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Yizkor: We Should Remember the Best Version of Our Loved Ones

A Torah scroll. Photo: RabbiSacks.org.

In the Ashkenazi tradition, the Yizkor service stands out as an emotional highlight of each festival. On specially designated days, those who have lost parents, spouses, siblings, or children remain in the synagogue to recite memorial prayers, while those whose parents are still alive respectfully leave the sanctuary. The Hebrew word “Yizkor,” meaning “will remember,” initiates each prayer, emphasizing the enduring memory of those who have passed away and ensuring their remembrance even in their absence.

In the introduction to my latest book, Hearts & Minds on Jewish Festivals, I explore how deeply personal memories integrate into the observance of festivals. Reflecting on memories of shared experiences with my family throughout the Jewish calendar year over many years, I highlight the profound impact these memories have each time these festivals roll around again. Each treasured moment recalled enriches and profoundly enhances our celebrations:

These memories and so many more turn each festival and each significant Jewish date into a rich blend of history, tradition, Jewish laws and customs, memories, nostalgia, and new experiences. Every wine stain on the pages of the Haggadah we use, every forgotten High Holidays schedule tucked into the pages of the maḥzor, the special yomtov-connected drawings our kids made in preschool that reappear at the relevant time each year, the smell of yomtov food cooking in the kitchen—all these elements form a vivid mosaic of our Jewish experience, adding color, context, and depth to the practical aspects of the festivals and notable Jewish dates that punctuate our lives.

These reflections invite us to consider the dual nature of memory — with its inevitable mix of accuracy and embellishment — and the significant roles our remembered versions of events and experiences play in shaping our lives.

Psychology researcher and science communicator Dr. Julia Shaw, known for her exploration of memory and particularly false memories, addresses these themes in her book The Memory Illusion. She investigates how memories can be distorted, fabricated, and influenced by various factors.

Dr. Shaw explores the phenomenon of people recalling events that never happened, discussing the implications for fields like criminal law and our understanding of personal history. Interestingly, she suggests that these alterations in memory are not always detrimental; often, they serve to highlight the most favorable aspects of our loved ones and our past.

In eulogies, we often commemorate our loved ones in the most favorable light possible. The memories we recall are inherently selective and somewhat distorted, as they portray an idealized version of our departed loved ones — a version we all hope to be remembered by one day, when it is our turn to be eulogized.

When someone highlights less flattering aspects of a deceased person during a eulogy, it can shock the audience. I recall a funeral years ago for a university professor of mine, a celebrated scholar of history. His grandson’s eulogy began by acknowledging his grandfather’s reputation as a brilliant intellect and a fount of knowledge — then it shifted to a more personal note: “But there was more to him than that,” he added. “I will always remember him as the old man with dandruff on his jacket, who could be quite irritable and impatient. That was my grandpa.”

As he spoke, I couldn’t help but think, along with everyone else, “Is this really the memory to share at his funeral?”

The podcast Where There’s a Will, There’s a Wake, hosted by English actress Kathy Burke, is premised on a novel concept: “If you could plan your perfect death, what would you do?”

Each episode features celebrities who are asked to imagine their own untimely demise, take charge of their hypothetical funeral arrangements, choose their preferred way to go, create playlists, and even listen to eulogies prepared in advance by their friends.

While intriguing, this concept starkly contrasts with reality — where the memory of who we are is shaped by others, typically our family members, who preserve and interpret our legacies. Nevertheless, these curated memories, richly assembled from diverse perspectives, still do not capture the complete truth. Despite varied viewpoints, no two people will ever remember someone in exactly the same way.

During our festive gatherings over Yom Tov, we often find ourselves immersed in family stories, both old and new. As we enjoy each other’s company and celebrate together, these time-honed tales are shared and reshaped with each retelling. Over the years, details are embellished, and characters grow larger than life, creating increasingly engaging narratives.

This process not only entertains but also strengthens family bonds, imparts values, and fosters a sense of continuity and belonging. Enriched memories become an important part of our collective family heritage, celebrated during these special occasions.

