Interview with Yedidya Solomon

10th year Bet El Yeshiva student and cancer survivor

On coping with hardship through emunah (faith)

 Yedidya Solomon is 28 years old and lives in Bet El with his wife. He has been learning at Bet El's Yeshiva of Higher Learning for 10 years and is almost finished completing a B.A. in Special Education. He works in education, consulting, and therapy.

[Interview conducted by Sharona eshet-Kohen]

Israel News Analysis: Growing Larger and Greater!

by Yaakov "Ketzaleh" Katz

[Based on an article that originally appeared in Hebrew in Arutz Sheva, and translated by Hillel Fendel]

449,297. That's the number of Jews who reside in Judea and Samaria, as of this past Dec. 31, according to Israel's Interior Ministry. Practically 450,000 - a 3.25% jump in one year, nearly twice the growth rate of Israel altogether. And it doesn't even include the 325,000 Jews living in the 24 new neighborhoods built in the parts of Jerusalem liberated in 1967, such as Ramot, Pisgat Ze'ev, Gilo, and more.

When the Israeli nation is in Exile, it becomes, most unfortunately, a blind people. Even the signs and wonders of Moshe Rabbeinu in Egypt made no impression on the leaders and the majority of the Israelites at the time. Today as well, after 140 years of settlement in the Land of Israel and 70 years of independence politically, militarily, and economically, there are still many too many Israeli political leaders and IDF generals who have not yet been cured of the diseases of these terrible 2,000 years of Exile. The worst sickness of them all is "Jewish Ghetto Disease."