Video: WARNING: DISTURBING FOOTAGE: The attack on Charlie Kirk

He was shot at the amphitheater of the university with hundreds gathering for his Q&A session, when shots were heard and blood began pouring from his neck. This was his first stop of his American Comeback Tour in which he planned to crisscross America and make the case of conservatism.

In that same year, encouraged by his mentor Bill Montgomery, Kirk forwent academic studies and founded the organization Turning Point USA at the age of 18. What started as a small initiative on American campuses grew within a few years into a large-scale conservative movement with thousands of chapters and enormous budgets. The organization is now considered the primary body in the US for political engagement among university and high school students.

Alongside his organizational work, Kirk built an impressive media career. He was a frequent guest on conservative networks, authored several successful books, and hosted a popular podcast and a nationally syndicated radio show. His digital platforms attract millions of followers and downloads, positioning him as one of the foremost voices in the conservative movement.

Over the years, Kirk also drew public criticism. It was alleged, among other things, that he fostered ties with extremist elements and promoted conspiracy theories, in addition to his organization's shift from emphasizing free-market values to a distinct Christian-nationalist identity. Nevertheless, his supporters viewed him as a central figure in recruiting and mobilizing young people for conservative political action and in bolstering the standing of President Donald Trump among the younger generation.

Kirk advocated for a foreign policy supportive of Israel within the conservative-evangelical discourse in the US. Since October 7, he voiced strong opinions against Hamas's actions and in support of Israel – including during confrontations with pro-Palestinian and Hamas supporters.

Beyond his organizational and media endeavors, Kirk cemented his position as one of President Donald Trump's closest allies. He was a central figure in recruiting young people for Trump's campaigns and co-led "Students for Trump," a student movement that worked to mobilize approximately one million students to vote in the 2020 election.

Kirk also played a significant role in the 2024 elections. Fundraising and grassroots efforts he led were directly credited with improving Trump's performance among young people, a demographic where Democrats traditionally held the lead. Kirk himself became a favored figure within the Trump family, and this past January, he joined Donald Trump Jr. on a trip to Greenland – a testament to the close personal and political bond that had formed.

Concurrently, Kirk was known as a steadfast supporter of Israel within the conservative camp. While a segment of the younger generation on the American right expresses skepticism toward traditional US foreign policy, Kirk was considered one of the leading voices in defense of Israel. He frequently confronted public displays of antisemitism among youth, especially following the October 7 attack, stressing that antisemitism is "poison for the mind" and "demonic evil."

Despite facing criticism for occasionally providing a platform to speakers with anti-Israel views and for voicing explicit opposition to calls to limit anti-Israel protests while stressing the importance of free speech, many in the pro-Israel community regarded him as a key ally in the struggle for the public opinion of the younger generation in the United States.

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His daughter, Shira Margalit, announced on social media that her father passed away at his home in Tel Aviv after an illness, surrounded by family. She described him as a devoted family man, a lover of people, a journalist and writer, a Zionist, and someone who cherished the Land of Israel with all his heart.

Margalit was born in 1938 in Tel Aviv. He studied at the Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium and in his youth wrote for the newspaper Herut. Between 1964 and 1991, he worked as a journalist at Haaretz.

He gained particular prominence in 1977, when, as the paper's Washington correspondent, he exposed the Dollar Account Affair, showing that Rabin's wife had maintained an active overseas account in the US despite the law prohibiting such assets at the time. The revelation forced then-prime minister Yitzhak Rabin to drop out of the Knesset race, resulting in the appointment of Shimon Peres as the Labor Party's nominee for prime minister. Peres went on to lose to Menachem Begin, leader of Likud.

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This ends nearly 12 years during which Francis held the "keys to heaven," according to Catholic belief, and led Vatican City.

The leadership position of the church, which counts more than a billion people among its faithful, remains vacant until a successor is appointed by the assembly of cardinals ("conclave"). Francis was the 266th pope since Peter – who according to Catholic tradition was appointed to lead the church by Jesus.

