| Erev Shabbat - Parashat Bamidbar/Shavuot 5784 | 1 Sivan 5784 - June 7, 2024 | | | 
Mizrachi RZC's Yom Yerushalayim 5784 Celebration
On Tuesday, 28 Iyar 5784 - June 4, 2024, nearly 500 people joined Mizrachi - Religious Zionists of Chicago at Congregation Or Torah in Skokie to celebrate the 57th anniversary of the reunification of Yerushalayim, our Eternal Capital,
and to hear our Featured Guest Speaker,
Hillel Fuld,
internationally recognized Israel advocate,
along with greetings by Mizrachi RZC President Oren Lakser and Consul General Yinam Cohen.
The community also expressed their appreciation for a true Guardian of Zion, Alderman Debra Silverstein. Following Tefillat Ma'ariv Chagigit, led by Rabbi Sam Seleski, everyone enjoyed the beautiful buffet reception. A highlight was the presentation of the Yom Yerushalayim Youth Art Contest awards.
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| |  | Featuring Diverse Sources, Guiding Questions, and Relevant Halachic Topics | | |  The Nature of a Jewish Army | Bamidbar 5784
Rav Doron Perez
Executive Chairman of Mizrachi World Movement
Since Simchat Torah, October 7, the Israeli army has been front and center in Jewish consciousness and the world over.
In this week's parasha, and the Book of Bamidbar, the word "tzava" army appears so many time: 36 times in the parasha and 73 in the whole book. The Ramban says this is the secret of the counting of the people in the Book, as those counted are those going out to fight. As the people prepare to leave the desert and go in to the Land, they are preparing for the inevitable and unfortunate reality – to fight for the values that we believe in.
The army now and then has always been a people's army – it is not an army of part of the people, but all the people, as all twelve tribes were represented. Our soldiers are our shlichim. When you don the uniform, you fight on behalf of all the Jewish people – you are concerned for the destiny of the entire Jewish people and the Land of Israel.
We hope and pray the horrific price already paid by so many soldiers and civilians will be the last – that all our soldiers should be safe, all the hostages should be returned, and all those displaced citizens should return safely to their homes. | | Bamidbar 5784 Ariel Chesner,
Director of the Center for Religious Affairs in the Diaspora, World Zionist Organization | | | 
Shavuot and Matan Torah Rabbi Menachem Leibtag
 When the Torah wishes to inform us of the 'historical' reason for a holiday, it certainly knows how to do so. For example the two other pilgrimage holidays – Chag HaMatzot and Sukkot: even though these holidays, as Shavuot, are first presented in Shemot 23:14–17 from their 'agricultural' perspective, in other instances, the Torah informs us of their historical perspectives as well (Shemot 12:17 and Vayikra 23:43).
Therefore, it is simply baffling that the Torah, in each of the five instances (Shemot 23:15, 34:22, Vayikra 23:15–21, Bamidbar 28:26 and Devarim 16:9–12) when it discusses Shavuot, presents the holiday solely from its agricultural aspect, and never even mentions any connection to the events of Matan Torah! Should we conclude that it is only coincidental that Shavuot falls out on the same date as Matan Torah?
To answer this question, we must first take issue with our original assumption that the Biblical date of Matan Torah indeed coincides with the holiday of Shavuot.
When the Torah wishes to inform us of the precise date of a certain event, it does (Shemot 12:6,12–14,17–18 and 16:1). However, in regard to Matan Torah, the Torah is quite vague. Note how that story begins: "In the third month of Bnei Yisrael's departure from Egypt, on this day, they came to Midbar Sinai" (Shemot 19:1).
Even if we assume Bnei Yisrael arrived on the first day of the month (Rashi, Shemot 19:1, "bayom hazeh"), the lack of a clear chronology in the subsequent events makes it impossible to determine how many days transpire between their arrival at Har Sinai and Matan Torah.
The Midrash (Shabbat 86b) calculates that the Torah must have been given on either the sixth or seventh day of Sivan, yet the Torah itself never mentions that date, even though it could! Furthermore, we never find a specific mitzvah whose purpose is to commemorate that date or event (in Devarim 4:9–11 we are told never to forget what happened, but not to commemorate).
To answer this question, we must consider a fundamental difference between the very nature of two monumental events in our history, i.e. the Exodus and Matan Torah.
