The Real History of Chanukkah *(re-published from December 2024) Though we have beautiful traditions associated with the holiday such as the miracle of oil and lighting the menorah, it is also important to delve into the actual history of why Chanukkah is celebrated. Unlike many of our holidays which are based on stories and traditions, Chanukkah is based on actual history. Why is Chanukkah eight days long is something I never thought about until recently. The Maccabees were unable to celebrate the fall harvest holiday of Sukkot as they were fighting both the Hellenized Jews and Seleucids (most of the Seleucids were Syrian but were under Greek rule). Instead, they celebrated Sukkot in the winter with eight days of festivities. According to the Jewish historian, Josephus, by the 2nd century AD, Jews were celebrating an eight-day-long midwinter holiday called Chanukkah, also called the Festival of Lights. But it had nothing

One week ago, as Jews worldwide were waking up excited to celebrate and commemorate the greatest Zionist military victory of all time, when the Maccabees defeated both the Hellenized Jews and the Syrian Seleucids under Greek rule, over 2,000 years ago in the heartland of Israel (Judea & Samaria), simultaneously our collective Judean hearts sank and feelings of infuriation arose upon hearing of the Muslim perpetrated (color me (not) shocked) massacre against a Chabad Chanukkah celebration on Bondi Beach in Sydney. This particular murderous act of Jew-hate hit close as the heroic rabbi, Eli Schlanger, a father of five including a two-month-old baby, who both saved a life as he was killed, and prior to the event he organized, helped fulfill a mitzvah for a young man who had not wrapped tefillin in 16 years, was the cousin of my hometown’s Chabad Rebbetzin. When even one Jew bleeds, all of

Thanksgiving recently passed with emphasis on family, friends, and being thankful for the freedoms we cherish. As a Zionism educator, this time period is also important to highlight people, places, and events that have positively contributed to Israel and/or Jews worldwide in general (past and present). Below, is the second annual Thanksgiving list, Zionism edition. Avraham Stern: Also known as the Stern Gang, Lehi was founded in 1940 by Avraham Stern. Lehi is an acronym for Lehomei Herut Israel, or Fighters for the Freedom of Israel. It was a breakaway group from the Irgun (Etzel) due to philosophical disagreements, but they still retained good relations with one another which was important when the Stern gang was asked to stand down while the Irgun carried out larger-scale attacks and the Sergeant’s Affair executions. Lehi’s goals were ambitious and included: establishing Hebrew as the national mother tongue (Ladino was the lingua franca in

In the first few days since a taqiyya-spewing CAIR plant has been elected to lead NYC, three Judean institutions have been vandalized including the largest Syrian-Judean yeshiva in Brooklyn, more Hamas-flag waving/wrapped trucks have been spotted in Manhattan driven by masked pro-terrorists, a large Muslim gathering occurred in Times Square where the group of Muslims were seen declaring, “We’re done hiding… this is the religion all of humanity needs, Islam is the correct religion.” The speaker urged followers to spread Islam across every borough of the city saying, “Brooklyn should hear it. The Bronx should hear it. Queens should hear it.” The provocation ended with the words, “We will not stop until Islam enters every home.” A top real estate agent was fired by his firm after (rightfully) comparing Mamdani to a Nazi. And so, it begins. NYC liberals elected a Hamas supporting pro-Judean genocide Twelver Shia (the most radical

What Our Hostages Endured While decent people worldwide cheered for the release of our remaining living hostages in the morning hours Israeli time this past Monday, October 13th, the Judean people collectively exhaled, nearly fully, for the first time since October 7th, 2023. Holidays, birthdays, vacations were twinged with guilt – guilt that we were living our lives to the extent we could, while our people were held captive by subhumans, many held hostage in dark tunnels where even most animals would not be allowed to be kept. 251 people were taken hostage during the Judean genocide – all are heroes for surviving and those who were murdered, most fought back and hard, even those who were released back in November of 2023, when the released included children! Children as young as three years old, a beautiful little girl named Abigail Idan whose parents were murdered in front of her.