Francis was the first pope since the 8th century born outside Europe, a fact that had a profound impact on his papacy, which was perceived as a period when European hegemony within the church was broken. He was also, not coincidentally, viewed as a "liberal pope," certainly compared to his predecessor Benedict XVI.

Pope Francis, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, was born on December 17, 1936, in Buenos Aires, to a family of Italian origin. His father was born in a village in Piedmont province in northwestern Italy.

He was the eldest brother in a family of five siblings. In his youth, he studied at vocational education institutions and received certification as a chemical technician and worked for several years in a factory. At 21, he fell ill with pneumonia, an event that threatened his life. He said he chose a life of priesthood after confession in church and began his religious studies at a seminary in Buenos Aires in 1955. After three years, he joined the Jesuit order, a choice that would have profound significance for the rest of his life, his path to the Holy See, and his papacy.

After earning a degree in philosophy and a period during which he served as a teacher of literature and psychology at Jesuit educational institutions in Argentina, he returned to theological studies and was officially ordained to priesthood in 1969. In 1973, he was appointed to lead the Jesuit order in Argentina. He was an avid fan of the San Lorenzo soccer team, which announced it would name a stadium being built these days after him. After the team won the Copa Libertadores, he had to admit that although he was "very happy," it was not "a miracle."

During Argentina's "Dirty War," when the military junta persecuted regime opponents, Bergoglio was accused of silence in the face of the kidnapping of two priests from the Jesuit order. In a conversation he held with members of the order in Budapest in May 2023, he defended his actions: "I did what I felt I had to do to protect them... The wounds of those years remain in both me and them, because we all experienced this persecution."

In February 1998, he was appointed Archbishop of Buenos Aires, a position he held until his election as pope. In 2001, he was promoted to cardinal by Pope John Paul II, the highest priestly rank in the Catholic Church. Already with the death of Pope John Paul II in April 2005, he was considered a candidate to replace him, but ultimately Joseph Ratzinger was chosen for the position, who upon his election became Benedict XVI. After Benedict's unusual retirement from the position, he was elected in March 2013 by the assembly of cardinals to replace him.

From Jorge to Francis

When elected, Jorge chose Francis as his religious name, after St. Francis of Assisi (1181-1226), who founded the Franciscan order and revitalized the concept of monasticism, the ideal of modest living, and the church's proximity to the weak. He was the first to do so.

Francis's public image was that of a "liberal pope" who opposed capitalism, was somewhat tolerant of LGBTQ people, supported more equality for women, and represented the Global South against the West. As pope, he chose to live in a modest apartment rather than the elaborate papal palace. The custom of washing the feet of senior clergy by junior ones on Holy Thursday before Easter, he observed as pope by washing the feet of prisoners – and was unusual in that he included female prisoners in the ceremony, one of them Muslim.

In his first papal encyclical, he sharply criticized income inequality and stated that "as long as the problems of the poor are not radically resolved by rejecting the absolute autonomy of markets and financial speculation, no solution will be found to the world's problems." He devoted two papal encyclicals to climate issues: "Laudato Si" in 2015 and "Laudate Deum" in 2023. In an interview with CBS in May 2024, he warned that "we have reached the point of no return" and that "climate change at this moment is a path leading to death."

Francis led several changes in the Catholic Church's approach, especially through the document "The Joy of Love" published in 2016 after two church assemblies discussing family. The document did not officially change Catholic doctrine, but offered a more inclusive approach toward divorced people who remarried and established that each case should be considered individually. This is one of the most painful issues among Catholic believers, as the church believes that in most cases, second marriages are considered adultery. Francis sought to find a place for them within churches – but avoided significant changes to doctrine.

He also called for full equality for women in work and decision-making and spoke out against domestic violence. Regarding women in the church itself, Francis opposed the ordination of women to priesthood – but opened positions for them that were previously closed and gave them voting rights in forums that were closed to them.

