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What It Means to Bring a Jewish Child Into the World Today
A Birthright Israel trip. Photo: Facebook
I am 29.5 weeks pregnant with my fourth child, and I increasingly wonder if I am making a mistake.
Not because I don’t desperately want this child. I do. With every fiber of my being. Not a day has gone by over the last seven months in which I haven’t felt grateful to be carrying this child, despite the pain and agony of a pregnancy that forces me into a wheelchair because of pain walking and standing, a pregnancy which has me made me sick non stop; a pregnancy which keeps me up throughout the night. I know I can handle all of that.
What makes me doubt whether I am doing the right thing in bringing another Jewish life into the world right now is the fact that two beautiful young Jews, Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, can get shot by a cold blooded murderer in the name of “social justice” as they left a panel discussion aimed at finding solutions to get more humanitarian aid into Gaza. And the world says almost nothing.
Where is the outrage? Where are our non-Jewish friends and allies? The same questions we’ve asked every single day since Oct. 7, 2023.
The free world has either buried its head in the sand and turned a blind eye to the rising tides of radicalization and antisemitism — or worse, justified it because of the same pernicious lies touted by “reputable” organizations and institutions like the United Nations, and the International Criminal Court, not to mention the mainstream media, the British Parliament, and members of our own Congress. The false accusations of genocide and apartheid take their toll, eroding the world’s ability to care about the murder of innocent, Zionist Jews.
In 2025, after all, Zionist or even Israeli, has become a radioactive label — something people want to stay far away from. One only need to walk through a college campus today to see the workings of that hate machine, which pedals “social justice” and “free speech” as the justification for vile slogans just the same as the ones uttered by the murderer of Yaron and Sarah, like “Free Free Palestine” and “From the River to the Sea, Palestine Will be Free,” and “resistance by any means necessary.”
It would be better if the world was shocked and outraged when those violent and threatening slogans actually lead to violence — and yet, more than anything, the resounding response is… silence.
I desperately find myself scrolling through my social media, looking for some affirmation, some validation, that my Jewish children’s lives matter outside of my Jewish world. But the outside world seems to be mostly ignorant to the news out of D.C., and despite many Jewish friends’ pleas — “check in on your Jewish friends” today” — a total of zero of my non-Jewish friends actually do reach out.
It’s not that I think my non-Jewish friends don’t care. I know they do. But whether because the news of these beautiful souls’ death hasn’t registered across their feeds, or because they don’t want to get “political” — after all, these young bright souls, on the verge of engagement, worked at the Israeli embassy, so there is that “radioactive” bit again — it’s easier for them to stay silent.
What they fail to realize, what we have been screaming out time and again for the last 18 months, is the age old truism that what starts with the Jews, never ends with the Jews. We are but the canary in the coal-mine, the weathervane for the ailments of our failing, faltering society.
If nothing else, at least the gloomy weather feels in sync with the mood, I thought to myself, as I numbly went through my day. Some small measure of external validation.
“I don’t think I can wear a kippah anymore,” my husband says, for the first time, as he walks in through the door last night. This is my husband, the grandson of Holocaust survivors, who refused to take off his kippah, the physical representation of his Jewish identity, even after his father was beaten to a pulp on the streets of New York City just because he was wearing a kippah. My husband, who refused to take off his kippah after October 7, when he had to walk through hateful masked hooligans blocking foot-traffic outside of John Jay College of Criminal Justice, ah the irony.
But in some ways, last week feels like a turning point. A sickening dawning realization, that nowhere feels safe for Jews anymore. That my husband and I — who years ago was on ACCESS, the same young leadership board of the AJC that Sarah was involved with, the organization that hosted the event at the museum — could easily have been attending that very event or one like it … that Yaron and Sarah could have been us.
And that is why a part of me cannot help but wonder if I am making a mistake. The lonely echo chamber of justifying our existence has gotten lonelier with every passing day. And yet … the greater part of my being, the inexplicable “link in the chain” part of my soul, knows that the only answer as Jews that we have ever or will ever know in the face of the ongoing cycle of attempted genocides towards our people, is to bring more Jewish life into this dark and morally upside down world.
Because even in the darkest times of our history, we have chosen to imagine the light we cannot see, to find the crevices of hope in the greatest depths of despair, to provide for ourselves the answers and the validation that we aren’t getting from the outside world — that if you prick us, we do in fact bleed.
Daniella Kahane is a Peabody Award winning producer, writer, and the Co-Founder and CEO of WIN (Women in Negotiation), as well as the Co-Founder of Atoof, an original luxury artisanal Judaica collection.
The post What It Means to Bring a Jewish Child Into the World Today first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Security Warning to Israelis Vacationing Abroad Ahead of holidays
A passenger arrives to a terminal at Ben Gurion international airport before Israel bans international flights, January 25, 2021. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
i24 News – Ahead of the Jewish High Holidays, Israel’s National Security Council (NSC) published the latest threat assessment to Israelis abroad from terrorist groups to the public on Sunday, in order to increase the Israeli public’s awareness of the existing terrorist threats around the world and encourage individuals to take preventive action accordingly.
The NSC specified that the warning is an up-to-date reflection of the main trends in the activities of terrorist groups around the world and their impact on the level of threat posed to Israelis abroad during these times, but the travel warnings and restrictions themselves are not new.
“As the Gaza war continues and in parallel with the increasing threat of terrorism, the National Security Headquarters stated it has recognized a trend of worsening and increasing violent antisemitic incidents and escalating steps by anti-Israel groups, to the point of physically harming Israelis and Jews abroad. This is in light of, among other things, the anti-Israel narrative and the negative media campaign by pro-Palestinian elements — a trend that may encourage and motivate extremist elements to carry out terrorist activities against Israelis or Jews abroad,” the statement read.
