In addition to her family and her dogs, Danielle Waldman loved her boyfriend—and she loved to dance. Born in Palo Alto, Danielle moved back to Israel when she was 4 years old; her father, Eyal Waldman is a tech-founder known for attempting to foster peace between Israelis and Palestinians through his factories and hiring practices. She met Noam Shay six years ago in the army, and they have been inseparable ever since. With their dog, Noam and Danielle moved into their refurbished apartment just a few weeks ago. On Friday, October 6, Danielle and Noam drove south to attend the Supernova Festival, which was billed as a festival of “unity and love.” As her father said, “Danielle loved to dance. She danced in every opportunity that she could and Noam joined her.” And dance they did, throughout the night, until that fateful morning. Danielle and Noam were murdered; they [...]

This week, our daily kavanot will honor the memories of just some of the men, women, and children killed by Hamas in last week's horrific attacks. Zichronam livracha—May their memories be forever a blessing. As of late last week, Sayeret Matkal, Israel’s special reconnaissance and operations unit, akin to the British Special Air Service or the U.S. Navy’s Seal Team Six, If you ask my 7 year old about the highlight of our family trip to Israel this summer, she will first tell you about the ice cream. But then, she is likely to tell you about the day we spent at Moshav Bar Giora, outside of Jerusalem, where our very own teacher Chen Goldberg grew up. She’ll tell you about running around with her friend Ziv and his cousins, about running back and forth to the makolet (the local convenience store), about the bonfire and the sunset and the [...]