On LGBTQ issues, as Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Francis opposed Argentina's same-sex marriage law, which was approved in 2010. In 2013, he provided the most accepting statement toward LGBTQ people from such a senior church figure: "If a person is gay and seeks God, who am I to judge him?" In 2019, he expanded: "Tendencies are not sin. If you have a tendency to anger, it's not a sin. Only if you get angry and hurt people, the sin is there." In January 2023, he called for the repeal of laws criminalizing homosexuality, and in September of that year expressed openness to blessing same-sex couples, as long as it did not undermine the Catholic concept of marriage as a covenant between a man and a woman.

Man of gestures

But again, these were not "hard" theological changes. Francis was a pope of gestures, who knew how to make good use of the spotlight. He felt comfortable expanding the boundaries of semantics – without getting into real conflict around changes in doctrine. To some extent, this expectation was driven by the fact that he succeeded Benedict XVI, who was considered conservative and even known as "God's Rottweiler."

"There is no doubt that he brought with him a more liberal and open spirit, especially compared to Benedict XVI," says Dr. Maayan Raveh, an expert on political theology in the Middle East at the Haifa Research Center for Religious Studies, University of Haifa. "His very being from the Global South is significant in this context, as he brings with him social emphases and a different perspective." Raveh also points out the limitations of that liberal spirit of Francis. "He was very careful not to make substantial doctrinal reforms. Instead of changing the principles of faith, he allows for openness and interpretive flexibility in certain cases, while maintaining the traditional lines of the church."

Francis acted as a representative of the Global South in the Catholic Church. In his appointments to the College of Cardinals, he broke the European hegemony: its representation dropped from over 50% to just about 38%, while expanding representation from Africa, Asia, and Latin America and appointing cardinals from Catholic "periphery" countries. His choices increased the number of countries represented among the voting cardinals from 48 to over 70 countries.

Dr. Raveh qualifies Francis's image as someone who revolutionized the European hegemony in the church, saying that "his rise is a result of the changing balance of power in the church, a change that began in the early 20th century and intensified in the second half of the century, after World War II." She explains that "while the Catholic world in the Global North became less religious, the Global South became the main center of power for the church: today about two-thirds of Catholics in the world live in the Global South, and most of the clergy, nuns, religious and social institutions – including schools and monasteries – come from or are managed by clergy from these regions."

During his tenure, a severe migration and refugee crisis occurred – in Europe, the Middle East, and the United States – Pope Francis called on countries to increase the number of refugees they accept. Pope Francis attacked Trump during the 2016 election campaign, saying that "a person who thinks only about building walls and not about building bridges is not a Christian," referring to Trump's intention to build a wall on the Mexico border. Trump responded harshly, claiming that "it is disgraceful for a religious leader to question a person's faith," adding that he was "a good Christian."

In his remarks at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences conference in June 2024, Pope Francis stated that "after failed globalization, pandemics, and wars, we face a debt crisis affecting mainly the countries of the Global South, creating poverty and suffering" leaving "millions without a fair future." Additionally, he called on developed countries to forgive the debts of developing countries, while proposing to build "a new international financial architecture" with a multinational mechanism for managing debts between countries, with "shared responsibility" that would allow debt cancellation and give hope to poor countries.

As pope, he visited 59 countries – coming to Middle Eastern countries like Egypt, Iraq and Jordan, to war zones in Africa, Southeast Asia and the Far East, and throughout Latin America. He played, among other roles, a part in thawing relations between the United States and Cuba in 2014 and signed a historic agreement with China that on one hand gave the pope veto power over the appointment of bishops in the country and maintain open relations with the Catholic community in China, but on the other hand agreed to give the Communist Party a significant foothold in religious appointments in the country.

During the war in Ukraine, Francis disappointed many when he did not take an unequivocal stand against Russia – and continued to call for peace talks and an end to the war, while unable to point to the central culprit in the Kremlin. He did describe Ukraine as "tormented," prayed for the victims of the war, and condemned the bombing of cities in the country – but his statements often caused disappointment and anger in Kyiv and the Western world. On one occasion, he raised the possibility that NATO expansion led to the war, and another time he expressed himself in a way that hinted that Ukraine should embrace the courage of the "white flag" and negotiate, which many understood as a call to surrender.