The Yizkor service utilizes the power of memory to connect us with those who have passed on. We engage deeply with our memories, idealizing and appreciating the positive aspects while overlooking the flaws. This idealization is not without merit, as highlighted by a remarkable passage from the Talmud.

The Talmud (Sanhedrin 92b) unpacks Ezekiel’s seminal “dry bones” prophecy. According to the biblical narrative (Ez. 37:1-14), Ezekiel is brought to a valley filled with dry, lifeless bones and asked by God if these bones can live again. He responds that only God knows, prompting God to command Ezekiel to prophesy over the bones. Miraculously, as Ezekiel prophesies, the bones reassemble, grow flesh, and are infused with life, becoming a vast army.

This vision is interpreted in the Talmud as symbolizing the Israelites from the tribe of Ephraim who, driven by impatience, had tried to conquer the land of Israel prematurely at the dawn of Jewish history. Their failure and demise are represented by the dry bones, which are then miraculously revived by Ezekiel.

The question is: Did this event actually happen, or is Ezekiel’s vision merely symbolic? Rabbi Yehuda and Rabbi Nehemiah view the entire episode as a metaphor, suggesting it never actually occurred. Then, unexpectedly, Rabbi Eleazar, son of Rabbi Yosi HaGelili, asserts that the narrative is true, and that the revived bones went on to marry and have children.

This claim is further complicated by Rabbi Yehuda ben Beteira, who claims to be descended from those supposedly metaphorical figures, and adds that “these are the tefillin that my grandfather bequeathed to me from them.”

The thirteenth-century rabbinic luminary, Rabbi Shlomo ben Aderet (Rashba), clarifies this debate by suggesting that some aggadic passages are significant not necessarily because they occurred, but because they represent events that could have transpired. This idea means these stories transcend mere metaphor. They are potential narratives that impart lessons and carry deep messages, regardless of their historical authenticity.

In the specific case of Rabbi Yehuda ben Beteira claiming to have inherited tefillin from descendants of those revived by Ezekiel, the Rashba seemingly interprets this not as a literal historical claim but as a narrative device intended to convey deeper truths or lessons about faith, continuity, and the transmission of tradition. The focus is on the value and impact of the story rather than its factual accuracy.

This approach to memory and narrative is crucial, especially in prayers like the Yizkor service, where we remember our deceased loved ones in the best possible light. It’s not about facts, or about history — but about values and heritage.

By remembering our loved ones as the best versions of themselves — whether these memories are entirely accurate or somewhat enhanced — we not only honor their legacy but also inspire ourselves to aspire to these ideals. This process elevates the souls of the departed and enriches our own lives, demonstrating the power of memory to shape not only our perception of the past, but also our actions in the present and our aspirations for the future.

The author is a rabbi in Beverly Hills, California.

The post Yizkor: We Should Remember the Best Version of Our Loved Ones first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Greta Thunberg, Fellow Activists on Gaza-Bound Flotilla to Be Shown Oct. 7 Footage, Israel’s Defense Minister Says

An Israeli solider passes a bun to Greta Thunberg onboard the Gaza-bound British-flagged yacht “Madleen” after Israeli forces boarded the charity vessel as it attempted to reach the Gaza Strip in defiance of an Israeli naval blockade, in this still image released on June 9, 2025. Photo: Israel Foreign Ministry via Reuters

Swedish activist Greta Thunberg and the group of international activists traveling with her on a boat to the Gaza Strip will be shown footage of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led terrorist attack after Israeli forces intercepted their vessel, Israel’s Defense Minster Israel Katz said on Monday.

Katz also called Thunberg an antisemite in a post on X and described all those aboard the ship as supporters of Hamas, the internationally designated terrorist organization that has ruled Gaza for nearly two decades and initiated the current war raging in the Middle East after massacring 1,200 people, wounding thousands more, and taking 251 hostages during its invasion of southern Israel.

The Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists also perpetrated widespread sexual violence, including torture and mass gang-rape, against Israelis during their onslaught.

