Born Saartje Wijnberg in 1922, Selma (she changed her name in 1957 when she moved to the United States) grew up with her three brothers in the Dutch town of Zwolle, where her parents Samuel and Alida had built up and owned a successful kosher hotel. Selma later recalled her childhood as idyllic: her family...
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How can we learn to take shelter in the Lord and what is the connection with perseverance? The letter to Hebrews 10:36 states that we need perseverance: “For you need perseverance, to do the will of G’d, to obtain that which is promised.” The Eternal wants us to do His will and thereby we must...
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During Shavuot the book of Ruth is read Ruth is the only woman who is called a: woman of valor. The only place where we find the more specific characteristics of a woman of valor is in Proverbs 31:10-31. This beautiful song is read or sang on erev Shabbat, that is Friday evening when the...
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By Elze Erwteman A woman of valor: a woman of strength It is a Jewish tradition to read or sing at the beginning of Erev shabbat, Friday night Proverbs 31:10-31. Husbands sing it to their wives to honor them for making the house a home. For me this verse is a great tool for women...
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by Cisca Mudde The Purim story seems so clear. The evil people are caught and tried, the good people are restored, end good all good. Is this just a fairy tale? No, quite not so! The question is: do we recognize the spirit of Purim in this present time? The Purim story has a reality...
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A sensitive heart, among other things, we develop by learning from our own mistakes and sufferings without being stuck in a victim role. That is a difficult process in a human life and we all have to do it bij ourselves. However, we need each other in this process so much in social groups e.g....
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Again the enemy points the arrows at the people of the Lord. Iran is on the ground in Syria, close to the border of the land of Israel. Again jihadists crawl through self-dug tunnels under the border towards Israel. Again and again cowardly “fighters” go for their G’d through the streets of Jerusalem, to stab...
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by Cisca Mudde The lost position of a woman and her recovery One shabbat Yeshua was teaching in a Jewish meeting place. A woman was there who had been crippled by an evil spirit for eighteen years. That spirit made her sick; she was completely bent over and couldn’t possibly straighten up. When Yeshua saw...
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In an article, “Golda’s notebook for the developing world ‘in” The Jerusalem Report “by Bernard Dichek, we read how Golda Meir during her first visit to Africa in 1961, she the leaders in Africa told that they were neglecting the economic potential of women. In 1961, following the visit to Africa by Golda,  the “Mount...
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Loyalty is rewarded  By Sonja Haisma On the Feast of Weeks (Pentecost) we read in the synagogue, the book of Ruth. This young Moabite woman marries Mahlon, a Jewish man who moved away from his country with his family because of a famine. It is the period of the Judges, the 13th century BCE, not...
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