Francis, whose first visit to Israel in 1973 was cut short by the outbreak of the Yom Kippur War, maintained complex relations with Israel and the Jewish people throughout his tenure. His attitude toward Judaism as a religion was consistently positive – "A Christian cannot be antisemitic, since we share the same root," he emphasized many times. His long friendship with Rabbi Abraham Skorka, which produced the co-authored book "On Heaven and Earth," expressed his commitment to interfaith dialogue.

His official visit to Israel in 2014 reflected the art of gesture that characterized his tenure: from kissing the hands of Holocaust survivors at Yad Vashem and promising "never again," to a spontaneous stop to pray at the separation barrier. However, in his final year, in the shadow of the Gaza war, his harsh statements – about harm to civilians in a church compound, claims of "cruelty" and intentional shooting at children – became a source of significant tension.

Journalist Henrique Cymerman, one of Francis's close friends in Israel, presents a different picture: "In my lifetime, there has never been a pope so close to the Jewish people." Cymerman reveals that the pope "cried after meeting with the families of the hostages," and intended to visit Kibbutz Nir Oz, where Argentinian friends from his childhood live. "He would always say: it is permissible to criticize the activity of any government, but to say that Israel has no right to exist – that is antisemitic and forbidden."

Relationship with Israel and Jews

Francis, then still Jorge, first visited Israel in October 1973. He only managed to put down his suitcase in the room, say a short prayer at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre before the Yom Kippur War broke out and forced him to stay in his room and return to his homeland. After being appointed pope, he came for a visit to Israel, Jordan, and the Palestinian Authority in May 2014. He met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Shimon Peres, and visited the Western Wall, the memorial for victims of hostile acts on Mount Herzl, and Yad Vashem. He even came to Heichal Shlomo in Jerusalem and met there with the chief rabbis.

His visit here was full of gestures, to Israelis and Palestinians, in accordance with the pope's character. On one hand, he laid a wreath on Herzl's grave, visited the memorial for victims of hostile acts, the Western Wall, and Yad Vashem, where he kissed the hands of Holocaust survivors and promised "never again." On the other hand, when passing by the separation barrier, he asked, in what was described as a planned deviation from protocol, to stop by the wall and pray. He invited Abu Mazen and President Peres to come to the Vatican in an attempt to promote the two-state solution – and they did indeed come to the Vatican for a joint prayer event for peace.

There is no doubt that in Israeli public opinion, Francis appeared during the last war in a series of harsh statements against Israel. The Vatican condemned Hamas's October 7 attack, and the next day provided a relatively unusual statement for his pacifist position when he said that "those who are attacked have the right to defend themselves," but added that he was "concerned about the siege of Gaza and the Palestinians living there." His public statements quickly tended against Israel very rapidly.

Francis made sure to speak every day with the Catholic community in Gaza, both during the intense days of the war and during ceasefires. On December 16, 2023, a mother and daughter were killed in the area of the Catholic church in the Rimal neighborhood. The Latin Patriarch in Jerusalem blamed Israel, while Israel initially denied and later said the matter was under investigation. During that period, church institutions were also damaged during the fighting. Following this, in a sermon he delivered on December 17, 2023, he said that "civilians are targets for bombings and shootings, even within the compound of the Holy Family Church (in Gaza)," and he added that this was "terrorism."

On December 21, 2024, after the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem was not allowed to enter Gaza, he said: "Yesterday they bombed children. It's cruelty. It's not war." The next day he added: "With sorrow I think of Gaza, of so much cruelty; of the children who are sprayed with machine guns, of the bombings of schools and hospitals."

In another incident, on December 7, 2024, he participated in the inauguration of displays of the nativity scene designed by Palestinian artists from Bethlehem. Another controversy arose after excerpts were published from a book to be published soon based on interviews with him, according to which he said "it should be investigated whether Israel committed genocide in the Gaza Strip." The pope himself denied the statements to an interfaith delegation. "I did not claim that Israel is committing genocide. They showed me materials about the war, and I said that if it's true, it should be investigated. I believe that Hamas should no longer exist in the world, but the war cannot continue," he said.