“I instructed the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] to show the flotilla passengers the video of the horrors of the October 7 massacre when they arrive at the port of Ashdod,” Katz wrote. “It is appropriate that the antisemitic Greta and her fellow Hamas supporters see exactly who the Hamas terrorist organization they came to support and for whom they work is, what atrocities they committed against women, the elderly, and children, and against whom Israel is fighting to defend itself.”

“The IDF will continue its war against the Hamas murderers with all its moral righteousness until they are subdued, all the hostages are released, and the security of the State of Israel is ensured,” Katz added.

Israeli forces boarded and seized the Madleen, operated by the pro-Palestinian Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FCC), during the early hours of Monday morning after Thunberg, 22, and the others on board tried to break the naval blockade of Gaza. Katz said on Sunday he instructed Israeli forces to stop the Madleen flotilla from reaching Gaza “and to take whatever measures are necessary to that end.”

“Israel will act against any attempt to break the blockade or assist terrorist organizations – at sea, in the air, and on land,” he added.

Israel imposed a naval blockade on Gaza in 2007, after Hamas seized control of the coastal enclave, in an effort to stop the Palestinian terrorist organization from obtaining weapons. The blockade has remained in place throughout the Israel-Hamas war that started 20 months ago, but in March, Israel also sealed off Gaza by land to further cut off Hamas from obtaining aid. Israel has let into Gaza some food to be distributed to civilians over the past two weeks.

The group of activists aboard the Madleen said they hoped to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza and raise international awareness about the humanitarian crisis there. Israel dismissed their efforts, described them as merely a stunt.

“While Greta and others attempted to stage a media provocation whose sole purpose was to gain publicity — and which included less than a single truckload of aid — more than 1,200 aid trucks have entered Gaza from Israel within the past two weeks, and in addition, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has distributed close to 11 million meals directly to civilians in Gaza,” said Israel’s Foreign Ministry. “There are ways to deliver aid to the Gaza Strip — they do not involve Instagram selfies.”

Israel released a video showing Israeli naval forces handing out water and sandwiches to those aboard the FCC after seizing the vessel. Among those on board was Rima Hassan, a French member of the European parliament. The Jewish community in France lambasted Hassan last year for arguing that French-Palestinians must be able to join the “Palestinian armed resistance” if their French-Israeli counterparts are allowed to serve in the IDF.

“The ‘selfie yacht’ is safely making its way to the shores of Israel … The passengers are safe,” read a post on Israel’s official account on X. The post also noted that the “tiny amount” of humanitarian aid aboard the vessel, that wasn’t consumed by the activists on board, will be transferred to Gaza “through real humanitarian channels.”

Israel’s Foreign Ministry said that when the yacht arrives at the Israeli port, arrangements will be made for the activists to return to their home countries.

Hassan posted on X that the crew on the ship were “arrested by the Israeli army in international waters around 2 am” on Monday. She shared a photo of all the crew members wearing orange life vests with their hands in the air as Israeli forces seized control of the ship.

“If you see this video, we have been intercepted and kidnapped in international waters by Israeli occupational forces or forces that support Israel,” Thunberg, said in a video released by the FCC, filmed before the vessel was captured. “I urge all my friends, family and comrades to put pressure on the Swedish government to release me and the others as soon as possible.”

Widely known for her campaign to end climate change, Swedish-born Thunberg has increasingly become a vocal anti-Israel activist, expressing solidarity with “Palestine and Gaza” less than two weeks after the Oct. 7 massacre, before the Israeli military even launched its ground offensive in Gaza. Thunberg did not denounce Hamas or mention the Palestinian terrorist group’s atrocities.

Then in November 2023, the young activist encountered a storm of criticism from politicians and Jewish leaders, some of whom accused her of being antisemitic, over a speech she delivered to a rally in Amsterdam that sought to insert opposition to Israel’s defensive war in Gaza into the environmentalist movement’s agenda.

Last year, Danish police detained Thunberg at a Copenhagen protest against the war in Gaza and Israel’s presence in the West Bank.

