a weekend together. My father, a rabbi and my teacher, led a short learning session. He spoke about how Torah has been carried through generations — and paused to reflect on a particular moment in Jewish history.
During the early years of the return from the Babylonian exile, known as Shivat Tzion, Ezra and a group of leaders known as the Men of the Great Assembly helped lay the groundwork for rebuilding Jewish life. One of their earliest recorded teachings appears in the opening mishnah of Pirkei Avot:
Be deliberate in judgment. Raise many students. Make a fence around the Torah.
This line seems somewhat legalistic and procedural, but over time — and especially now — I’ve come to understand how essential this early teaching really is.
A Time of Transition
The historical context matters. The Men of the Great Assembly lived in a time of dislocation and uncertainty. The First Temple had been destroyed, and the majority of Jews in Israel were exiled. Some Jews returned to the land; others stayed behind. Those who returned met people who had never left — and the gaps between them were real. There were cultural differences, political divisions, and religious disagreements. Prophecy was nearing its end. The Temple had not yet been rebuilt. The people were no longer united by place or power, but by the fragile work of reconnection.
That sense of in-between defines our current moment as well. The war with Iran is still unfolding and represents another front in a broader war that has shaken the Jewish world for months. But long before the current crisis, our communities were experiencing division — over politics, identity, values, and the role of Israel in Jewish life. This war did not create the fractures, but it has revealed how deep and unresolved they are.
These three teachings from the Men of the Great Assembly are practical, intentional responses to instability — then and now.
Deliberate in Judgment: Slowing Down to Rebuild Trust
The instruction to “be deliberate in judgment” was not just for legal courts. It was a principle of leadership. At the time of the Men of the Great Assembly, the Jewish people were emerging from exile, returning to a broken land and a divided society. The stakes were high and trust was fragile.
In moments like these, leadership requires restraint. Judgment — by scholars, elders, teachers, and community leaders — had to be thoughtful, measured, and careful. It demanded the ability to listen fully before speaking, to weigh perspectives before drawing lines, and to resist the pressure to respond quickly.
That need is just as urgent now. We live in a time when relationships have been strained, communities have been tested, and public trust is eroding. In the wake of this crisis — amid fear, anger, and uncertainty — there is real risk in responding too fast. Being deliberate is a form of responsibility. It is what allows judgment to be a source of healing rather than division. And it is what will allow us to lead wisely as we begin the long work of rebuilding what has been damaged — within us, and between us.
Raise Many Students: A Strategy for Ensuring a Future
The second teaching — “Raise many students” — was a bold shift in educational vision. As an antidote to the internal and external threats they were facing, the Men of the Great Assembly chose to expand access to Torah. They built a culture in which learning became widely available, and in doing so, they shaped a future in which Torah could take root across all layers of society.
This was not simply about numbers. It was a commitment to reach more people with meaningful teaching. Opening the gates of Torah meant training more teachers, welcoming more students, and placing education at the heart of communal life. That decision turned Torah into a shared inheritance rather than a guarded tradition.
Today, that same commitment is essential. In the midst of war, and after years of disconnection and division, Jewish life must prioritize learning as an antidote. We need more spaces of Torah. More voices of Torah. More people who see themselves as learners, guides, and transmitters. Not only within institutions, but in everyday life — wherever people gather with intention. We could all benefit from an openness to expanding our own definition of “teacher” and “student.”
A thriving Jewish future requires more teaching. And teaching requires students—many of them.
Make a Fence Around the Torah: Protecting What Guides Us
The third instruction—“Make a fence around the Torah”—was given during a time of instability. The Jewish people had returned from exile to a fractured land, a destroyed Temple, and a fragile sense of identity. The Men of the Great Assembly recognized that rebuilding physical structures wasn’t enough. They needed to reinforce the spiritual foundations that would carry the community forward.
They created boundaries to help ensure that Torah would remain central, serious, and protected. A fence is not a barrier to keep people out—it is a signal that something sacred stands within. It invites care, focus, and commitment.
We are again living in a moment of rupture. The war, and the months of pain that preceded it, have unsettled Jewish life across the world. In times like this, we need Torah to be more than symbolic. It needs to be a source of direction, strength, and clarity.
