'Shirat haTanach' is a five-disc collection of over one hundred biblically-inspired songs, released by the Israel Broadcasting Authority and Hatav Hashmini records.   Assorted popular Israeli artists participated in the production of this album, which encompasses the varied history of Jewish Israeli music.

Shuli Rand, the award-winning star of the movie "Ushpizin", released his album "Good Point" in 2008.  Rand's music has a strong Jewish core blended with Israeli rock and other genres.  The songs in this album are based on Rebbe Nachman’s teachings.  Good Point reached gold certification this year.

A film about the Haredi community, this wonderful film (by David Volach) is a fabulous lens into that world, showing with sensitivity and deftness the struggle with faith that a Haredi rabbi and his wife face when they are confronted by a devastating tragedy.  It's a universal movie in that way, but it's also a wonderful way of getting insight into the Haredi world, its customs and beliefs.  Unforgettable.

Moshe and Mali Bellanga are dirt poor and childless, having joined the Breslov Hassidic community in Jerusalem as adults.  Their powerful faith is tested by their childlessness, and by their poverty, as well.  Their love, and their marriage, are severely tested when Moshe pays an extraordinary sum for a gorgeous etrog in preparing for the Sukkot holiday.  "Friends" from his former life, now escaped convicts, soon visit, and matters get extraordinarily complicated.  The Hardei community is the source of much contention in Israel, largely because Haredim do not serve in the army. But this touching film, in which the actors themselves are Hardeim and married to each other, casts an entirely different, and loving, light on this poorly understood community.  A beautiful film.

It's the early 1980's, and a single mother decides to move with her two daughters to a religious-Zionist settlement in the "occupied territories." The movie casts a not always flattering lens on the passions and beliefs of the community, shown through the trials of the two teenage daughters and the way they are treated by a host of characters. Painful, sometimes funny, and always poignant.

Dear Mr. Lieberman: Quite understandably, you didn't ask me to run your campaign. But now, in this extended hiatus between the campaign and a new government, I'd like to offer you some unsolicited advice about the next stage of the message you convey to the Israeli people. It's no secret that you've aroused the ire of many, from religious parties on the Right to those on the Left concerned about civil liberties. Ironically, though, your message could easily have appealed to many religious people and to some of those committed to civil liberties. To do that, you would simply have had to craft your message slightly differently, which you still can do. Let me explain. Ironically, of all the parties that received significant numbers of votes, ...

While Israel's decision to defend the citizens of its uncontested, sovereign territory was long overdue, the predictable international condemnation of Operation Cast Lead was virtually immediate. Israel ought to ignore most of it, for despite protestations to the contrary, it comes from people who would just as soon see the Jewish State eroded to the point of indefensibility. But what about those, particularly Jews, who level criticism yet clearly do not wish to see Israel destroyed? So far, most Jews abroad have been supportive. But as Palestinian civilian casualties mount or Israel makes concessions when the conflict abates, Diaspora Jews - and primarily American Jews - are likely to voice opposition, both from the Left and from the rRght. Which leads to that oft-discussed and ...

By pure coincidence, I happened to be in my old Los Angeles neighborhood on Election Day, and like many others, I found the extraordinary power of that day difficult to articulate. At the polling places in which I'd often voted, but had never waited in line, there were lines around the block. Friends who had voted regularly with no more than a mild sense of civic duty now spoke of participating in a moment that - whether they themselves had voted for Obama or McCain - they'd long remember and would tell their grandchildren about. For me, the tears that flowed in Chicago's Grant Park that night were beyond moving. One need neither forgive nor forget Jesse Jackson's abhorrent comments about Jews and Israel to ...

I didn't want to go to Theresienstadt, I told my wife. We would have only a few days in Prague and, for once, I wanted to walk the streets and see the museums without that seemingly inevitable dose of Jewish death that every visit to Europe seems to mandate. To my amazement, she agreed. We'd obviously see the Jewish Quarter, with its famous cemetery, the Alt-Neu Shul and more, but we could let Theresienstadt pass this time. Yet, as they say, the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry. Mine started unraveling on Tisha Be'av. For years, we've been hearing the Book of Lamentations in our local synagogue. This year, though, we finally decided to join our friends who've been ...