May 30, 2025

We enter a wilderness; every step on the journey takes a winding path. We are led deeper towards a future filled with hope, but also filled with individual moments of uncertainty. The winding path takes us to places like Rephidim, Zin, Kadesh, and Mt. Hor. Our history also winds its way through places like Babylonia, Rome, Kishinev, Toledo (Spain), Warsaw, Kyev, and New York. In every generation, the journey has been filled with challenges – from the attacks of Amalek to the Inquisition, to pogroms. Carrying history in the rucksacks of our memories, we come to a time where the wilderness feels deep, and the journey home is long.

This week, in Toronto, Beth Tikvah members, along with our broader Jewish community in Columbus, entered a wilderness of memory that began with dancing and ended with shouts of tzeva adom, red alert, and running in fear. 414 souls didn’t come home alive. We had the honor of visiting the Nova exhibit, with gratitude to JewishColumbus and the Wexner family.

We were transported to the morning of October 7, 2023, in Re’im in the Western Negev. What began in dancing and joy ended in terror. At 6:29 A.M., the attacks began. On the sandy floor of the exhibit, video screens show Hamas terrorists aiming their guns indiscriminately. One chilling audio recording plays a terrorist telling his father, “I killed a Jew, I killed ten Jews, with my bare hands. Go on WhatsApp and look.” They were murdered because they were Jews. Nothing more.

The exhibit then leads through a campground scattered with teddy bears, water bottles, and signs pleading for peace. We stood next to the bar and bullet-ridden port-a-potties, on Road 232 surrounded by burnt cars, and in roadside shelters where partygoers tried to hide—now turned into memorials. In those shelters, we imagined the stories of Aner Shapira, Hersh Goldberg Polin, and Yuval Raphael. Nova is now etched into our people’s collective memory.

Upon arriving at the exhibit, we heard from Ofer and Sara Leor whose son, Matan, was murdered at Nova. He supported cancer research and then became a sound engineer. He tried to save others that morning. He lost his voice telling people over the loudspeaker to leave and run. His parents continue to keep his story alive.

We are still in the wilderness. With 58 hostages still captive in Gaza, our hearts are with them. When we were at the Nova exhibit, we marked the 600th day. 600 days…how?! Could you have imagined it would be this long? The numerical value of the word tzitzit is 600. The tzitizit are the fringes on the corner of the tallit that serve as a visual reminder to do mitzvot. Some of us choose to wear a yellow ribbon, others wear dog tags, and others wear tape to count the days. In Israel, signs of the hostages are everywhere. They are on the minds of Israelis every day. The war is grinding on and we just want our hostages to come home. Overwhelming numbers of Israelis, nearly 70%, want an end to the fighting and for the hostages to come home. Their voices matter. And there lies the difference between discourse in Israel and discourse in America. We are living a different battle. You might read media reports each day filled with analysis and a brutalization of Israel as the most immoral pariah-state in the world. And yet, stepping into the Nova exhibit reminds us of Hamas’ brutality. To help us find a voice from within Israel, I encourage you to listen to the For Heaven’s Sake Podcast from the last two weeks (Israel at War – Moral Red Lines and Israel at War – A Nation that Dwells Alone). I also encourage you to consider the Identity Crisis Podcast from yesterday entitled, “Is the War Still Worth It?”

The deaths of Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinstky will forever remind us that, they too, were killed for being Jews. Whether it is on the streets of Washington D.C., or the communities of Road 232 that is just kilometers from the Gaza border, or Re’im where they came to dance, we can be killed for being Jews. Out of the darkness and the dust grows a kalanit flower, a poppy, whose red pedals remind us of our resilience throughout the ages. The ongoing war brings a soulful pain as we long for peace and a return of the hostages – both alive and dead.

The wilderness is a long and winding road that Torah filled with counting; counting of faces and marking of places. It is filled with threats to our existence and challenges to the values that shape us. As we navigate this wilderness, we hope and pray that the memories of those killed on October 7 and the soldiers lost in the war stay in our hearts. May we carry their stories on our souls, and may we soon find days where we will once again know peace and our hostages will return home. May we journey this wilderness together, withholding judgment of our neighbor, knowing that we are all struggling to navigate this rocky, winding road.

Shabbat Shalom

Rabbi Rick Kellner

May 23, 2025

When I see the Israeli flag, I feel a sense of pride. For me, it reflects the light of hope that emerged from the darkness of the Holocaust. When I encounter Jews around the world, whether they are Israeli or another nationality, I feel as if I am seeing my family. I want them to know I am part of the tribe too. Sadly, too many people in the world do not share these sentiments. For the last 19 months we have heard phrases like “Free Palestine,” “From the River to the Sea Palestine will be Free,” “Globalize the Intifada,” and “There is no resolution but Intifada Revolution.” These phrases often leave us feeling afraid.

The repetition of such phrases has consequences, and those consequences played out Wednesday night in Washington D.C. when Sarah Milgrom and Yaron Lischinsky were murdered because they were Jews. As staff of the Israeli embassy, they attended an American Jewish Committee event at the Washington Jewish Museum. Upon leaving, they were assassinated in cold blood by Elias Rodriques, who was seen pacing outside the museum before the shooting. When he was arrested, he yelled, “Free, free Palestine.” The murder of young Israelis will not bring a resolution to this war; it will not result in whatever vision this perpetrator has to resolve the conflict.