That means creating spaces where Torah is held with intention. Where learning is real and tradition is carried with depth. This is how we begin to restore what has been frayed—by returning to what holds us steady.
The Blueprint for Rebuilding
These three teachings — deliberation, education, and preservation — form a remarkably durable framework. They offer direction for how to emerge from years of loss, argument, and exhaustion. When the future is unclear, we begin by grounding ourselves in what has always sustained us. We think carefully. We teach generously. We protect what matters.
There’s a verse in Proverbs: “Wisdom cries out in the street; in the public squares she raises her voice.” And the midrash explains: these are the voices of learners and teachers, filling synagogues and study halls with the sound of Torah.
May we walk again through the streets of Jerusalem and hear that sound — of students gathered, teachers guiding, Torah being shared — and may it represent the healing and rebuilding of our global Jewish community.
Shuki is the founder and CEO of M²: The Institute for Experiential Jewish Education. Previously, Shuki served as director of Service Learning and Experiential Education at Yeshiva University, where he founded the Certificate Program in Experiential Jewish Education and a range of programs mobilizing college students to serve underprivileged communities worldwide. Shuki has lived in Israel, New York, and South Africa. A Schusterman Fellow, Shuki studied Jewish philosophy, education, and scriptwriting and currently lives in Jerusalem with his wife and their four children.
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ADL Research: 24% of Americans Believe Recent Violence Against Jews Is ‘Understandable’
Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim who were shot and killed as they left an event at the Capital Jewish Museum, pose for a picture at an unknown location, in this handout image released by Embassy of Israel to the US on May 22, 2025. Photo: Embassy of Israel to the USA via X/Handout via REUTERS
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) released a report on Friday revealing American attitudes about antisemitic violence following the targeted attacks earlier this year against Jews in Boulder, Colo., Harrisburg, Pa., and Washington, D.C. The watchdog group found a sizable minority (24 percent) found the attacks “understandable” while 13 percent regarded them as “justified.”
The ADL surveyed a representative sample of 1000 Americans on Thursday, ensuring the group matched accurate proportions of the country’s demography. The findings showed disparate views across age groups and partisan affiliations while also a clear, majority consensus on many questions.
The survey showed that 87 percent of respondents believed the three recent antisemitic attacks to be unjustifiable while 85 percent called them morally wrong and 77 percent assessed them as antisemitic. Eighty-six percent regarded the violence against Jews as hate crimes. However, nearly a quarter of respondents said the attacks were “understandable.”
More Republicans (15 percent) than Democrats (11 percent) regarded the attacks as justified, while more Republicans (79 percent) than Democrats (77 percent) saw the attacks as antisemitic. Partisan differences also manifested in support for increased government action against antisemitism with 74 percent of Republicans in favor compared to 81 percent of Democrats.
In presenting their research findings, the ADL emphasized the broad agreement in American opposition to antisemitic violence and conspiracist tropes before noting the presence of a distinct minority of “millions of people who excuse or endorse violence against Jews—an alarming sign of how anti-Jewish narratives are spreading.” For example, 67 percent of Democrats and 58 percent of Republicans agree that antisemitism is a serious problem.
Smaller numbers among the Democrats (25 percent) and Republicans (23 percent) will acknowledge antisemitism as a concern in their own party. The ADL poll suggests the legitimacy of such suspicions, finding that “28 percent of Republicans and 30 percent of Democrats agreed with tropes such as Jews have too much influence in politics and media.”
Partisan affiliations correlated with where respondents saw the most significant antisemitic threats. Republicans expressed a 3.6 times greater likelihood of worries about left-wing antisemitism compared to Democrats who were 4.4 times as likely to focus on right-wing antisemitism.
The pollsters found that attitudes toward the severity of the antisemitic threat differed according to age.
While 80 percent of silent generation respondents saw antisemitism as a serious problem, that number fell to 65 percent for baby boomers and members of Generation X. The rates dropped again for millennials (52 percent) and Gen-Zers (55 percent).
Perceptions of antisemitism in local communities also differed by generation. While 19 percent of Americans overall report having witnessed antisemitism in their communities, that figure jumps to 33 percent for Gen-Zers and 20 percent for millennials. Among the boomers it drops to 10 percent and for Silent Generation respondents it reaches 17 percent.