One could suggest that the Torah's deliberate obfuscation of the date of Matan Torah may suggest that we should not treat it as a historically bound event. Instead, the Torah wants one to feel as though the Torah has just been given each and every day. This concept is reflected by the famous Rashi in 19:1: "... it should have been written: 'on that day.' This comes to teach us that the words of the Torah should be considered new to you, as though they were given today!" (Rashi, Shemot 19:1). We should not view Matan Torah as a one-time event. Rather, every generation must feel as though G-d's words were spoken directly to them, no less than they were to the first generation. Hence, a celebration of its anniversary as a singular moment in our history might diminish from its eternal meta-historical dimension.
In contrast, the Exodus – the birth of our nation – was, and should remain, a one-time event in our history. As such, it becomes an event that must be constantly remembered, but not necessarily re-lived.
So why do we commemorate Matan Torah on Shavuot? In this regard, we find a beautiful balance between our oral and written traditions. Even though the Torah's obfuscation of this event may reflect the inherent danger of its commemoration, our oral tradition could not possibly totally neglect its anniversary.
Therefore, unlike Passover eve, when we gather at the Seder to 'retell' the story of the Exodus, on the evening of Shavuot, we 'relive' that experience by engaging in Torah study, a most appropriate expression of our gratitude for G-d's most precious gift.
Rabbi Menachem Leibtag is an internationally acclaimed Tanach scholar and online Jewish education pioneer. He is a member of the Mizrachi Speakers Bureau (www.mizrachi.org/speakers).
| |  | | Chicago Mizrachi Pina Chama in Itamar
dedicated in honor of our
Chayalim Bodedim
Maintenance costs for the month of
Sivan 5784
have been sponsored
in memory of
Joseph and Leah Ashman, z"l
by their children
Gary and Chavi Ashman
Bobbie and Jerry Nussbaum
Chami and Andy Gross
Avi and Wendy Ashman
| | | To watch and view the picture gallery of the Mizrachi Chicago Pina Chama in Itamar Dedication and Hachnasat Sefer Torah in the Shomron (July 30, 2023)
CLICK HERE | | |  | WATCH COLORIZED VERSION: Liberation of Jerusalem and the Old City 1967 | | IDF attacks Hamas compound in central Gaza, eliminates terrorists involved in Oct. 7 massacre IAF fighter jets strike Hamas compound inside UNRWA school in Nuseirat, eliminate Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists who directed terror attacks from the compound.  IAF fighter jets, directed by IDF intelligence and the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet), early Thursday morning conducted a precise strike on a Hamas compound embedded inside an UNRWA school in the area of Nuseirat.
The IDF Spokesperson's Unit said that Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists who belonged to the Nukhba Forces and took part in the murderou s attack on communities in southern Israel on October 7th were operating in the compound.
The terrorists directed terror from the area of the school while exploiting it and using it as a shelter. "Several terrorists who planned to carry out terror attacks and promote terrorist activities against IDF troops in the immediate time frame were eliminated in the strike, the statement said."
The Palestinian Arabs claimed that 30 people were killed in the air strike and that the school that was targeted served as a shelter for people who fled their homes. The "communications ministry" of Hamas in Gaza stated, "We expect the death toll to rise due to the number of seriously and critically injured in the attack." The IDF statement stressed, "Before the strike, a number of steps were taken to reduce the risk of harming uninvolved civilians during the strike, including conducting aerial surveillance, and additional intelligence information." israelnationalnews.com | | | Large 1.25 mile tunnel that reached Philadelphi Corridor destroyed The tunnel that was located was extensive and contained blast doors, inside which the troops located weapons such as AK-47s, anti-tank missiles, many intelligence assets and explosives. The IDF Spokesperson's Unit announced that the combat teams of the 12th Brigade, the Givati Brigade, the 401st Brigade, the Yahalom Unit, and Unit 504 have been conducting precise, intelligence-based, targeted operations in the Rafah area for the past few weeks under the command of the 162nd Division. The troops have located several significant tunnel shafts that led to a long tunnel route that reached as far as the Philadelphi Corridor. The tunnel route's length is approximately 2 kilometers (1.25 miles) and it connects to several other routes in the area. The tunnel that was located was extensive and contained blast doors, inside which the troops located weapons such as AK-47s, anti-tank missiles, many intelligence assets and explosives. The tunnel route was investigated and destroyed by troops of the Yahalom Unit. israelnationalnews.com | | | 'Palestine depends on destruction of Israel,' says Green Prince at 'Post' Conference Mossab Hassan Yousef, son of a Hamas co-founder, argues that Palestine's existence depends on Israel's destruction and criticizes the Palestinian Authority's threat to Israel.  "Palestine depends on the destruction of Israel. If there is any definition of Palestine, it means the absence of Israel," Mossab Hassan Yousef, otherwise known as the Green Prince, told Dr. Dan Diker, president of the Jerusalem Center for Foreign Affairs at The Jerusalem Post Annual Conference on Tuesday.
