Banners festoon the streets of Yerushalayim and flap in the wind, borne aloft by the hands of the youth, whose hearts beat in fervent loyalty to their chosen party. It is election day for the second time now in this storm-tossed State of Israel, and tensions are high. Music blasts from the amp speakers of a kid on a bike, trying to broadcast his political message to the crowds heading for the voting booths. It feels like Yom Ha’atzmaut! For we are one nation, albeit split into various camps: rightwing, leftwing, religious, secular, each one fighting for a voice in the Knesset, a voice to establish the law of the Land according the the truth that emanates within each one’s heart. How will we ever unite?

Last February, Malka read a book her mother bought, called Shidduch Secrets. One chapter was about a girl who, turned off by a shadchan’s harsh words, decided to focus on doing chesed and started visiting a nursing home. Malka was inspired by this true story, in which the girl ended up marrying the grandson of a nursing home resident. She pushed herself to make the three-mile roundtrip walk, alone, to Tudor Heights Senior Living, one Shabbos shortly after Pesach, since no friend was available to go with her.

It is a new school year and time for a new commentary on an old and growing problem: the Jewish day school tuition crisis. We all feel it in different ways. This past school year was particularly crushing for us, because our kids needed special education supports that were very costly.

Several years back, one of our kids needed to leave her Jewish day school and attend a non-Jewish private school for dyslexic students. Her special private school was an amazing place where they reached children who learned differently, but it was expensive. Maybe in a perfect world, Hashem would pair up special needs with wealth. It was only with tremendous miracles from Hashem and kindness from very special people that our daughter received a lifesaving, six-figure elementary and middle school education.