Large numbers saw the threat of popular protest slogans “globalize the intifada” and “from the river to the sea” with 68 percent seeing the phrases as potentially fueling violence, a view held even among 54 percent of those who favor protests against Israel.
Researchers also observed a correlation between Israel support and perceiving the seriousness of antisemitism in America. While 74 percent of those favorable to Israel saw domestic antisemitism as significant, only 57 percent of those with negative views of the Jewish state agreed.
Nearly a quarter of those polled—24 percent—expressed the conspiratorial view that some group had staged the attacks to provoke sympathy for Israel. A second report also released by the ADL on Friday showed the rise in discussions of “false flag” attacks on the Reddit website in response to the antisemitic violence.
The ADL warned that “these beliefs are especially dangerous because they justify holding Jewish Americans responsible for the actions of the State of Israel, effectively viewing them as collectively responsible for international politics—making them greater targets.”
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Sen. Bernie Sanders Calls on Democrats to Stop Accepting Money From AIPAC
US Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) speaks to the media following a meeting with US President Joe Biden at the White House in Washington, US, July 17, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), took to X/Twitter on Monday to call on all Democrats to stop accepting political donations from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the influential pro‑Israel lobbying entity.
In his tweet, Sanders wrote that AIPAC has aided Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in waging an “illegal and immoral war being waged against the Palestinian people.” Sanders continued, claiming that “NO Democrat should accept money from AIPAC” while asserting that the organization helped “deliver the presidency to Donald Trump.”
Sanders’s post came in response to comments by former Obama administration foreign policy advisor Ben Rhodes, in which Rhodes urged Democrats to reject all future donations from AIPAC. Rhodes argued that AIPAC has influenced Democrats to take immoral stances on the Israel-Palestine conflict.
“AIPAC is part of the constellation of forces that has delivered this country into the hands of Donald Trump and Stephen Miller, and you cannot give them a carve out,” Rhodes said on an episode of the podcast Pod Save the World. “We need to have this fight as a party, because these are the wrong people to have under your tent.”
Tommy Vietor, another former Obama administration official and podcast co-host, agreed, accusing AIPAC of “funneling money to front organizations that primary progressive Democrats.”
AIPAC, the foremost pro-Israel lobbying firm in the US, has historically backed pro-Israel candidates from both parties. The organization does not specifically lobby against progressive candidates. AIPAC has aided the campaigns of pro-Israel progressives such as Ritchie Torres.
Sanders has long held an acrimonious relationship with AIPAC. In November 2023, he repudiated the group for supposedly having”supported dozens of GOP extremists who are undermining our democracy,” and urged his fellow Democrats to stand together in the fight for a world of peace, economic and social justice and climate sanity.”
Rhodes, a former deputy national security adviser under President Obama, has emerged as a vocal critic of Israeli policy, particularly under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. His skepticism is rooted in years of diplomatic frustration during the Obama administration, especially surrounding failed peace negotiations and Israel’s settlement expansions in the West Bank. Rhodes has often framed Israel’s hardline stance as a major obstacle to a two-state solution, and he has been critical of what he sees as unconditional U.S. support that enables right-wing Israeli policies. His stance reflects a broader shift among some American progressives who advocate for a more balanced U.S. approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Sanders has long been a staunch critic of the Jewish state. Sanders has repeatedly accused Israel of committing “collective punishment” and “apartheid” against the Palestinian people. Although the senator initially condemned the Oct. 7 slaughters of roughly 1200 people throughout southern Israel by Hamas, he subsequently pushed for a “ceasefire” between the Jewish state and the terrorist group. Sanders also spearheaded an unsuccessful campaign to implement a partial arms embargo on Israel in 2024.
In the 20 months following the Hamas-led attacks on Israel, relations between the Democratic party and the Jewish state have deteriorated. Democratic lawmakers have grown more vocally critical of Israel’s military conduct in Gaza, sometimes arguing that the Jewish state has recklessly endangered lives of Palestinian civilians. Moreover, polls indicate that Democratic voters have largely turned against Israel, intensifying pressure on liberal lawmakers to shift their tone regarding the war in Gaza.