Yousef is the son of Hamas co-founder Sheikh Hassan Yousef. A Palestinian ex-terrorist, he defected to Israel in 1997 and worked as a spy for the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) until he moved to the United States in 2007.
Yousef said that you have to ask: "What is Palestine? Is it an ethnic group? A religion? A distinct language? Do you have scripture? Are you a nation? Were you a country? None of that. So what is Palestine? What is the purpose of Palestine?" he rhetorically asked the audience at the conference.
He voiced his opposition to a two-state solution with a Palestinian state led by the Palestinian Authority. "For those representing a two-state solution, they either want Israel to cease to exist, or they are not aware of this existential threat," he declared. In his opinion, the PA is an even greater threat than Hamas.
"All this global chaos is managed by the PA – by the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO). It's not Hamas propaganda: It's the ones who sit in Ramallah, who pay all the advocates worldwide through their embassies – those are the ones fighting against Israel and its legitimacy."
Yousef said that it is too costly to institute a hostile Palestinian state. "You cannot give them Judea, Samaria, the mountains, the valley – this is a defense line," he resolutely explained.
Yousef told the audience that the PA comes from the same terrorism as Hamas or any other group that originated from the Muslim Brotherhood.
He brought up Yasser Arafat, former chairman of the PLO, which later became the PA. "I was in his meeting when he gave my father the authority to blow up markets, buses, and beaches during the Second Intifada."
A condemnation of the anti-Jewish ideology in Islam
At the beginning of the discussion, Yousef brought up the history of the "slaughter of Jews by the hands of Muslims for approximately 14 centuries." He criticized the Jewish people for being in denial of that fact. "I understand why: If the Jewish people acknowledge this fact, they will have to confront a majority of Muslims."
He told the audience that Muslims believe that Allah hates the Jewish people, and "why would you be against the belief of one you pray to five times a day?"
This is why there has been so much propaganda against the Jewish state across social media, he said. When people see it a thousand times a day, they start believing it.
"Hundreds of millions of people out there want us dead," he told the audience.
"If we don't fight Islam, the world is in danger," the Green Prince warned. "We have a big problem; we need to wake up. And if we keep ignoring and denying the existential threat, we will have to face it when it is too late."
At the end of the conversation, Yousef spoke of potential solutions to the conflict. He believes that "Arabs [should] rule Arabs." He told the audience that maybe Arabs should be drafted to the IDF and be responsible for ruling over the West Bank. He also floated an idea of Egyptian and Jordanian intelligence looking over the Palestinians.
Yousef also believes that mandatory Holocaust education across the Arab world should be part of the solution, as well as teaching that "to be a victim and stay in victimhood is unacceptable."
However, he believes that allowing the PA to rule over a Palestinian state would be the destruction of Israel. "You give them east Jerusalem tomorrow, and they will want West Jerusalem next. If you give them 1967 [borders], they will say they want the whole thing." jpost.com | | Aharon Barak resigns from Hague panel, citing family-personal reasons The Israeli government will now need to decide whether or not to select a new judge to replace Barak on the International Court of Justice.  Former Supreme Court president Aharon Barak has resigned from the panel of judges at the International Court of Justice in the Hague, according to Israeli media, on Wednesday.
The move was for "personal-family" reasons. He thanked the Court for the cooperation he received from the staff and the judges.
Barak was selected to serve as Ad Hoc Judge on the Court by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a right that a country can exercise if no judge of the country's nationality is present on the bench. Judges do not necessarily have to be of the same nationality as the government which selects them. The government will now need to decide whether to select a new judge to replace Barak. Who will replace Barak?