The post Greta Thunberg, Fellow Activists on Gaza-Bound Flotilla to Be Shown Oct. 7 Footage, Israel’s Defense Minister Says first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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The Student Intifada Escalates at the University of Washington

ILLUSTRATIVE: Demonstrators march in support of Palestinians, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington, U.S., February 5, 2025. (There is no indication any of these students are members of SUPER UW — the group referenced in this article.) REUTERS/David Ryder

A suspended student group is supporting an organization that the United States and Canada have deemed a terrorist entity, taking over an engineering building at the University of Washington.

Students United for Palestinian Equality and Return at the University of Washington (SUPER UW) was suspended from campus after refusing to cooperate with university administrators who were investigating vandalism after demonstrations in 2024. However, that suspension seems to be in name only, as SUPER UW has been allowed to hold tabling events on campus, with some reportedly handing out Hamas’ pamphlets (according to a Canary Mission video) and selling t-shirts promoting “resistance.”

On May 5, SUPER UW published a manifesto stating, “WE DEMAND: UW will no longer be complicit in genocide.” SUPER UW explained they were answering “the call” and entered “a new global phase of repression and resistance, both in the international student movement and on the ground in Palestine.” It is even more concerning who may have issued the call.

In May 2024 Samidoun published “A call from the Palestinian student movement in Gaza: Time for revolutionary escalation of the global intifada.” Samidoun is not limiting their call to university students but is also calling for high school students to participate in the “global intifada.” This is another example of university campus influence on K-12 education, demonstrating the need for transparency, not only in higher education, but in K-12 schools.

Today we turn to high school students all over the world to participate widely in the struggles and activities of the university student movement, organizing demonstrations, sit-ins, and vigils, writing petitions and letters, and organizing educational days about the Palestinian struggle and the goals of the Palestinian people for liberation and return. Secondary schools constitute a strong fortress and a great support for university students everywhere,” the statement said.

SUPER UW explicitly supports Samidoun, issuing a “Solidarity Statement with Samidoun Against Ongoing Repression” after the terrorist designation by the governments of Canada and the United States.

More recently, SUPER UW shared their desire to “build a revolutionary culture in the West, bridging the Palestinian resistance back home and the Palestinian solidarity movement here in the imperial core to contribute to the global Camp of Resistance.” After the murders of Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim by a man yelling “free, free Palestine” — and after the fire-bombing of American Jews marching for the return of Israeli hostages in Colorado — SUPER UW’s call to “build a revolutionary culture” in the United States could be seen as a call for more violence against Jews and other Americans.

During a February 2025 rally organized by SUPER UW, the group’s media liaison admitted, “Our fight was never about the ceasefire, the fight is for a single Palestinian state, from the river to the sea.” The suspended group was protesting the Boeing-UW partnership on the construction of the Interdisciplinary Engineering Building on the university campus.

The response to a suspended campus group organizing a demonstration on campus was lackluster. UWPD Chief Craig Wilson stated, “We welcome and honor everybody’s freedom of speech, and we are here to support that. As long as people don’t violate either university rules and regulations or state law, we’re here to support everybody’s first amendment right to have freedom of speech.”

It should not be surprising that the University of Washington has been occupied by rioters and arsonists. The UW administration has ceded responsibility by allowing SUPER UW to continue to operate on campus, after being suspended.

According to a Forbes article published in 2023, UW receives approximately $1.56 billion Federal dollars for research and development. An institution that receives that type of Federal investment should do everything in its lawful power to ensure that groups are not handing out terrorist propaganda on campus.

The US Department of Education should require detailed disclosures on funding for departments, professors, centers, and student groups, including line-item reporting on how those funds are used.

Brandy Shufutinsky is the director of Education and National Security at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), which examines the threats and vulnerabilities within America’s education system. Follow Brandy on X @76brandy76.  Follow FDD on X @FDD. FDD is a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy.

The post The Student Intifada Escalates at the University of Washington first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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The Only Pro-Israel Argument That Works

A room full of Torah scrolls in Miami. Photo: Pini Dunner.

Baruch Hashem, this is the only pro-Israel argument that works:

There is a Creator
Who made the universe,
And gave a slice of it to the Children of Israel,
As an everlasting inheritance.

