Israel has rejected a Gaza peace plan advanced with much fanfare by President Donald Trump, saying it did not really guarantee disarmament by Hamas. Israel said it would not withdraw from any part of Gaza until Hamas is thoroughly disarmed.

Behind the imposing stone walls of Eastern State Penitentiary — the Philadelphia prison that once held Al Capone — sits a small, unlikely  synagogue built by inmates, for inmates, nearly a century ago. Now, a new exhibition is telling its story. Eastern State Penitentiary, in Philadelphia’s Fairmount neighborhood, was active from its founding in 1829 until its closing in 1971.

When the human being, living in a world of woe, yet blessed under a blue sky, next to an ocean or with mountains in sight, is pained, speechless or baffled, the cup of Kiddush (santification) and the cup of Havdalah (division) are one and the same.

For 32 years, Esther Melamed has been the secular studies principal at Beth Jacob High School. That’s a lot of students she has seen and guided. Melamed estimates that over the years she has taught 800 to 900 graduates; a perfect background to bolster conversations about the 250th anniversary of the US and the future of America.

Some people return to the places that shaped them simply to reminisce. Rabbi Jordan Shaner is returning to help shape the next generation. Years after sitting in the classrooms of Temple Sinai as a child, he has come home as the congregation’s new rabbinic director of Jewish learning, bringing his journey full circle.

The popular French Jewish DJ Barbara Butch is striking a defiant tone after pro-Palestinian activists disrupted her concert in Grenoble, France, vowing not to be cowed from performing.