Legal sources told Ynet that it was not at all certain that a new judge would be chosen. The same sources speculated that if a new judge were selected, the top contenders would be the previous presidents of the Supreme C ourt, such as Esther Hayut or Dorit Beinisch. Israeli officials have stated they will appoint a future judge as long as the Court remains "fact-based," the officials told Ynet that so far that the Court's orders have not "harmed the IDF's ability to advance the achievement of the war goals." President Isaac Herzog thanked Barak for his service on the Court, saying, " [Barak's] special contribution and influence on the legal world in Israel and in the world was of great importance in the legal campaign against those who seek our harm. We will continue to stand firm against the evil, the hypocrisy, and the false plots against the State of Israel and the IDF."
jpost.com | | US Congress Readying Legislation to Punish Maldives Over Israel Passport Ban Corey Walker  The US Congress is preparing to take action against the Maldives over its recent decision to ban Israeli citizens from entering the country.
US Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), a staunch supporter of Israel, is spearheading legislation that would condition American aid to the Maldives on allowing Israeli citizens to enter the country, according to Axios.
The legislation, titled the Protecting Allied Travel Here (PATH) Act, comes as a response to the Maldives' recent announcement that it would discriminate against Israeli passport holders over the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
"Taxpayer dollars shouldn't be sent to a foreign nation that has banned all Israeli citizens from traveling to their country," Gottheimer said in a statement.
"Not only is Israel one of our greatest democratic allies, but the Maldives' unprecedented travel ban is nothing but a blatant act of Jew hatred. They shouldn't get a cent of American dollars until they reverse course," Gottheimer continued.
Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu drafted the policy after consulting with his cabinet, according to a statement released by Muizzu's office. Muizzu also appointed a special envoy to "assess Palestinian needs."
"The cabinet decision includes amending necessary laws to prevent Israeli passport holders from entering the Maldives and establishing a cabinet subcommittee to oversee these efforts," his office said in a statement. "The president decided to appoint a special envoy to assess Palestinian needs."
The ban also positions the popular tourist destination alongside other members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). With this legislation, the Maldives joins Yemen, Kuwait, Iran, Bangladesh, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and Algeria as countries that prevent Israeli nationals from entering their nation.
Last year, almost 11,000 Israelis traveled to the Maldives, making up 0.6 percent of all visitors, according to The Times of Israel.
The Maldives has long been criticized for its human rights record. The nation declares Sunni Islam as the state religion, and only Sunni Muslims are afforded citizenship. All Maldivians are required to teach their children Sunni Islam. Homosexuality is illegal in the Maldives and can be punished with imprisonment, fines, or lashings. The Maldives' constitution states that "no law contrary to any principle of Islam can be applied." algemeiner.com | | The Farhoud Pogrom remembered – June 1-2, 1941 The October 7th massacre in Southern Israel joins a long line of dates and events such as the Faroud on June 1-2, 1941 when Jews were murdered for no other reason than being Jews. Ron Jager  A vast Jewish Diaspora underwent a process of communal annihilation prior to Israel's establishment, one that continued during Israel's formative years, yet we Israelis rarely talk about or commemorate these historic events. On the eve of the establishment of the State of Israel, at least 800,000 Jews lived in Arab countries. Today, those ancient Jewish Diasporas number only a few thousand at best. These numbers alone should give us pause:
Emigration of more than 99 percent of the Jewish population in such a short time is unparalleled in modern Jewish history. Even the Jewish communities of Europe, which experienced the most extreme suffering of anti-Semitic violence, did not vanish entirely, or so abruptly.
The story of the Jews from Arab lands is a saga that extends over hundreds of years and over a vast geographic region.
 More than 800,000 Jews lived in the countries of the Arab world at the time of Israel's founding. Virtually all of them fled or were forced out of their homes and communities after Israel's establishment with more than three-quarters of these Jewish refugees moving to Israel. The once-thriving communities they had established in places such as Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, Libya, Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Tunisia shrunk and, in some cases, virtually disappeared. The Jews of these Arab nations were forced to leave behind most if not all of their property and businesses with no compensation other than being allowed to remain alive to flee.