This is how every Jew should begin their conversations about Israel, because this is how Judaism’s most sacred text begins her magnum opus. (And check out the very first Rashi commentary on the very first verse of the very first chapter of the Five Books of Moses).

Indeed, it is specifically the Torah that records the name “Zion” 154 times, “Jerusalem” 669 times, and “Israel” 2,319 times. And it does so not with a pandering, insecure Zionism of recent man-made construction — but with an unstoppable, proud 4,000-year-old territorial right of an eternal people, gifted with an eternal land, by an Eternal G-d.

And yet our enemies — terrorists and terrorist sanitizers around the globe — all have the same criminal solution to the Jewish problem. To use politics, economics, and downright violence to steal an indigenous land from her indigenous people, Israel from the Children of Israel.

But there exists no one — not a single man nor a group of people — who has the right to trade, barter, occupy, or negotiate away a homeland that is the birthright of every single Jew — no matter who, no matter where, no matter when.

Paper mandates are worth less than the paper they were written on.

Ceasefires enable the fires of terrorism to never cease.

And dangerous idiots on college campuses, in the hallowed halls of government, and in anti-Jewish hate mobs everywhere refuse to answer one simple question: Where does the name “Jew” come from?

Once again, the answer comes from the Torah. From the “Kingdom of Judea” — the tribe of King David — the geographical origin point of all the Jews you know today.

As desperately as the propaganda pundits try to poison your brain, we are not “West Bankers” from the “West Bank.” We are Judeans from Judea and Samaria. Our indigenous right to our homeland is embedded in our very name itself. And no matter what lies the media tries to force down your brain, it’s impossible for us to “occupy” our own land.

It is the only land of the Jewish people.

Always has. Always will be.

And whoever gives up an inch of it is robbing the Jewish Nation.

And yet, since the destruction of our Holy Temple in Jerusalem over 2,000 years ago by the Roman Occupation of Israel, their subsequent iterations have raped, pillaged, murdered, pogromed, crusaded, inquisitioned, holocausted, and tried to wipe us off the face of the earth and make us forget our Judean identity.

But they have gloriously failed.

As Mark Twain declared in 1899, “The Jew saw them all, beat them all, and is now what he always was, exhibiting no decadence, no infirmities of age, no weakening of his parts, no slowing of his energies, no dulling of his alert and aggressive mind. All things are mortal but the Jew; all other forces pass, but he remains. What is the secret of his immortality?”

The secret is simple.

It is the Torah.

The Torah is the secret to our immortality.

As the Talmud states, we are like fish in water. And no matter what the clever foxes of time whisper to us through their shiny teeth, our only way to survive is to stay in the “waters of Torah.” This is what Rabbi Akiva told Pappus Ben Judah in the time of the Roman Occupation of Israel. This is what our people’s leaders have told us throughout all the hard times since then. And this is what the Lubavitcher Rebbe has told us in our own time.

Torah isn’t just how we survive.

It’s how we thrive.

Why is this?

Because the Torah is not some history book or even a collection of religious rituals. It is a sacred book of Divine lessons, the ultimate frame-changer for all humanity. And it is exactly what we need more of right now.

So pick up a Torah book,  download a Torah podcast, join a Torah class or simply call your rabbi.

The chapters of history don’t lie. We are the indigenous natives of Israel and we must always be proud of that immutable, immortal truth.

This is why the Shulchan Aruch opens her magnum opus of Jewish law with the teaching of the Talmudic scholar Yehudah ben Teima, who said, “Be as bold as a leopard … to do the will of your Father in Heaven.” The very first step of our legal system, of the pathway to justice and spiritual development, is the simple fact that it is only the proud Jew who studies Torah and cherishes her Mitzvot who passes on an unbreakable and undeniable Jewish identity to our children’s children’s children — and ensures we stand strong against all oppression and persecution, as demanded by our Torah.

Levi Y. Welton is a rabbi, stand-up comedian, and Lubavitcher Chossid. He can be reached at rabbiwelton@gmail.com

The post The Only Pro-Israel Argument That Works first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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