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Wilco singer Jeff Tweedy offers Jewish prayer for healing amid Israel-Hamas war
(JTA) — The Israel-Hamas war has elicited a chorus of celebrity responses, from Bono’s in-concert callout to Pete Davidson’s somber monologue on “Saturday Night Live.” Now one Grammy-winning songwriter and his wife have offered a Hebrew prayer for healing.
Susan Tweedy posted a video to Instagram on Oct. 10 of her husband Jeff Tweedy, frontman of the beloved rock band Wilco since 1994, strumming his guitar in his yard as his sons sing “Mi Shebeirach.” The Jewish prayer for physical and spiritual healing was popularized as a folk tune by Jewish musician Debbie Friedman, who wrote her Hebrew-English version in 1987 as the AIDS crisis ravaged gay communities.
In the video, which Susan noted in a comment was recorded “a while ago,” 27-year-old Spencer Tweedy and 23-year-old Sammy Tweedy take vocals. The song asks for the blessing of “r’fuah sh’leimah” (“complete healing”) and “the renewal of body, the renewal of spirit.”
The most recent photo on Sammy’s Instagram page, posted Sept. 30, indicated that he was in Israel. His Instagram bio suggests that he lives between Chicago and Tel Aviv.
Sammy has been vocal about the conflict on his account on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. On Oct. 14, he wrote: “Cutting anyone and everyone out of my life who supported or celebrated the attacks on Saturday, who mocks Jews in our time of pain. Your hatred deserves no place in our lives.”
Jeff Tweedy, whose wife is Jewish, converted to Judaism in 2013. At the time, Sammy was struggling to study for his bar mitzvah and begging to stay home from Hebrew school. So Jeff proposed a deal: They would attend temple every week together, and while Sammy worked on his Torah portion, his father would study to convert.
“[I]t seemed to work. He ended up getting bar mitzvahed and I ended up converting,” Tweedy told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in 2019.
The Wilco singer and guitarist, who has released over 20 studio albums through his various bands and projects, also sang at both of his sons’ bar mitzvahs. He even brought the legendary gospel singer Mavis Staples on stage for Sammy’s ceremony.
Tweedy has collaborated with his sons for years. In 2020, while the family quarantined together in Chicago, he released the solo album “Love Is the King” with contributions from Spencer and Sammy. The trio also live-streamed their jam sessions at home on Instagram, calling these evenings “The Tweedy Show.”
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The post Wilco singer Jeff Tweedy offers Jewish prayer for healing amid Israel-Hamas war appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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UN Security Council Meets on Iran as Russia, China Push for a Ceasefire
Members of the Security Council cast a vote during a United Nations Security Council meeting on the 3rd anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at UN headquarters in New York, US, Feb. 24, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/David Dee Delgado
The U.N. Security Council met on Sunday to discuss US strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites as Russia, China and Pakistan proposed the 15-member body adopt a resolution calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in the Middle East.
It was not immediately clear when it could be put to a vote. The three countries circulated the draft text, said diplomats, and asked members to share their comments by Monday evening. A resolution needs at least nine votes in favor and no vetoes by the United States, France, Britain, Russia or China to pass.
The US is likely to oppose the draft resolution, seen by Reuters, which also condemns attacks on Iran’s nuclear sites and facilities. The text does not name the United States or Israel.
“The bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities by the United States marks a perilous turn in a region that is already reeling,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the Security Council on Sunday. “We now risk descending into a rathole of retaliation after retaliation.”
“We must act – immediately and decisively – to halt the fighting and return to serious, sustained negotiations on the Iran nuclear program,” Guterres said.
The world awaited Iran’s response on Sunday after President Donald Trump said the US had “obliterated” Tehran’s key nuclear sites, joining Israel in the biggest Western military action against the Islamic Republic since its 1979 revolution.
U.N. nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi told the Security Council that while craters were visible at Iran’s enrichment site buried into a mountain at Fordow, “no one – including the IAEA – is in a position to assess the underground damage.”
Grossi said entrances to tunnels used for the storage of enriched material appear to have been hit at Iran’s sprawling Isfahan nuclear complex, while the fuel enrichment plant at Natanz has been struck again.
“Iran has informed the IAEA there has been no increase in off-site radiation levels at all three sites,” said Grossi, who heads the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Iran requested the U.N. Security Council meeting, calling on the 15-member body “to address this blatant and unlawful act of aggression, to condemn it in the strongest possible terms.”
Israel‘s U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon said in a statement on Sunday that the U.S. and Israel “do not deserve any condemnation, but rather an expression of appreciation and gratitude for making the world a safer place.”
Danon told reporters before the council meeting that it was still early when it came to assessing the impact of the U.S. strikes. When asked if Israel was pursuing regime change in Iran, Danon said: “That’s for the Iranian people to decide, not for us.”
The post UN Security Council Meets on Iran as Russia, China Push for a Ceasefire first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israel Rejects Critical EU Report Ahead of Ministers’ Meeting
FILE PHOTO: Smoke rises from Gaza after an explosion, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, June 11, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen/File Photo
Israel has rejected a European Union report saying it may be breaching human rights obligations in Gaza and the West Bank as a “moral and methodological failure,” according to a document seen by Reuters on Sunday.
The note, sent to EU officials ahead of a foreign ministers’ meeting on Monday, said the report by the bloc’s diplomatic service failed to consider Israel’s challenges and was based on inaccurate information.
“The Foreign Ministry of the State of Israel rejects the document … and finds it to be a complete moral and methodological failure,” the note said, adding that it should be dismissed entirely.
The post Israel Rejects Critical EU Report Ahead of Ministers’ Meeting first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Pope Leo Urges International Diplomacy to Prevent ‘Irreparable Abyss’
FILE PHOTO: Pope Leo XIV holds a Jubilee audience on the occasion of the Jubilee of Sport, at St. Peter’s Basilica, at the Vatican June 14, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Yara Nardi/File Photo
Pope Leo on Sunday said the international community must strive to avoid war that risks opening an “irreparable abyss,” and that diplomacy should take the place of conflict.
US forces struck Iran’s three main nuclear sites overnight, joining an Israeli assault in a major new escalation of conflict in the Middle East as Tehran vowed to defend itself.
“Every member of the international community has a moral responsibility: to stop the tragedy of war before it becomes an irreparable abyss,” Pope Leo said during his weekly prayer with pilgrims.
“No armed victory can compensate for the pain of mothers, the fear of children, the stolen future. Let diplomacy silence the weapons, let nations chart their future with peace efforts, not with violence and bloody conflicts,” he added.
“In this dramatic scenario, which includes Israel and Palestine, the daily suffering of the population, especially in Gaza and other territories, risks being forgotten, where the need for adequate humanitarian support is becoming increasingly urgent,” Pope Leo said.
The post Pope Leo Urges International Diplomacy to Prevent ‘Irreparable Abyss’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.