Thousands of pages of testimony have been collecting dust in various government offices in Israel since the 1950s. Under the bureaucratic heading "Registry of the Claims of Jews from Arab Lands," they tell of lives cut short, of individuals and entire families who found themselves suddenly homeless, persecuted, humiliated. Together they relate a tragic chapter in the history of modern Jewry, a chain of traumatic events that signaled the end of a once-glorious Jewish Diaspora. Yet for all its historical import, this chapter has been largely repressed, scarcely leaving a mark on Israel's collective memory, largely ignored by the mainstream printed and broadcasted media. The issue of Jewish refugees from Arab nations has not been on the agenda of the academic world always in tune to remain politically correct, proactively refraining from endangering the accepted false narrative of Arab refugees central to Palestinian Arab propaganda.  On the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, June 1-2, 1941; 83 years ago, the Muslim residents of Baghdad carried out a savage pogrom against their Jewish neighbors. In this pogrom, known by its Arabic name al-Farhoud, the pogrom of "violent dispossession" was carried out against the Jewish population of Baghdad. Over 180 Jews were murdered and mutilated and thousands wounded; Jews were killed randomly, women and children were raped in front of their relatives, and babies crushed. Jewish property was plundered; homes, business, places of worship, communal institutions were looted, set ablaze and destroyed.
Historians have referred to the Farhoud as being a pogrom associated with the Holocaust. The Farhoud has also been called the beginning of the end of the Jewish community of Iraq, propagating the mass migration of Iraqi Jews out of the country, of which the majority made Aliyah in masse to the newly established State of Israel. The hanging of Shafiq Ades, considered the wealthiest Jew in Iraq, on trumped up charges of treason in front of cheering crowds outside his Basra mansion on September 23, 1948, was the final catalyst.
 The linking of the Farhoud to the Holocaust is based on historical record and involved Muslim leaders who fully identified with the Nazi regime and played an active role in promoting the annihilation of Jewry of the Middle East. At the time, under the auspices of the British Mandate representatives, a governmental commission of inquiry was established concerning the Farhoud, and determined that the Nazi propaganda of Radio Berlin had been one of the massacre's foremost instigators.
The first Arab-language Nazi radio station was launched in Berlin prior to the outbreak of the Second World War, broadcasting anti-British, anti-American, anti-Soviet, and particularly anti-Semitic propaganda. It thus helped spread radical anti-Semitism in the Middle East. The messages in the propaganda broadcasts were designed to achieve certain goals, such as winning the Arab population's sympathy for the Nazis and the Führer, stoking Arab national sentiments, incitement against the Jews, and blaming the Jews for being behind all the Arab world's calamities and failures. The commission's report also identified the main individuals who had impelled the assault. It pointed to the extensive activity of Dr. Fritz Grobba, the German ambassador to Baghdad, and to the  activity of the former mufti of Jerusalem, Hajj Amin Husseini, who had fled to Iraq from Mandatory Palestine in October 1939 and begun inciting against the Iraqi Jews. The mufti had also worked with Iraqi subversive elements, including Rashid Ali, to overthrow Iraq's ruling Hashemite monarchy and install a pro-Nazi regime.
For those interested in further exploring the rich history of Iraqi Jewry, and learning more about the Farhoud, I highly recommend visiting The Babylonian Jewry Heritage Center, located in the central Israeli town of Or Yehuda. The Center was established in 1973 to preserve the history of the Jewish community in Iraq and to ensure that it remains part of the future narrative of the Jewish nation. The Center fosters research, preservation and publication of the culture and folklore of Iraqi Jewry.
 Adjacent to the Center is the Museum of Babylonian Jewry, opened to the public in 1988 and exhibiting chapters from the history of Babylonian Jewry throughout the generations over the course of more than 2,600 years.