As I begin to write this newsletter edition, it is currently Monday evening, October 6th at 11pm EST in New York. Two years ago on this date, I was freshly back from Israel after one of the most incredible trips I’ve ever had to the Judean homeland — from touring Mt. Azazel in the Judean desert, from where the Priests during the Temple eras would source two goats for Yom Kippur, one to carry away sins and one to sacrifice, to learning about the rich history of Jews who spent their diaspora in Italy and rebuilt their communities in their ancestral home, to meeting new friends at two separate Yemenite Judean restaurants where the recipes reflected Judean history from 586 BC to modern times, and a very animated tour of Shuk HaCarmel deep in talk with a Jew who was visiting from Italy who fully embodied Zionism, which has been

The Judean faith is central to the Judean culture, and that culture is steeped in the region’s history; therefore, it is beneficial to delve into actual Judean history to truly cement how centrally ingrained in the region were Jews. Jews were not some isolated group nor did Jews ‘appear’ from elsewhere, which is why as we have seen by learning historical facts, some concepts that are now associated solely with Jews, were indeed borrowed from our neighbors and our neighbors borrowed customs and ideas from us. The ‘modern’ observance of Rosh Hashana dates back to the 6th century BC and was heavily inspired by the Babylonians*, though the name, ‘Rosh Hashana’ did not appear in the Torah, but in the Mishna (first written collection of Jewish oral laws) in 200 AD. Rabbis applied meaning to the holiday as the anniversary of the creation of the earth/mankind per elements of the

It’s time to talk about the ‘Christ is King’ cohort of Christian antisemitism… not all Christians these days are antisemitic, some prominent examples who are not, in America, include Speaker Johnson, Sen. Ted Cruz, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Dinesh D’Souza. The Coptic Christians in Egypt are fairly pro-Israel. And as antisemitic as the Orthodox Church was in the past and remains, their promise to Jews in 1948 in Judea & Samaria that deeds to Judean land would be preserved during the illegal Jordanian occupation, generally held. So, who am I talking about? These are the (mostly) born-again Christians on the right who believe Jews need to be ‘saved’ and who do not keep that thought to themselves. These are the same Christians who are now railing against AIPAC. As mentioned above, the now late Charlie Kirk recently had begun to turn, hence the antisemitic conspiracy theories of Israel being

I was hesitating to share this article in its entirety, nor does it take away my absolute admiration for Charlie Kirk in terms of spearheading Conservatism among our youth, especially. In my generation, it was Andrew Breitbart (who was also murdered) who was a force, Ben Shapiro (before he turned RINO and is now back, riding the coattails of unwavering Patriots), and Glenn Beck. But all were singular voices, impressive enough, but none turned their Conservatism into an actual national movement, and one that as we have seen, reached across generations. Not many people have reach from 13 year olds to 80-year-olds.  Charlie Kirk’s meteoric rise was a backlash against the left’s villainization of White culture, which is the dominant culture of America, of Christianity (America is a Christian nation), and most consequential, demonizing and humiliating young men by hammering the lie that ‘toxic masculinity’ is the central issue in

Let Jew-Haters Fear Israel Dear Jews – let’s real talk. Stop constantly posting and defending how Israel is not committing genocide (Israel is not, of course and even if the entire occupier population would be starved out through a full siege which was needed from October 8th, it would still not constitute genocide as no one would have been targeted for race and/or religion, but as prevention and retribution). Acting as if we as Jews are not capable of that is weakness; let our enemies be afraid of us.  Let’s learn actual Judean history.  We come from warrior stock. How do you think Jews expanded territory from Judea & Samaria to then cover west to Gaza, north to now Southern Lebanon, south to the Negev, and east to the eastern portion of what Churchill stole in 1922 and renamed to ‘Transjordan’ — it was not by asking nicely.  In ancient

There are a few holidays I would ideally like altered. Purim needs to be amended to stop lying about ‘Queen Esther’ and that Zoroastrians were killing Jews. In reality, there was a Persian Jew Queen, Queen Shushanduhkt, who married a Sassanid King, who went on to establish/expand many Jewish communities across Persia. Also, Zoroastrians were very philosemitic. Why are we erasing real-life Judean heroines, and inventing stories of near atrocities of Jews, when, infuriatingly, there are more than enough real-life instances of such within Judean history. Next, Chanukkah is a celebration of the greatest Zionist military victory of all time – both against the Hellenized Jews (Judean Civil Wars) and the Seleucids (who were not Greek but Syrian. It is akin to saying Portugal attacked when it was say Brazil). There was no ‘miracle of oil’ – that was not added to the holiday until 200 years later, borrowing from neighboring

The antisemitic lie that Israel was not a country during WWII needs to end. Israel did not go anywhere during the 1,812 years of occupations. Not one year was Jew-free since Jews emerged as a distinct race from the Semitic tribes in Judea & Samaria 4,000+ years ago. By the time Judea fell to the Romans in 136 AD (after 3 very expensive wars for the Roman Empire), Jews conquered and expanded territory west to Gaza, north to what is now southern Lebanon, south to the Negev, and east to what would eventually be stolen by Churchill and renamed to Transjordan in 1922. Jews had thriving societies across Israel during occupation years. What was missing was not physical land, but sovereignty. During WWII, Israel was under British occupation. The Mandate was simply a legal promise to restore sovereignty to Jews in the Judean homeland. However, barely two years in after