By Rabbi Mark Wildes A number of years back when Israel received a number of additional F-35 fighter planes from the United States, the following question was posed to Rabbi Yehuda Aviner, the head rabbi of Yeshivat Ateret Kohanim, and a brilliant halachic authority: “With God’s kindnesses, the State of Israel received F-35 Stealth Fighter Jets. Should the blessing of Shehechiyanu - the blessing of renewal be recited, or is it not recited because the fighter plane is a weapon

NOW UP ON THE TIMES OF ISRAEL By Rabbi Mark Wildes Where the Happiest People Live A new study surveying 20,000 young people from 20 different countries reveals a fascinating trend when it comes to people’s level of happiness. The study, conducted by the Varkey Foundation, called “Generation Z: Global Citizenship Survey – What the World’s Young People Think and Feel, reported that young people living in developing countries reported they were the happiest. Indonesia emerged as

NOW UP ON THE TIMES OF ISRAEL By Rabbi Mark Wildes Last week, as MJE has done for 20 years, we marched in the Annual Celebrate Israel Parade. The parade was watched by over 40,000 people and included officials such as New York Mayor Bill De Blasio, Governor Andrew Cuomo and Israel’s Ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon. We found love and support all around us – in our MJE community, local NYC leaders and politicians and friends and family. Besides the simple fun of strutting dow

BLOG POST: Rabbi Jonathan Feldman March 7, 2018 Most years at AIPAC there is a crisis issue swirling around in the air:  The Iran Nuclear Deal, Israel-Palestinian Peace Negotiation, a UN condemnation of Israel…  This year there was no one issue that dominated the agenda.  Yes, all of these issue are still swirling around, and will not go away soon, but there was a feeling this year that we could be at AIPAC celebrating the great story that is Israel.  And AIPAC has been doing

PUBLISHED ON THE HUFFINGTON POST By Rabbi Mark Wildes, with contributions by Michelle Soffen Dedicated to the memory of slain student Second Lieutenant Richard W. Collins III LIBRARY OF CONGRESS Black Civil War Union Soldiers from the “4th United States Colored Infantry Regiment” It’s 8:00pm. The world around comes to a sudden halt. Cars break mid highway as phones are put away and conversations paused. A nation unites in complete stillness, and for an entire minute, no sound

Rabbi Mark Wildes delivers opening remarks at Yom Hazikaron Memorial Service Yom Hazikaron/Yom Haatzmaut Event 2017: Remarks by Rabbi Mark Wildes May 1, 2017 | The Jewish Center Thank you all for joining us this evening. For those of you I haven’t had the honor of meeting, my name is Rabbi Mark Wildes of MJE and this year we are proud to combine MJE’s Yom Hazikaron/Yom Haatzamut event with The Jewish Center. I want to thank my friends Rabbi Yossi Levine and Rabbi Dovid Zirkin