Even while grieving, these mothers, fathers, siblings and wives take comfort in knowing their loved ones sacrificed their lives for a sacred cause: serving G-d and the Jewish people by defending the Jewish State.  

Balancing grief with the need to persevere, many of these widows say that faith and community have helped them through their darkest hours. 

In the wake of October 7, thousands of American Jews, once disconnected from their heritage, are now embracing their roots. What more can we do to welcome these newly awakened Jews into our community? In the symposium ahead, we feature responses from leading rabbis, rebbetzins and outreach professionals along with showcasing innovative programs in the world of outreach.

To those who want to grow and change and flourish, let’s offer everything we can. To those in the market for yet another facile lifestyle affectation, let’s show them the door. 

Every encounter we as Orthodox Jews have with someone who is not frum has the potential to plant a seed that may blossom down the line. 

Shabbat is uniquely positioned to transform the Jewish world in four ways . . .

We are asserting our peoplehood, pushing back against rampant antisemitism and standing tall for Am Yisrael and Yiddishkeit.

Now we must take the next crucial step: it is time for our community to understand that this holy work is the personal responsibility of every individual. 

So what is the unchanging definition of success in Jewish outreach?

We are not whole without all of our sisters and brothers. This is not a project. This is not a numbers game. This is a family reunion. We miss you; viscerally so.

Every week, we meet Jews who come searching. Jews who didn’t identify strongly before, didn’t make an effort to go to synagogue or connect with a community before, but were shaken awake after October 7.

Michal was one of 110 survivors of the Nova massacre who attended a Shabbaton this past August in Jerusalem that aimed to bring healing to survivors and to help bridge the gap between religious and secular Israelis.

As much as you and I have had to acclimate to a new reality after last year’s unfathomable terror attacks, that process has been significantly more challenging for one particular demographic—the close to one million Israelis who call the United States home. 

Teens who spend their gap year in a program in Israel are materially different than teens who don’t.

“If we get just one more student in our school as a result of this campaign, that’s success. We will be saving one Jewish neshamah.”  

“What better way to show the moms what their teens experienced than by taking them on a similar trip?”

No judgment, just ahavas Yisrael. That’s the motto of Project Inspire, a national organization that aims to provide positive Jewish experiences for Jews of all backgrounds.

An excerpt from Bein Sheishes Le’Asor by Rabbi Shlomo Wolbe; translation by Rabbi Eliyahu Krakowski.

Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin, Jewish Action Editorial Committee member and host of the 18Forty Podcast, recently sat down with Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz to discuss the American Jewish response to October 7 and how it compares to the religious awakening after the Six-Day War.

If you see someone drowning, you are halachically obligated to save him. Similarly, if you see someone drowning spiritually, you must save him. 

We have to realize: These Jews are not going to an Orthodox shul. They’re not coming through the shul doors. We need to be building better doorways for engagement. 

Who shops for the specialty items for the shul kiddush you enjoy every week? Who privately fundraises for boys and girls to attend yeshivah and seminary when the families can’t afford it? 

Misconception: In order to temporarily relocate a sefer Torah, such as to a shivah house, halachah requires that it be read three times in its new location. 

A party or other Chanukah get-together reminds us not to normalize the miraculous, but rather to be “Yehudim” . . . the people who acknowledge the Source of our help and give thanks. 

The same-but-different-ness of various historical periods is always a point of surprise. While circumstances change, human nature and emotion often do not.

Everyone, from the prime minister of Canada to local politicians, news reporters and the Ottawa chief of police issued statements of condolence over the rabbi’s passing. . . . His “pulpit” was much larger than anyone would have imagined for an “out-of-town” rabbi.

The difficulty of reading the Guide is no longer an excuse for putting off reading this seminal work of Torah thought. 

Medinah, Halachah VeKavanot HaTorah; Living in the Land: Firsthand accounts from Bnei Torah and their families; Samson Raphael Hirsch’s Religious Universalism and the German-Jewish Quest for Emancipation

What began years earlier as a hobby with tools and piles of wood has evolved into a sacred calling to help others in our Jewish community.

How does Torah Judaism understand personal greatness, and do we fail to mentor our children in its pursuit?