The stories of how Rabbi Yisroel Zev Gustman survived World War II and reestablished the Netzach Yisrael yeshiva in Jerusalem have inspired the new generation of Israeli rabbis. Meet Rabbi Kalman Flaks of the Simcha Center who teaches at Netzach as he shares stories of Rabbi Gutman’s miraculous and inspiring life.

A licensed tour-guide and IDF reserve soldier, Rabbi Kalman (Keith) Flaks explains the history of the Ramailes Yeshiva in the once thriving Jewish community of Vilna. Rabbi Yisroel Zev Gustman was the last great rabbi of Vilna before the Holocaust. He was helped Jews escape the Nazis, was severely injured, and became a partisan fighter. After the war, he headed the Chabad – Lubavitch yeshiva in New York. He then made aliyah to Jerusalem’s Rehavia neighborhood and reestablished the Ramailes Yeshiva in the historic Havatzelet House, an architectural gem built in 1925 for Gad Frumkin, one of the only Jews allowed to served on the Supreme Court during the British Mandate period.

Today Rabbi Kalman Flaks teaches at the yeshiva and hosts tours and Shabbat events. For more information visit https://www.tourstoinspire.com/

NOTES:

• Rav Gustman: The youngest Dayan of Vilna and illustrious Rosh Yeshivah in New York and Yerushalayim by David Page, Artscroll Publications

• Rabbi Gustman's Astounding Survival - Aish HaTorah

• Kalman Flaks tour guide

• Simcha Center Facebook page

Israel once honored the United Nations resolution of 1947 which was seen as a victory for the Zionist Movement. But in 1975, led by the Soviet Union and the Arab League, the UN voted to condemn Zionism as a form of racism. It resulted in rallies, protests and the renaming of UN Street to Zionism Street.

Hear the voices of those who defended Zionism as a Jewish liberation movement including:

• Jerusalem mayor Teddy Kollek, who renamed Rehov HaUm as Rehov HaZionut.

• Israeli Ambassador to the UN Chaim Herzog, who tore up a copy of the resolution in a dramatic speech.

• US Ambassador to the UN Daniel Patrick Moynihan, who defended Israel as a country in which any Jewish person of any ethnic background, including converts can become citizens.

• US President George Bush, who initiated rescinding the resolution in 1991.

• News reels from the 1947 UN Palestine Partition Plan

NOTES:

• Huge Rally Here Condemns U.N. Anti‐Zionism Move - New York Times, 1975

• UNITED NATIONS: Shock Waves from an Infamous Act - Time Magazine, 1975

• U.N. Rescinds Its Zionism Censure - LA Times, 1991

• Fighting the ‘Zionism is Racism’ Lie: Moynihan’s Historic U.N. Speech

• Chaim Herzog Speech to the UN on ‘Zionism is Racism’ - UN Watch

• UN Honored with United Nations Street sign, 1951 - JTA

• Teddy Kollek removes UN Street sign in Jerusalem, 1975 - British Pathe

• The 1975 “Zionism Is Racism” Resolution: The Rise, Fall, and Resurgence of a Libel - Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs

• President Bush Calls for Repeal of UN 'Zionism is Racism' Resolution, 1991

• UN vote on Palestine Partition, 1947 - British Pathe

Every day Meir Eisenman would watch the reconstruction of the Hurva Synagogue which his great-great grandfather Rabbi Avraham Shlomo Zalman Zoref helped fund over 200 years ago.

A licensed tour guide, Meir explains the history of the Perushim, the students of the Vilna Gaon, who left Lithuania to rebuild the Jewish community of Jerusalem.

They sought to reconstruct the Hurva, or ruined courtyard, where once stood the grand synagogue of Judah HeHasid which was destroyed in 1720.

In 1864 it was rebuilt to be an iconic community center for the Jews of Jerusalem. It was destroyed in the War of Independence in 1948 and rebuilt in 2010.

Find out the inside story from a personal perspective.

NOTES:

• Meir Eisenman tour guide

• Family of Avraham Shlomo Zalman (Salomon) Zoref hold a conference in his memory

The story of Operation Magic Carpet / Operation Wings of Eagles which airlifted tens of thousands of Jews from Yemen to Israel during the War of Independence.

Hear from journalist Ruth Gruber about the dedication of the ancient Jewish community of Yemen who faced starvation and persecution and trekked across the desert to be airlifted to the promised land.

Learn about the American pilots such as Warren Metzger and Elgen Long who flew non-stop over enemy territory to rescue the refugees who had never before seen an airplane. Find out how they modified the aircraft to carry hundreds of starving refugees to a new life in Israel.