“Therefore, the National Security Bureau is reinforcing its recommendation to the Israeli public to act with responsibility during this time when traveling abroad, to check the status of the National Security Bureau’s travel warnings (before purchasing tickets to the destination,) and to act in accordance with the travel warning recommendations and the level of risk in the country they are visiting,” it listed, adding that, as illustrated in the past year, these warnings are well-founded and reflect a tangible and valid threat potential.
The statement also emphasized the risk of sharing content on social media networks indicating current or past service in the Israeli security forces, as these posts increase the risk of being marked by various parties as a target. “Therefore, the National Security Council recommends that you do not upload to social networks, in any way, content that indicates service in the security forces, operational activity, or similar content, as well as real-time locations.”
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Israel Intensifies Gaza City Bombing as Rubio Arrives
Displaced Palestinians, fleeing northern Gaza due to an Israeli military operation, move southward after Israeli forces ordered residents of Gaza City to evacuate to the south, in the central Gaza Strip September 14, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Israeli forces destroyed at least 30 residential buildings in Gaza City and forced thousands of people from their homes, Palestinian officials said, as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived on Sunday to discuss the future of the conflict.
Israel has said it plans to seize the city, where about a million Palestinians have been sheltering, as part of its declared aim of eliminating the terrorist group Hamas, and has intensified attacks on what it has called Hamas’ last bastion.
The group’s political leadership, which has engaged in on-and-off negotiations on a possible ceasefire and hostage release deal, was targeted by Israel in an airstrike in Doha on Tuesday in an attack that drew widespread condemnation.
Qatar will host an emergency Arab-Islamic summit on Monday to discuss the next moves. Rubio said Washington wanted to talk about how to free the 48 hostages – of whom 20 are believed to be still alive – still held by Hamas in Gaza and rebuild the coastal strip.
“What’s happened, has happened,” he said. “We’re gonna meet with them (the Israeli leadership). We’re gonna talk about what the future holds,” Rubio said before heading to Israel where he will stay until Tuesday.
ABRAHAM ACCORDS AT RISK
He was expected to visit the Western Wall Jewish prayer site in Jerusalem on Sunday with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and hold talks with him during the visit.
US officials described Tuesday’s strike on the territory of a close US ally as a unilateral escalation that did not serve American or Israeli interests. Rubio and US President Donald Trump both met Qatar’s Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani on Friday.
Netanyahu signed an agreement on Thursday to push ahead with a settlement expansion plan that would cut across West Bank land that the Palestinians seek for a state – a move the United Arab Emirates warned would undermine the US-brokered Abraham accords that normalized UAE relations with Israel.
Israel, which blocked all food from entering Gaza for 11 weeks earlier this year, has been allowing more aid into the enclave since late July to prevent further food shortages, though the United Nations says far more is needed.
It says it wants civilians to leave Gaza City before it sends more ground forces in. Tens of thousands of people are estimated to have left but hundreds of thousands remain in the area. Hamas has called on people not to leave.
Israeli army forces have been operating inside at least four eastern suburbs for weeks, turning most of at least three of them into wastelands. It is closing in on the center and the western areas of the territory, where most of the displaced people are taking shelter.
Many are reluctant to leave, saying there is not enough space or safety in the south, where Israel has told them to go to what it has designated as a humanitarian zone.
Some say they cannot afford to leave while others say they were hoping the Arab leaders meeting on Monday in Qatar would pressure Israel to scrap its planned offensive.
“The bombardment intensified everywhere and we took down the tents, more than twenty families, we do not know where to go,” said Musbah Al-Kafarna, displaced in Gaza City.
Israel said it had completed five waves of air strikes on Gaza City over the past week, targeting more than 500 sites, including Hamas reconnaissance and sniper sites, buildings containing tunnel openings and weapons depots.
Local officials, who do not distinguish between militant and civilian casualties, say at least 40 people were killed by Israeli fire across the enclave, a least 28 in Gaza City alone.
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Turkey Warns of Escalation as Israel Expands Strikes Beyond Gaza
Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a press conference with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis (not seen) at the Presidential Palace in Ankara, Turkey, May 13, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Umit Bektas
i24 News – An Israeli strike targeting Hamas officials in Qatar has sparked unease among several Middle Eastern countries that host leaders of the group, with Turkey among the most alarmed.
Officials in Ankara are increasingly worried about how far Israel might go in pursuing those it holds responsible for the October 7 attacks.
Israel’s prime minister effectively acknowledged that the Qatar operation failed to eliminate the Hamas leadership, while stressing the broader point the strike was meant to make: “They enjoy no immunity,” the government said.
On X, Prime Minister Netanyahu went further, writing that “the elimination of Hamas leaders would put an end to the war.”
A senior Turkish official, speaking on condition of anonymity, summed up Ankara’s reaction: “The attack in Qatar showed that the Israeli government is ready to do anything.”
Legally and diplomatically, Turkey occupies a delicate position. As a NATO member, any military operation or targeted killing on its soil could inflame tensions within the alliance and challenge mutual security commitments.
Analysts caution, however, that Israel could opt for covert measures, operations carried out without public acknowledgement, a prospect that has increased anxiety in governments across the region.
Israeli officials remain defiant. In an interview with Ynet, Minister Ze’ev Elkin said: “As long as we have not stopped them, we will pursue them everywhere in the world and settle our accounts with them.” The episode underscores growing fears that efforts to hunt Hamas figures beyond Gaza could widen regional friction and complicate diplomatic relationships.