Deborah Blausten

כבוד ענקי לאלפי תושבי עזה שיצאו להפגין היום נגד המלחמה ונגד שלטון החמאס בעזה. למרות ההפצצות של חיל האוויר ולמרות שהם יכולים להיהרג בכל רגע על ידינו, אנשים בעזה דורשים הפסקת אש וחיים נורמליים. אנחנו שולחים חיזוקים מהאנשים בישראל שגם מפגינים נגד המלחמה ונגד השלטון שלהם 💜

לנתניהו הייתה בחירה: להחזיר את עמרי מירן ודוד קוניו לילדים שלהם. או להחזיר את בן-גביר לממשלה כדי להעביר תקציב. והוא בחר את בן-גביר.

There’s so much to be said about these releases happening on Shabbat, but then there’s also this- a Havdalah for the ages. What a beautiful and powerful way to mark transition, and sanctify life.

It's difficult to respond to the death of someone you never met. Though I feel I have come to know Oded Lifshitz, in the 16 months I have been representing his amazing daughter @Lifschitz_sha who has been campaigning for his release. Shortly after 7th October 2023, I received a message from Sharone's MP, @stellacreasy, asking whether I could help Sharone, who is a British citizen and lives in London, as both of her elderly parents have been taken hostage (Stella has been a huge comfort to Sharone throughout the past 16 months). Within a few hours I was working with Adam Rose on what could be done. Our first (ultimately unsuccessful - longer story) gambit was to try and convince the UK government to give Oded and Yocheved, and one other, and then more, UK citizenship. Overnight, I researched Oded's life - looking for sympathetic facts to add to the application. It didn't take long to find them. Oded was older than the State of Israel itself, having been born in the British Mandate of Palestine. In fact, I spent about 12 hours trying to understand whether his early British subject status could help - I concluded it couldn't. But I was amazed to find out about how he had spent his life since. This is what I wrote in my submission: "Oded was born in Haifa, which was under British Mandate rule, on the 11th of May 1940. His parents arrived there from Poland in 1933. Oded was a founding member of kibbutz Nir Oz and lived there since it was founded in 1955. He is a journalist. He worked for decades for peace and the recognition of Palestinian rights, including in his work for newspaper Al-Hamishmar, and in the past decades and till today he continued to write in the local press and published opinion articles in Haaretz newspaper. He spends his retirement driving Palestinian patients from the border checkpoint to receive medical treatment to Israeli hospitals, working with the volunteer led organisation Road to Recovery." This is only a snapshot, of course - every life is a world in itself. We don't know when or how Oded died, but we do know how he lived. And I have no doubt that the strength, determination, humanity and dignity which I have had the privilege to see up close in his daughter Sharone, who has campaigned relentlessly and with the utmost humanity, is a tribute to the values Oded and Yocheved brought her and her family up with, and also the values which surely are the only model for this terrible conflict ultimately being resolved. The other photo is of a yellow cactus pin badge which Sharone gave me - it represents the cactus patch on Kibbutz Nir Oz which Oded tended, and I will always cherish it. I am just so sorry that he will never come home to his family, and his cactus garden. Adam Rose and I will each be buying a cactus to tend in Oded's memory. May his memory be a blessing.

Share and read these stories this morning, let them drown out the ghoulish spectacle unfolding. A stage to return babies? Hamas absolutely know how awful it is to do it this way, it’s entirely deliberate.

This family could not have been clearer about what they need. However upset any of us are anywhere else in the world we are not them and the least we can do in this moment is not do anything that will make tomorrow worse.

For 500 days I’ve not been able to stop thinking about the Bibas family. It’s Jewishly important to take the lead from their family who are direct mourners, our needs as a wider community are secondary to theirs. Yarden’s sister said ‘I ask that my family not be eulogized yet’

💕💕💕

Notice this. Speak out against it. If one of these communities is local to you, see what kind of solidarity they might appreciate.

So I guess what I'm saying is, come to shul anyway, even if your heart and mind are struggling to be present. At least you won't be the only one there in the same boat.

... at a time when the hearts of the family of Israel are turned towards those who are suffering in our midst, we can draw strength and comfort by the occasion Shabbat offers us to gather and hold those in our communities through the fear, hope, love and grief ahead.

Shabbat is going to have the strangest nature for the next few weeks with hostage lists released on Fridays and releases on Saturdays. It feels like the right to define or set aside Jewish time has been co-opted by those who hold us in this nightmare situation. And...

Friday morning I met a group from @CenSynNYC and gave them a lowdown on UK Jewry. Kabb Shabbat they came to @FinchleyReform for an incredibly moving service as our members and clergy met @CantorZoe @dbzyb Cantor Daniel Mutlu Rabbi Sarah Berman #FRSmeetsCENTRAL

איור של האמן משה שפירא, אבא של ענר

Emily is home ♥️

Lists of hostage names are being passed around like commodities in a marketplace, but each name represents an entire world—our world. These are not mere names; they are people, families, and futures. They are loved ones with lives and dreams, not bargaining chips in a cruel game. Every single one of them matters, my Omri matters, and we must bring them all home—now.

Bring them all home

Joshua & Emily Kotler lost their Altadena home in a wildfire but escaped with their daughters, Liberty (4) & Eve (2). Amid the ashes, they found the only surviving item: Joshua’s grandmother’s menorah, passed down from a Holocaust survivor. “It was insanely powerful,” Joshua said, after regretting not taking it earlier. A symbol of resilience shining through. #AmYisraelChai

We've been seeing more norovirus cases than in any season since we started our current reporting system. 📈 Here is what you can do to avoid the spread this winter. 🧼