Your Network Is Your Net Worth
In 1973, after struggling academically and trying her hand at more than 20 jobs, Barbara Corcoran borrowed $1,000 to start a small real estate company in New York City. That modest beginning ultimately grew into The Corcoran Group—one of the most recognizable and successful brokerage brands in the industry.
Her rise is a powerful example of how relationships can outweigh traditional credentials. With no formal business education or elite academic background, Corcoran built her success not on technical expertise, but on her ability to develop and sustain meaningful relationships.
An Open Letter from Columbia
Earlier this week, more than 500 Jewish students at Columbia University signed an open letter expressing their pride in their Jewish identity, defending their support for Israel, and decrying the harassment they've faced surrounding the school's anti-Israel encampment.
“Most of us did not choose to be political activists”, the students wrote. “We are average students, just trying to make it through finals much like the rest of you... One thing is for sure, we will not stop standing up for ourselves. We are proud to be Jews…”.
How to Respect the People we Love?
Why is it that it is sometimes challenging to like and respect the people whom we love?
Love is an emotion of the heart, respect is an intellectual appreciation for the positive qualities and values of another person and understanding their unique needs. While emotions are expressed more powerfully, they can also become destructive if they are not contained and given the proper context and boundaries. Intellect, on the other hand, may be more rational and less passionate, but it enables a person to develop a genuine appreciation and respect for those they love.
To Love Life
The Talmud teaches that one can learn a lesson from everyone, even from one's enemies. Just a few days after the horrific massacre on October 7th, a senior Hamas official was interviewed and asked how they had successfully taken the Israeli people by surprise.
The Hamas official responded, “The Israelis are known to love life” — Hamas view this as Israel's weakness and a weapon to be exploited. “We, on the other hand, sacrifice ourselves, we consider our dead to be martyrs... We made them think that Hamas was busy governing Gaza and assisting the people living there…All the while… Hamas was preparing for this big attack.”
Israel's Life-Saving Inventions
It is no secret that Israel is a leader in the production of technological inventions which have changed the world. In fact, Israel has more hi-tech start-ups per capita than anywhere else in the world.
Across a wide spectrum of industries, from Netafim to Watergen in agriculture, from PillCam to ReWalk in medical technology, to road safety life-saving AI Mobileye, Israel is leading the way with life-saving inventions.
Unconditional Love
The love that exists between parents and their children or among siblings is natural and innate since they are intrinsically connected. While the intensity and expression of the love may be dependent on many factors, the underlying foundation for the love will always remain intact under normal circumstances.
Why the Soviets Feared the Mikvah
One of the most powerful chapters in modern Jewish history unfolded in the shadows of the Soviet Union, during decades of Communist repression. Judaism was not merely discouraged—it was systematically targeted for eradication.
Among the many institutions under attack, the mikvah—the ritual bath—stood at the center.
What could be so threatening about a mikvah?
The Power of Jewish Women
When Yigael Yadin, an Israeli archaeologist and former military Chief-of-Staff, came to Masada in the 1950s and first laid eyes on a three-pooled plastered bath system carved into rock, he did not realize that he had just made the first-ever discovery of an ancient Mikvah, a Jewish ritual bath. Hundreds more were subsequently found all over Israel.
Words Matter
In 2018, furniture company IKEA performed a social experiment called “Bully A Plant- Say No to Bullying”. The experiment, conducted at a school in the United Arab Emirates, showed students how destructive negative comments can be. IKEA set up two identical plants in the school and kept them under identical controlled environments. They each received the same amount of light, nutrition and water. All except for one thing, that is. For 30 days, they invited students to compliment one plant and bully the other.
Hey Siri!
Hey Siri, what’s the weather forecast for this week? Alexa, please turn off the lights. Hey Siri, what is the Shabbat candle lighting time in Dobbs Ferry for this evening?
Along with the incredible technological advancements and development of artificial intelligence over the last few decades, we have also come to better appreciate the power of our speech. We can be literally “talking to the walls” while accomplishing a great deal of things.
A Seder in Boquete
Tucked high in the misty mountains of Boquete, Panama—the region’s coffee capital—a traveler might expect little more than quiet villages and picturesque landscapes. It is the kind of place people come to disconnect. Yet, unexpectedly, it has become a place where Jewish life flourishes.
