By Rabbi Yair Spitz   If Only My Nation Were With Me in Israel – Even if They Defile it (ילקוט שמעוני רמז תתרל”ח) Years ago, a colleague of mine shared with me a strange question he was asked by congregants of his. A long standing, observant couple, were contemplating Aliya to Israel. They shared with him that if indeed they were to move to Israel they planed on significantly reducing their level of religious observance. Their rational being, that when in Chutz La’aretz, they felt the only way to keep their children Jewish was by supplying them with an observant lifestyle but

By Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis   The journalist, Daniel Knowles, observed a fascinating moral problem on the roads of the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. At night, since the lighting is poor and the surfaces are often damaged and uneven, every motorist drives with their full-beam headlights on. Doing so is of course likely to dazzle or momentarily blind other motorists. But, since everyone is doing it, no individual motorist feels safe using dimmed or dipped headlights. Unsurprisingly, Kenya suffers from one of the highest rates of traffic deaths, despite the fact that many live in rural areas and don’t own a car.

By: Max Gelber, United with Israel It comes as no surprise that French Jews are moving to Israel in unprecedented waves as security in France deteriorates and anti-Semitism there is on the rise again. More than 200 French Jews arrived in Israel on Wednesday aboard a special Aliyah (immigration) flight. They were greeted upon their arrival at Ben-Gurion Airport by Chairman of The Jewish Agency for Israel Natan Sharansky, Minister of Aliyah and Immigrant Absorption Sofa Landver and Minister of the Interior Aryeh Deri. This is the largest Aliyah flight from France this summer. Half of the new immigrants are