As we in Israel and throughout the Jewish world everywhere process the tragic and painful consequences of the October 7th massacre in Southern Israel, we should always remember that this infamous date will join a long line of dates and events such as the Faroud on June 1-2, 1941 when Jews were murdered for no other reason than being Jews. It is our imperative to give meaning to their deaths by not only commemorating but ensuring that we learn from the past and never forget. israelnationalnews.com | | Nightmare Without End Jon and Rachel Goldberg-Polin will do whatever it takes to get their son back alive When their grievously wounded son Hersh was dragged off into Hamas captivity, Chicago-born Jon and Rachel Goldberg-Polin became the global face of a campaign to keep the hostages' cause alive. As they strive to present their son's case to a hostile world, Hersh's parents are trapped in a reality that few can understand Gedalia Guttentag Pesach came, and with it the first sign of life from Hersh Goldberg-Polin in six long months of captivity. Hamas's psychological warfare department released a short video of the 23-year-old Israeli-American hostage who was snatched from the Nova festival on Simchas Torah morning. The Arabic and English-subtitled clip showed that the once-smiling, happy-go-lucky young man who never raised his voice to anyone was now a gaunt, pale hostage with a Muslim-style haircut and deadened eyes.
Reading from a script prepared by his Hamas captors, edited to emphasize his agitation, he raged. "Binyamin Netanyahu and government — you should be ashamed of yourselves for torpedoing every hostage deal. While you sit having lunch with your families, we sit here without water, food, or sun and the treatment that I so badly need," said Hersh gesturing with his half-healed stump of an arm.
That was what viewers worldwide saw. But in their home just a few dozen miles from the Gaza tunnel hiding their son, Hersh's mother Rachel Goldberg-Polin detected something else. "I still felt whispers of Hersh, in the way that he turned to us and said the names of his sisters and said, 'I love you — stay strong.' "
Call that intuitive reading what you will — desperate hope, a mother's love — but if you meet Jon and Rachel Goldberg-Polin, you'll see that it's 100 percent authentic. There's a certainty born of some sense of spiritual connection flowing between Jerusalem and that dreadful bunker in Gaza that tells them that Hersh will come home. Rachel in particular talks about his well-being with a startling confidence: "I imagine that he's bored because he always needs to be reading, and wonder whether he's learned Arabic from his captors — he has a photographic memory."
That certainty has transformed Rachel into the global face of an effort to keep the hostage story alive. Along with the now-famous white masking tape with the number of days that Hersh has been held captive that she wears every day, her mix of drive and destiny have born Rachel into the White House, the Vatican, the United Nations, the world's front page, and countless news shows and rallies.
In a previous life Jon was a serial tech entrepreneur and Rachel worked in mental health. That's all gone. Now, they work together for 20 ho urs a day. Along with a small team, they relentlessly strategize, work for media exposure, and lobby leaders all over the world.
Their message is simple, scrupulously avoiding politics, emphasizing universal themes: "Just imagine that this was your son and daughter," they tell the interviewer, politician, or potential influencer. It's a highly-strategic formula that has gained them entrée to a media that has largely shut the door to Israel's narrative.
Like long-distance runners who've discovered unimagined reserves of endurance, there's a tightly-strung energy to both of Hersh's parents. But there's something volcanic about Rachel's calm — a pain that occasionally breaks through the deceptive serenity with which she goes about the fight for her son's life. Essence of Honor
The current iteration of Rachel Goldberg-Polin has no time for circling, or beating about the bush; there's an elephant in the room and so she gets to it straight away. "If we're a shomer Shabbos family," she asks rhetorically, "why was Hersh at a music festival on Simchas Torah?" I hadn't planned to start with what felt both obvious and insensitive. But Hersh's name — far too Yiddishy for a young Israeli — indicated that there was a religious story that had been missed in the countless media appearances that the couple has made. "Jon was lucky to be born frum from birth, into a nice Orthodox family in Chicago, where I also come from," confirms Rachel, "but mine was totally unaffiliated. I wasn't raised religious, but always had a very Yiddishe neshamah. I felt drawn to Yiddishkeit. So I always thought that Hershel was a beautiful name." "My grandmother — who called me 'zeeskeit' — was raised nonreligious but she bought her meat at a kosher butcher because her mother had done so. It was only through a weird twist that my mother started to keep a kosher kitchen when I was in seventh grade." That twist was when Rachel's mother invited a family to dinner, and they declined, explaining that they would only eat in a kosher home. She didn't know what that was, so she enrolled in a Chabad class to find out. She then decided that she wanted every Jew to feel comfortable eating in her home, so she began keeping kosher. Thus began a journey that took Rachel to an Orthodox day school for the last year of studies before entering the local Orthodox high school. That first day at Hillel Torah in Skokie changed her life.
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