Just last week, Yaron had purchased an engagement ring for Sarah. He was planning to propose next week in Jerusalem. The two of them believed in peace, and they worked to bring about mutual understanding. The event they attended was focused on bringing the interfaith community together and increasing humanitarian aid.

Reflecting on this heinous act of terror, I feel a mix of sadness and anger—and many of us also feel afraid. Some have expressed surprise in the aftermath, but I cannot. The ADL’s Pyramid of Hate reminds us that bias fuels insensitive remarks, which can ultimately escalate to violence.

But the question remains as to how we move forward. In our sadness, we remember this loving couple as agents of peace. With our fear, we remember that we work closely with our law enforcement partners to ensure our safety. And with our anger, we need to call on every person to recognize that such acts of violence only bring about further pain and will never bring peace.

In this moment, we need something else. We need resolve. Resolve is a firm determination to do something, to plan a course of action, or to find a solution to a problem. We know that antisemitism is at the highest levels ever recorded. There is antisemitism in our community stemming from the right and the left. To combat hate, we strive to humanize one another – which means we work on telling our story. To that end, we have planned to screen the film October 8 at Congregation Beth Tikvah on June 11 at 7 PM. It chronicles the rising antisemitism in the United States since the Hamas attacks. We will be doing this in partnership with several Worthington area churches. The program will be followed by a guided conversation.

Next, our resolve must include a commitment to understanding who we are as a Jewish people. We immerse in our rituals and holidays. We find meaning in the moments we come together to celebrate, and we enrich our journeys when we immerse in Torah in the broadest sense. This Torah includes reflecting on our story and our history from biblical times through modern times, from darkness to light. When we know who we are, our identity becomes stronger. Shabbat arrives tonight with profound sadness as we remember Sarah Milgrom and Yaron Lischinsky. May their memories be a blessing.

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Rick Kellner

May 15, 2025

Basel, Switzerland is an important place in Jewish history. In 1897, Theodore Herzl gathered leaders from the European Jewish Community there for the world’s first World Zionist Congress. (Yes, it is the original iteration of the World Zionist Congress you just voted in!) The situation for the Jewish community in Europe was dire. Herzl, a journalist, had just covered the infamous Dreyfus affair in France, where French military leader, Alfred Dreyfus was wrongly accused and convicted of treason. The claims were false and solely based on antisemitism. He was later exonerated. Herzl, though not necessarily religious, was a proud Jew and he knew at the time, that something had to change. When he welcomed Jewish leaders to Basel, he said the following:

“We shall hear news of the situation of the Jews in different countries. All of you know, if only vaguely, that this situation, except for a few exceptional cases, is not a cause for joy. It is doubtful if we would be assembled here if the situation was otherwise. The uniformity of our destiny was interrupted by a long hiatus, though the scattered parts of the Jewish nation were condemned to share similar suffering in different places. Only in our times do we have the possibility, thanks to the modern miracle of transportation, to exchange information and create contact between the separated [communities]. And in this period, which is generally so uplifting, we see and sense ourselves everywhere surrounded by the ancient enmity. Anti-Semitism is the modern name, known to you so well, of this movement….

“Information about us in the world has always been defective due to distortion and obscuration. The feeling of [Jewish] belonging and cooperation, with which were accused so often and so stormily, was in the process of complete disintegration when we were assaulted by anti-Semitism, which awakened and amplified it once again. It can be said that we have returned home. Zionism is the return to Judaism even before the return to the land of the Jews.”

Herzl saw the moment, held a vision in his heart, and laid the foundation for the establishment of the modern State of Israel which would be born 51 years later. If you will it, it is no dream!

Fast forward 128 years and the eyes of Israelis and Jews are directed towards Basel, this time the host city for Eurovision. Each year there is a song contest in which each nation in Europe is able to submit one song. Last year, Eden Golan’s Hurricane spoke to the hearts of the Jewish people. Golan finished fifth thanks to an online vote but was probably penalized by the in-person judges because she was Israeli.

This year, Yuval Raphael’s entry speaks so powerfully to the soul of the Jewish people. I mentioned this song last week, but her story needs to be told. Raphael survived the Nova festival massacre by hiding in a shelter with 50 other people. While in the shelter, she recalled holding the hand of another girl and then a Hamas terrorist came in and started shooting. That girl had died. She was on the phone with her father who told her to, “hang up the phone and play dead.” Wounded with shrapnel, she survived by hiding under dead bodies for eight hours. Raphael was one of 11 in that shelter to survive. In November of 2024, she auditioned for HaKokhav HaBa, Israel’s version of Rising Star and was selected to represent Israel in Eurovision 2025. Her song for Eurovision is entitled New Day Will Rise and was written by Keren Peles.

Its lyrics are a blend of English, French, and Hebrew and reflect the true essence of Jewish history. We long for a time of comfort but our history has been filled with discomfort and uncertainty. The song speaks of the pain experienced on October 7^th but also reminds us that a new day will rise and even if we are crying, we should not cry alone. “But we will stay, even if you say goodbye.” It is a reminder that survivors live on and that they must build a tomorrow, even with the sadness of grief. 

Yuval Raphael enters this contest amid rising antisemitism. Some countries called upon the organizers to ban Israel; nothing new for Israel in this competition. She practiced being booed and even walked out in the introductions earlier this week to a man who made as throat slitting motion towards her. Semi-finals were held Tuesday and Thursday and Yuval Raphael performed yesterday. Tune in on Saturday for the finale! Click here to find out how you can watch the Eurovision Song Contest!

Shabbat Shalom

Rabbi Rick Kellner