NOTES:

• Alaska Jewish Museum - On the Wings of Eagles: Alaska's Contribution to Operation Magic Carpet

• Witness: One of the Great Correspondents of the Twentieth Century Tells Her Story by Ruth Gruber

• Elgen Long interview - Toldot Yisrael

• On Eagles' Wings: An Untold Story of the Magic Carpet by Captain Elgen M. Long

• Alaska Over Israel: Operation Magic Carpet, the Men and Women Who Made it Fly, and the Little Airline That Could by Darragh Metzger

• Interview with Warren Metzger’s daughter - Toldot Yisrael

• Alaska Airlines role in Operation Magic Carpet

• Yemenite Jews Mark Anniversary of ‘operation Magic Carpet’ - JTA

• JDCs “operation Magic Carpet” Ends As Last Yemenite Jews Land at Israel Airport - JTA

Interviews from the Sigd festival at the Tayelet promenade in Jerusalem on the Jewish Ethiopian community and its traditions.

Featuring:

• Ethiopian Chief Rabbi Yosef Hadane

• Chief Kes Raphael Hadane

• Shoshana Ben-Dor, Israel director of the North American Conference on Ethiopian Jewry

• Lior, an assistant to researcher Dr. Yossi Ziv, author of Festival and Holiday in the Ethiopian Jewish Tradition of Beta Israel

• Dr. Avraham Neguise of the South Wing to Zion organization

• Aviv Melese, musician and author of Circles of Life – From Ethiopia to Israel

• Yehiel Yisrael of the American Association for Ethiopian Jews on his experiences in Sudan in the 1980s rescuing refugees

These interviews were conducted years ago and I am happy to re-upload them as a historic record.

Also check out my previous podcast: Ethiopian Aliyah – the Struggle to Immigrate to Israel

A group of Jewish American volunteers from Park Synagogue in Cleveland, Ohio visited Israel to work on farms, cook meals, visit communities affected by the war and listen to the stories of those who survived the October 7th terrorist attacks. Hear the inspiring stories of how Israelis and American Jews supported each other during difficult times during this life-changing trip. Interviews include: Rabbi Sharon Marcus, Paula Herman, Miriam Rose, Sandi Horwitz, and Scott Jacobson.

Jewish artists in the Zionist movement sought to revive both the Jewish State and Jewish culture.

Meet E. M. Lilien, who befriended Herzl and depicted the merger of ancient and modern, Boris Shatz, who metaphorically met the Bezalel of the Bible, Ze’ev Raban, who drew the now ironic Visit Palestine posters, Abel Pann, who re-envisioned the Patriarchs and Matriarchs as exotic Mediterranean figures, Moshe Castel whose Hebron roots inspired him, Yudel Pen, the father of the Jewish Renaissance, and Marc Chagall, whose imagined new interpretations of the prophets.

Plus, non-Jewish artists whose works could be described as “Jewish” such as James Tissot, Rembrandt, and Börries von Münchhausen who turned from Zionist to Nazi.

What is Jewish art? What did Abraham look like? And do Jewish artists draw him “Jewish” enough? Find out in this journey through the early years of the Israeli art revival.

NOTES:

• Ephraim Moshe Lilien: “The First Zionist Artist”

• Revealed After 100 Years: Abel Pann’s Showpiece Portrait

• Yehuda Penn

• The Son and the Stranger: E.M. Lilien, Börries von Münchhausen, and Juda (1900)

• James Tissot’s Journey to the Jewish Museum

• Rembrandt Van Rijn and the Jews

• Baruch Nachshon

• Moshe Castel Museum

A young Robert F. Kennedy describes first-hand the tense final days of the British Mandate of Palestine, the Arab preparations for war and the tenacity of the underequipped Jewish fighters seeking an independent Israel in 1948.

“Jews Make Up for Lack of Arms with Undying Spirit, Unparalleled Courage” reads a headline from the Boston Post in a series of Kennedy articles that were lost for decades until being uploaded online in 1998. Hear about his close-calls in the days leading up to Israel’s War of Independence.

Plus, the tragic assassination of Senator Kennedy by an Arab nationalist in 1968.

NOTES:

• Robert Kennedy’s 1948 Reports from Palestine by Lenny Ben-David, who recovered the rare articles in 1998 - Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs

• Original blog upload of lost Kennedy articles

• Lenny Ben-David explains finding lost RFK articles.

• Recent Article Hides RFK Assassin’s Hatred for Israel

• The Forgotten Terrorist: Sirhan Sirhan and the Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy by Mel Ayton

• Author Mel Ayton archive of RKF murder myths and facts

• "R.F.K. Must Die!": Chasing the Mystery of the Robert Kennedy Assassination by Robert Blair Kaiser

• Coverage of Robert F. Kennedy's assassination in 1968 - Walter Cronkite, CBS news

• Kennedy Recalls Visit to Plaestine; Makes Plea for Votes in the Bronx and Westchester - New York Times, 1964