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Iranian National Charged in Plot to Subvert US Sanctions Against Islamic Republic
Iranians participating in a memorial ceremony for IRGC commanders and nuclear scientists in downtown Tehran, Iran, on July 2, 2025. Photo: Morteza Nikoubazl via Reuters Connect.
Federal law enforcement officials have arrested an Iranian national after uncovering his alleged conspiracy to export US technology to Tehran in violation of a slew of economic sanctions imposed on the Islamic Republic, the US Department of Justice announced on Friday.
For May 2018 to July 2025, Bahram Mohammad Ostovari, 66, allegedly amassed “railway signaling and telecommunications systems” for transport to the Iranian government by using “two front companies” located in the United Arab Emirates. After filing fake orders for them with US vendors at Ostovari’s direction, the companies shipped the materials — which included “sophisticated computer processors” — to Tehran, having duped the US businesses into believing that they “were the end users.”
The Justice Department continued, “After he became a lawful permanent resident of the United States in May 2020, Ostovari continued to export, sell, and supply electronics and electrical components to [his company] in Iran,” noting that the technology became components of infrastructure projects commissioned by the Islamic Republic.
Ostovari has been charged with four criminal counts for allegedly violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and the Iranian Transactions and Sanctions Regulations (ITSR), under which conducting business with Iran is proscribed due to the country’s human rights abuses, material support for terrorism, and efforts to build a larger-scale nuclear program in violation of international non-proliferation obligations. Each count carries a 20-year maximum sentence in federal prison.
Ostovari is one of several Iranian nationals to become the subject of criminal proceedings involving crimes against the US this year.
In April, a resident of Great Falls, Virginia — Abouzar Rahmati, 42 — pleaded guilty to collecting intelligence on US infrastructure and providing it to the Islamic Republic of Iran.
“From at least December 2017 through June 2024, Rahmati worked with Iranian government officials and intelligence operatives to act on their behalf in the United States, including by meeting with Iranian intelligence officers and government officials using a cover story to hide his conduct,” the Justice Department said at the time, noting that Rahmati even infiltrated a contractor for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that possesses “sensitive non-public information about the US aviation sector.”
Throughout the duration of his cover, Rahmati amassed “open-source and non-public materials about the US solar energy industry,” which he delivered to “Iranian intelligence officers.”
The government found that the operation began in August 2017, after Rahmati “offered his services” to a high-ranking Iranian government official who had once been employed by the country’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security, according to the Justice Department. Months later, he traveled to Iran, where Iranian agents assigned to him the espionage activity to which he pleaded guilty to perpetrating.
“Rahmati sent additional material relating to solar energy, solar panels, the FAA, US airports, and US air traffic control towers to his brother, who lived in Iran, so that he would provide those files to Iranian intelligence on Rahmati’s behalf,” the Justice Department continued. Rahmati also, it said, delivered 172 gigabytes worth of information related to the National Aerospace System (NAS) — which monitors US airspace, ensuring its safety for aircraft — and NAS Airport Surveillance to Iran during a trip he took there.
Rahmati faces up to 10 years in prison. He will be sentenced in August.
In November, three Iranian intelligence assets were charged with contriving a conspiracy to assassinate critics of the Islamic Republic of Iran, as well as then US President-elect Donald Trump.
According to the Justice Department, Farhad Shakeri, 51; Carlisle Rivera, 49; and Jonathan Loadholt, 36, acted at the direction of and with help from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), an internationally designated terrorist organization, to plot to murder a US citizen of Iranian origin in New York. Shakeri, who remains at large and is believed to reside in Iran, was allegedly the principal agent who managed the two other men, both residents of New York City who appeared in court.
Their broader purpose, prosecutors said, was to target nationals of the United States and its allies for attacks, including “assaults, kidnapping, and murder, both to repress and silence critical dissidents” and to exact revenge for the 2020 killing of then-IRGC Quds Force chief Qasem Soleimani in a US drone strike in Iraq. Trump was president of the US at the time of the operation.
All three men are now charged with murder-for-hire, conspiracy, and money laundering. Shakeri faces additional charges, including violating sanctions against Iran, providing support to a terrorist organization, and conspiring to violate the International Emergency Powers Act, offenses for which he could serve up to six decades in federal prison.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
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