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An airplane encounter between Noa Kirel, Israel’s Eurovision finalist, and a top Orthodox rabbi has gone viral
(JTA) — A selfie taken on a flight to Tel Aviv has gone viral this week, serving as a symbol of unity in an increasingly divided Israel
The photo was taken by Noa Kirel, the pop star who came in third in this year’s Eurovision competition over the weekend, and was headed home from the competition, which took place in Liverpool, England. Next to her in the frame, and on the plane, was Rabbi Yosef Tzvi Rimon, the head rabbi of Gush Etzion, a bloc of West Bank settlements south of Jerusalem.
Rimon was initially puzzled when a message on the plane’s TV screens read, “Well done, Noa. We’re proud of you,” he shared in a message initially sent to a family WhatsApp group. After he asked Kirel why congratulations were in order, and to whom, he said she explained her Eurovision appearance, surprised he didn’t recognize her. Rimon added that she said she had prayed at the contest and abstained from using her phone on Shabbat. Rimon offered himself as a rabbinic resource and Kirel took his information, sending him their picture as a first communication.
That picture exited the family chat after a friend of one of Rimon’s daughters saw it, photographed it and shared it, Rimon later wrote in another WhatsApp message that has gone viral.
The story has been shared widely in Hebrew-language WhatsApp groups as a heartwarming example of how people from different sectors of Israeli society can connect across divides. Religious and secular Israelis tend to live separately and vote differently — a split that for many has become more pronounced amid the right-wing government’s efforts to weaken Israel’s judiciary. Protests for the legislation in Jerusalem attract a largely Orthodox crowd. Attendees at the anti-government protests in Tel Aviv are mostly secular.
“Basically, you have a leading rabbi and celebrity who don’t know each other sitting next to each other on the plane, bridging segments of Israel and appreciating the greatness of the other,” wrote Rabbi Judah Kerbel of the Queens Jewish Center in New York City on Facebook. “It’s a nice story.”
Shmuel Reichman, an Orthodox rabbi and motivational speaker, also attempted in a Facebook post to answer the question “Why does this story resonate so much with everyone?”
Reichman wrote that the encounter showed that Rimon’s devotion to Torah has not led to “tunnel vision,” and that Kirel’s behavior suggested that it may be possible to encourage more secular Jews to increase their religious engagement.
“It shows that when we are amongst [sages], we want to be spiritually great, regardless of our normal aspirations,” he wrote. “Does anything happen from this encounter? Maybe yes, maybe no. But for Rav Rimon to have placed the pathway ahead for future interactions is more powerful than you can possibly imagine.”
Kirel, judging from her social media accounts, has yet to comment publicly on the meeting as of Wednesday morning. For his part, Rimon is surprised at how quickly the story has gone viral.
“It’s amazing to see how, within a second, the whole State of Israel knows,” he said in a brief stand-up interview with the Israeli right-leaning news site Arutz 7, explaining that he had previously declined more than 20 interview requests. “But I think we have a task to love the Jewish people and see good things… Suddenly you see that you’re connecting and good things emerge.”
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Israel’s Netanyahu Hopes to ‘Taper’ Israel Off US Military Aid in Next Decade
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to the press on Capitol Hill, Washington, DC, July 8, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview published on Friday that he hopes to “taper off” Israeli dependence on US military aid in the next decade.
Netanyahu has said Israel should not be reliant on foreign military aid but has stopped short of declaring a firm timeline for when Israel would be fully independent from Washington.
“I want to taper off the military within the next 10 years,” Netanyahu told The Economist. Asked if that meant a tapering “down to zero,” he said: “Yes.”
Netanyahu said he told President Donald Trump during a recent visit that Israel “very deeply” appreciates “the military aid that America has given us over the years, but here too we’ve come of age and we’ve developed incredible capacities.”
In December, Netanyahu said Israel would spend 350 billion shekels ($110 billion) on developing an independent arms industry to reduce dependency on other countries.
In 2016, the US and Israeli governments signed a memorandum of understanding for the 10 years through September 2028 that provides $38 billion in military aid, $33 billion in grants to buy military equipment and $5 billion for missile defense systems.
Israeli defense exports rose 13 percent last year, with major contracts signed for Israeli defense technology including its advanced multi-layered aerial defense systems.
US Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a staunch Israel supporter and close ally of Trump, said on X that “we need not wait ten years” to begin scaling back military aid to Israel.
“The billions in taxpayer dollars that would be saved by expediting the termination of military aid to Israel will and should be plowed back into the US military,” Graham said. “I will be presenting a proposal to Israel and the Trump administration to dramatically expedite the timetable.”
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In Rare Messages from Iran, Protesters ask West for Help, Speak of ‘Very High’ Death Toll
Protests in Tehran. Photo: Iran Photo from social media used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law, via i24 News
i24 News – Speaking to Western media from beyond the nationwide internet blackout imposed by the Islamic regime, Iranian protesters said they needed support amid a brutal crackdown.
“We’re standing up for a revolution, but we need help. Snipers have been stationed behind the Tajrish Arg area [a neighborhood in Tehran],” said a protester in Tehran speaking to the Guardian on the condition of anonymity. He added that “We saw hundreds of bodies.”
Another activist in Tehran spoke of witnessing security forces firing live ammunition at protesters resulting in a “very high” number killed.
On Friday, TIME magazine cited a Tehran doctor speaking on condition of anonymity that just six hospitals in the capital recorded at least 217 killed protesters, “most by live ammunition.”
Speaking to Reuters on Saturday, Setare Ghorbani, a French-Iranian national living in the suburbs of Paris, said that she became ill from worry for her friends inside Iran. She read out one of her friends’ last messages before losing contact: “I saw two government agents and they grabbed people, they fought so much, and I don’t know if they died or not.”
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Report: US Increasingly Regards Iran Protests as Having Potential to Overthrow Regime
United States President Donald J Trump in White House in Washington, DC, USA, on Thursday, December 18, 2025. Photo: Aaron Schwartz via Reuters Connect.
i24 News – The assessment in Washington of the strength and scope of the Iran protests has shifted after Thursday’s turnout, with US officials now inclined to grant the possibility that this could be a game changer, Axios reported on Friday.
“The protests are serious, and we will continue to monitor them,” an unnamed senior US official was quoted as saying in the report.
Iran was largely cut off from the outside world on Friday after the Islamic regime blacked out the internet to curb growing unrest, as videos circulating on social media showed buildings ablaze in anti-government protests raging across the country.
US President Donald Trump warned the Ayatollahs of a strong response if security forces escalate violence against protesters.
“We’re watching it very closely. If they start killing people like they have in the past, I think they’re going to get hit very hard by the United States,” Trump told reporters when asked about the unrest in Iran.
The latest reported death toll is at 51 protesters, including nine children.