"The Vatican over the years has taken a position emphasizing concern for the Palestinian people, along with a call for peace," explains Dr. Maayan Raveh, an expert on political theology in the Middle East at the Haifa Research Center for Religious Studies, University of Haifa. "However, Francis is unique in that he took on a broader international role, and saw the Vatican as a kind of global mediator." Raveh explains that his statements should be seen in the context of his overall approach to conflicts: "He not only refers to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict but holds a firm position against wars in general, from a theological perspective that sees war as contrary to perpetual justice, this approach is also prominent in his attitude toward the war in Ukraine."

Professor Dina Porat from the Department of Jewish History and the academic advisor to Yad Vashem, says that one must "distinguish between Francis's attitude toward Judaism and his attitude toward Israel – since while the former is based on ideological perceptions, the latter is motivated by political positions." Porat, who also edited the book "At This Time" dealing with church-Jewish relations after the Holocaust, says that Francis was faithful to the "Nostra Aetate" declaration of the Second Vatican Council, which cleared the Jews of guilt in the crucifixion of Jesus, recognizes that the election of the Jewish people has not been revoked, and condemned antisemitism.

Francis's deeper and more personal connection with Judaism is in his long friendship with Rabbi Abraham Skorka, rabbi of the Conservative community in Buenos Aires. The two published a book together based on their conversations entitled "On Heaven and Earth: Pope Francis on Faith, Family, and the Church in the Twenty-First Century." Skorka also accompanied Francis on his visit to Israel. In one of the passages in this book, a dialogue between Francis and his friend Skorka is presented – interesting exchanges against the background of Francis's statements published during the war. "The media's habit of presenting things in black and white is an immoral tendency that always prefers conflict over unity... It causes great harm."

"A Christian is forbidden to be antisemitic, since we share the same root. It would be a contradiction between faith and his life," Francis often said. In a letter from 2013, shortly after his election, he wrote: "We hold the Jewish people in special regard because their covenant with God has never been revoked... We cannot consider Judaism as a foreign religion."

One of the Israelis closest to Francis in Israel was journalist Henrique Cymerman, who says that in the last half-year he met with him once a month. Despite the image portrayed to the public in the last year, Cymerman says that "in my lifetime, there has never been a pope so close to the Jewish people." He says that the pope asked to meet with him, but meanwhile entered the hospital. Henrique came anyway and met with his senior assistants.

"He would always say: it is permissible to criticize the activity of any government, but to say that Israel has no right to exist – that is antisemitic and forbidden," says Henrique. "After the statement about 'genocide,' I came to him for a meeting – he explained that these were not his words, but was only answering a journalist's question. I told him only one thing – 'I want you to know that this is not genocide, there are tragedies, but this is not genocide. This is a war that was forced upon us.'"

Henrique tells about plans that now will not be realized. "The last time I came to him, President Herzog was also supposed to meet with him. I suggested the meeting and he agreed, I'm sorry we delayed." Henrique adds another detail: "Francis wanted to come to Nir Oz, he has friends who grew up with him in Argentina there. He also wanted to come to the church in Gaza, if the security situation would allow."

Several hostage delegations came to Francis, and Henrique says that he also discussed the issue with other leaders. "I was in the south and covered the events, Francis called and said – 'I feel very close to you, they are taking us back 50 years.' He cried after meeting with the hostages and that evening called Biden, the Emir of Qatar, and el-Sisi in front of me."

Cymerman thinks that Israel was wrong about Francis, including regarding the controversy surrounding his statements during the war. "The thing with the keffiyeh, the display from Bethlehem, he didn't even understand what it was about," he says. "As soon as he saw the world uproar that arose against the Jewish communities – he gave an immediate order to stop it." He explains that "we have few friends in the world, Francis was one of them. We need to bring closer and not push away. People exploited it for local political gain and hurt Israel in the international arena."