I had the privilege of experiencing this firsthand in 2012.
The Billionaire Slave- Freedom Redefined
Howard Hughes—a billionaire, aviation pioneer, and Hollywood producer—seemed to embody the ultimate dream of freedom. With immense wealth, global influence, and limitless opportunity, he could pursue anything he desired.
Yet his life tells a very different story.
Hughes became a prisoner—not of governments or poverty, but of his own mind. Despite his fortune, he lived in constant fear: afraid of being attacked, poisoned, or betrayed. His paranoia consumed him. He withdrew from the world, isolating himself for years. In the end, he died not surrounded by luxury, but from malnutrition and dehydration—a captive of his own anxieties.
There is a Bright Future
Two months after his parents and two sisters were brutally murdered in their home by Hamas terrorists during the Oct. 7 massacre at Kibbutz Nahal Oz, Ariel Zohar celebrated his bar mitzvah.
The Tefillin that he placed around his arm and on his head were given to him by his Holocaust-survivor grandfather, who got it from his late father. Despite the charred home, the Tefillin stayed intact and was recovered by first responders.
Bon Appétit!
We are all aware of the health benefits of eating daily nutritious meals. You may also be aware of the correlation between our mood and the types of food we eat. But did you know that our diet can also affect our character and sensitivity to morality and spirituality?
The origins of the phrase “You are what you eat” is actually sourced in the Torah. In this week’s portion Shmini, we learn about the identifying signs of a kosher animal.
Forward Thinking
“My first visit to his court lasted almost an entire night,” writes Elie Wiesel, author, Nobel Prize laureate, and famed Holocaust survivor, in his Memoirs regarding how he came to Brooklyn, sometime in the early ’60s, in order to make the acquaintance of the Rebbe, Rabbi M.M. Schneerson.
"Rebbe,’ I asked, ‘how can you believe in G‑d after Auschwitz?’ He looked at me in silence for a long moment, his hands resting on the table. Then he replied, in a soft, barely audible voice, ‘How can you not believe in G‑d after Auschwitz'?”
The Life of Joe Lieberman
Last week, the late former senator Joe Lieberman of blessed memory was laid to rest among family, friends, and dignitaries. Among his many accomplishments was making history as the first Jewish candidate to represent a national party platform as Al Gore’s running mate during the 2000 presidential election. However, above all else, Lieberman's legacy is remembered for his proud observance of Judaism and his unwavering commitment to his values.
The Dining Club That Transformed College Life
In the early 1960s, the global Jewish community was facing a severe crisis. Many Jewish men and women who were going to out-of-town colleges were losing touch with their Judaism and intermarrying. At first the number was three percent, but this number was going up rapidly at an alarming rate.
Rabbi Ephraim Sturm, CEO of National Council of Young Israel at the time, related: “I called together the officers of Young Israel and I said, ‘We have a problem!’ We agonized over it, and we decided to ask a number of Jewish leaders what to do.
I Kept My Freedom in Hamas Captivity
In a powerful essay published by The Wall Street Journal, titled “I Kept My Freedom in Hamas Captivity,” former hostage Agam Berger shares her extraordinary reflections on endurance, faith, and the meaning of Passover during her months of captivity in Gaza.
“When Hamas overran our base on October 7, many of my friends were murdered,” Berger writes. “In those harrowing moments, as I was being kidnapped, I had the freedom to choose what to say. I recited, over and over, the same verse that Jews on the threshold of death have whispered for generations: Shema Yisrael, Hashem Elokeinu, Hashem Echad — 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One.'”
Discipline Equals Freedom
In his book Discipline Equals Freedom, Jocko Willink, former Navy SEAL commander, shares a powerful philosophy rooted in the belief that only through rigorous discipline—mental, physical, and spiritual—can one truly experience freedom. He writes not only about conquering fear and weakness, but also about the daily habits, workouts, and mindset shifts required to reach one’s highest potential.
As we prepare to celebrate the festival of Passover, the “season of our freedom,” it is a fitting time to reflect on this idea: the path to freedom begins with self-mastery.
The Fifth Son
In the early seventies, the Jewish Federation of North America decided to launch a campaign. They sought to institute that at every Seder table there should be an empty chair to bring into the Jewish consciousness the awareness that - if not for the holocaust and the loss of our 6 million - there would have been another Jew sitting in that seat.