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Raising Resilient Jews
The Western Wall and Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.
Michael Dickson, who serves as the Executive Director of Stand With Us, and I were grabbing coffee in the Rova when the conversation turned personal. We’d been swapping origin stories, his from North London, mine from Philadelphia, both of us raised in proudly Jewish homes where Israel wasn’t a place on a map but a place we visited, a place that shaped us. We both made aliyah as young parents with little ones in tow. And now here we are.
“Let’s walk,” I said.
We ended up at the rooftop overlook at the Aish World Center, the Western Wall across from us, ancient and alive. But we weren’t talking about history. We were talking about the future. Specifically, what we’re building in the next generation that will carry them through whatever comes next.
Because here’s what I know for certain: The question isn’t whether our kids will face hard things. It’s whether we’re giving them the tools to get back up.
When I found myself struggling after October 7th, I thought about my grandparents. All four were Holocaust survivors from Transylvania who eventually made their way to Pennsylvania. They rebuilt vibrant Jewish lives in another country, in another culture, in another language. They didn’t have therapists or support groups or Instagram accounts to process their trauma. They had each other. They had Shabbat. They had forward motion.
They never sat me down and taught me resilience. They modeled it. The Friday night candles. The holiday tables that groaned with food. Every time they chose joy when despair would have been easier. I absorbed it without realizing I was learning anything at all.
Michael nodded when I told him this. “Trauma and despair are not a strategy,” he said. “You have to pick yourself up and think about what constructive things you can do.”
That’s not toxic positivity. That’s survival wisdom passed down through generations.
Michael co-authored a book called ISResilience: What Israelis Can Teach the World, with a pioneering Israeli psychologist. They interviewed war heroes, Olympic champions, Ethiopian immigrants — Israelis who had overcome extraordinary hardship. As we talked, Michael walked me through three traits that stood out. I couldn’t help but think about how we could cultivate these in our homes.
The first is empathy, feeling your emotions fully instead of pushing them away. “Israelis are never worried about showing you their emotions,” Michael explained. “They’re like open books.” In our homes, this means letting our kids see us cry. Letting them be sad. Not rushing to fix every feeling but sitting with them in it.
The second is flexibility. “As soon as Israelis have a problem, they find a way around it,” he said. We teach this when we let our kids problem solve instead of swooping in. When we show them that Plan B isn’t failure, it’s adaptation.
The third is the ability to take hardship and make it meaningful. “What’s the first thing people did after October 7th?” Michael asked. “Made meals for each other, supported each other, helped each other.” When hard things happen in our families, we can ask our children: What can we do? Who can we help? How do we make this matter?
But underneath all three is something so ordinary we might overlook it: community.
“You could be walking down the street here, and your kid doesn’t have socks on, someone’s going to tell you,” Michael laughed. That’s Israel. Sometimes maddening, always connected.
Shabbat dinner is the ultimate expression of this. Not just immediate family but friends, neighbors, the random cousin passing through. “We might underestimate it because we think it’s just what we do,” Michael reflected, “but actually it helps guard our own resilience and strength.”
Our grandparents knew this instinctively. They built communities wherever they landed. They never let their children feel alone. The table was always expandable.
Michael and I stood there for a while, looking out at the Western Wall, the Temple Mount beyond it. Thousands of years of Jewish continuity in a single frame.
That’s what we’re passing down. Not just empathy, flexibility, and making hardship matter. But the table itself. The community. The way our grandparents raised us is the way we raise our kids.
“From Jerusalem, the light will shine,” Michael said.
That’s the job. Raising a generation that knows how to carry it.
Michael and I covered much more, including what young Jews can do right now and how everyone with a smartphone has a megaphone. Watch the full conversation in this episode of Jamie in the Rova.
Jamie Geller is the Global Spokesperson and Chief Communications Officer for AISH. She is a bestselling cookbook author, Jewish education advocate, and formerly an award-winning producer and marketing executive with HBO, CNN, and Food Network.
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High-Stakes US Special Forces Mission Rescues Airman From Iran After F-15 Crash
FILE PHOTO: A U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle aircraft takes off for a mission supporting Operation Epic Fury during the Iran war at an undisclosed location, March 9, 2026. U.S. Air Force/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo
US forces staged the audacious rescue of an airman behind enemy lines after Iran downed his fighter jet, officials said on Sunday, resolving a crisis for President Donald Trump as he weighs escalating the war, now in its sixth week.
The airman rescued by special operations forces, who Trump said was a colonel, was the weapons-systems officer on the downed F-15, a US official told Reuters.
“Over the past several hours, the United States Military pulled off one of the most daring Search and Rescue Operations in US History,” Trump said in a statement, adding that the airman was injured but “he will be just fine.”
The officer was the second of two crew members on the warplane that Iran said on Friday had been brought down by its air defenses. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said several aircraft were destroyed during the US rescue mission, Tasnim news agency reported.
Reuters reported on Friday that the first crew member had been retrieved, triggering a high-profile search by both Iran and the United States for the remaining airman.
Iranian officials had urged citizens to help find him, hoping to gain leverage against Washington in the war Trump and Israel launched on February 28.
Trump has threatened to escalate the conflict in the coming days with attacks on Iran’s energy infrastructure.
