Barbara Bensoussan

1099 It’s not just an IRS form. It’s the number of people who have served in the Knesset since its inception in 1949. Shimon Peres set the longevity record (47 years), while Binyamin Netanyahu and Moshe Gafni are the most senior current MKs, both first elected in 1988. Israel’s governing coalition, led by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, can take pride in an achievement that is rare in Israeli politics — surviving a full term without early elections or a midstream change of prime minister.

Remembering a Survivor [Inbox / Issue 1120] The recent letter from L. Silver about her father, Mr. Toivya Gruen a”h, one of the 51 boys who were released from the gas chambers, brought back wonderful memories. When I was young, my family and hers knew each other well. Her father was a true tzaddik. After his miraculous survival, Mr. Gruen certainly understood that he had work to do and that Hashem had allowed him to survive, where so many others didn’t, for a reason.

In a world that feels increasingly unsettled — with hostility and unrest raging around the globe, from the conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon and the continuing threats from Iran, to the sudden vulnerability felt on the streets of England, America, Canada, and Australia… we are reminded almost constantly that galus is not an abstract concept. It is a lived reality.