Had Iran captured the airman, the ensuing hostage crisis could have shifted American public perception of a conflict that opinion polls show was already unpopular.
Trump said the airman was rescued “in the treacherous mountains of Iran” in what he said was the first time in military memory that two US pilots had been rescued, separately, deep in enemy territory.
The official told Reuters that as the weapons-systems officer was moved from near a mountain to a transport aircraft parked within Iran, US forces had to destroy at least one of the aircraft because it had malfunctioned.
U.S. AIRCRAFT HIT
The rescue effort, involving dozens of military aircraft, encountered fierce resistance from Iran.
Reuters reported on Friday that two Black Hawk helicopters involved in the search were hit by Iranian fire but escaped from Iranian airspace.
Separately, a pilot ejected from an A-10 Warthog fighter aircraft after it was hit over Kuwait and crashed, the officials said, though the extent of crew injuries was unclear.
Still, Trump was triumphant.
“The fact that we were able to pull off both of these operations, without a SINGLE American killed, or even wounded, just proves once again, that we have achieved overwhelming Air Dominance and Superiority over the Iranian skies,” he said in his statement.
US air crews are trained in what to do if they go down behind enemy lines, measures known as Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape, but few are fluent in Persian and face a challenge in staying undetected while seeking rescue.
The conflict has killed 13 US military service members, with more than 300 wounded, US Central Command says. No US troops have been taken prisoner by Iran.
While Trump has repeatedly sought to portray the Iranian military as being in tatters, they have repeatedly been able to hit US aircraft.
Reuters reported on US intelligence showing that Iran retains large amounts of missile and drone capability. Until just over a week ago, the US could only determine with certainty that it had destroyed about one-third of Iran’s missile arsenal.
The status of about another third was less clear, but bombings probably damaged, destroyed or buried those missiles in underground tunnels and bunkers, Reuters sources said.
The US and Israeli war on Iran has spread across the Middle East, killing thousands and hitting the global economy with soaring energy prices that are fueling fears of inflation.
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On Easter, Pope Leo Urges World Leaders to End Wars, Renounce Conquest
Pope Leo XIV waves from the main balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica after delivering his “Urbi et Orbi” (To the city and the world) message, on Easter Sunday at the Vatican, April 5, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Remo Casilli
Pope Leo urged global leaders in his Easter message on Sunday to end the conflicts raging across the world and abandon any schemes for power, conquest or domination.
The pope, who has emerged as an outspoken critic of the Iran war, lamented in a special message to the thousands gathered in St. Peter’s Square that people “are growing accustomed to violence, resigning ourselves to it, and becoming indifferent.”
“Let those who have weapons lay them down!” the first US pope exhorted. “Let those who have the power to unleash wars choose peace!”
Leo did not mention any specific conflicts in the message, known as the “Urbi et Orbi” (to the city and the world) blessing. It was unusually brief and direct.
The pope said that the story of Easter, when the Bible says Jesus rose from the dead three days after not resisting his execution by crucifixion, shows that Christ was “entirely nonviolent.”
“On this day of celebration, let us abandon every desire for conflict, domination, and power, and implore the Lord to grant his peace to a world ravaged by wars,” Leo urged.
Leo, who is known for choosing his words carefully, has been forcefully decrying the world’s violent conflicts in recent weeks and ramping up his criticism of the Iran war.
In a sermon for the Easter vigil on Saturday night, he urged people not to feel numbed by the scope of the conflicts raging across the world but to work for peace.
The pope made a rare direct appeal to US President Donald Trump on Tuesday, urging him to find an “off-ramp” to end the Iran war.
In his address from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica on Sunday to the Square below, decorated with thousands of brightly colored flowers for the holiday, Leo offered brief Easter greetings in ten languages, including Latin, Arabic and Chinese.
The pope also announced he would return to the Basilica on April 11 to host a prayer vigil for peace.
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Temple Mount Set for Limited Reopening to Jews and Muslims
Israeli National Security Minister and head of Jewish Power party Itamar Ben-Gvir gives a statement to members of the press, ahead of a possible ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in Jerusalem, Jan. 16, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Oren Ben Hakoon
i24 News – Israeli authorities are preparing to partially reopen the Temple Mount in Jerusalem to both Jewish and Muslim worshipers for the first time since the start of the war with Iran, under a tightly controlled and highly restricted security arrangement, i24NEWS has learned.
According to details obtained by i24NEWS, the Israeli police, backed by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, are also expected to permit limited access for Jewish worshipers to the Western Wall as part of the same phased plan.
Under the framework, access to the Temple Mount and surrounding holy sites would be restricted to small groups of up to 150 people at a time. In the event of a missile alert, all visitors would be immediately evacuated in accordance with emergency protocols.
The decision follows a recent Supreme Court ruling allowing demonstrations in a limited format. Police argue that a consistent standard must apply across both civic gatherings and religious sites, with Ben-Gvir insisting that “there cannot be one rule for demonstrations and another for the Temple Mount.”
However, the reopening contradicts recommendations from the Home Front Command, which has advised keeping sensitive sites closed due to the ongoing risk of missile attacks.
Israeli Justice Minister Yariv Levin has proposed transferring authority over such security-related decisions exclusively to defense officials, an initiative that could reshape the balance between the judiciary and security establishment regarding restrictions on public access.