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Not enough attention had been given to the passing last week of Dr. Dore Gold, who served as a strategic adviser to Israeli prime ministers and as Israeli ambassador to the United Nations. Dore's contribution to Israel's diplomacy was outsized and his oeuvre is instructive. He uniquely knew to zero in on the most important issues of the day.

Earlier in his career as an American academic, he focused on radical Islam and the terrorism it spawned, which was then flowing freely out of Saudi Arabia. His doctoral dissertation on this formed the basis for a book, "Hatred's Kingdom: How Saudi Arabia Supports the New Global Terrorism." (In more recent years, he acknowledged the deep and positive changes in Riyadh under the leadership of Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman.)

In the 1980s at Tel Aviv University (which is when I met him and learned to rely on him as a wise observer of emerging trends), he focused on US defense policy relating to the Middle East. Gold developed the discourse that eventually was broadly adopted by Jerusalem and its advocates abroad regarding Israel's strategic value to the United States and the importance of anchoring US-Israel relations in close security and intelligence coordination.

Twenty-five years ago, he became an early proponent of Israel's formal designation as an American non-NATO ally, and of the association of Israel to CENTCOM, the US military's Central Command structure covering the Middle East, something that finally happened in 2021.

After the Oslo Accords were signed, Gold was dragged unenthusiastically by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu into talks with the Palestinians in the UK and Jordan (even before Netanyahu became prime minister in 1996), meeting with PLO leaders Yasser Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas, as well as Jordanian and American leaders.

Dr. Gold was always skeptical of Palestinian intentions and the Palestinian Authority's capacity to pursue true peace. Thus, he sought to ensure that security parameters for Judea and Samaria (and the Golan Heights too) were adhered to, as set out by Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin before his assassination.

When Dore assumed the presidency of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs in 2000, he parlayed this security focus into one of the most important and influential think tank ventures in Israel's history, the Defensible Borders for Israel project.

Leading a broad range of military generals and defense experts, he sketched out the rationale for Israeli security control of West Bank mountain ridges and the Jordan Valley plus a broad east-west Jerusalem corridor – with detailed maps – and he outlined the key elements of the necessary "demilitarization" of any Palestinian government.

This was a revival of General Yigal Alon's defensible border paradigms from the 1970s, which were the mainstay of Rabin's security worldview, even as he signed the iffy Oslo Accords.

For over a decade, Dore Gold presented the study at every think tank and parliament around the world, with the study and its video versions translated into six languages. To a certain extent, this document is still the basis for Israel's security-based diplomacy, more salient than ever following the failure of the Oslo peace process and the annihilationist toward Israel turn of the Palestinian national movement.

In the late nineties (during Netanyahu's first term as prime minister), Gold served for two years as Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, and this exposed him to a different, troubling facet of the Arab-Israeli conflict: denialism of the Jewish people's historic and fundamental rights in Jerusalem and Israel altogether.

Gold was shocked by Arab (and European!) denial of Israel's profound, centuries-old, national connections to the Land of Israel. He witnessed Palestinian rhetorical violence against Israeli/Jewish indigenousness in the Land of Israel, something meant to savage the core identity of Jews and Israelis.

He understood, long before the globally woke assault on Israel post-October 7, that the Jewish state's enemies sought to strip justice and authenticity from Israel's very existence, and to upend Israel's alliance with the human rights supporting, democratic world. He understood that "They want Jerusalem and want us out of Israel, period," as he told colleagues back then.

He feared, alas correctly, that the denialism juggernaut one day could lead to violent antisemitic battering of Jews and Jewish institutions around the world – as we indeed have seen over the past 18 months.

Consequently, Gold became convinced that in addition to a security-based discourse Israel must augment its diplomacy with a rights-based discourse. He decided that it was essential to reengage in the fight for Israel with historical truths and convictions rooted in faith, not only with security arguments.

He wrote a book called "The Fight for Jerusalem: Radical Islam, the West, and the Future of the Holy City," which took up the fight against Arab denialism. He turned this into a series of graphic presentations about the Jewish People's indigenous rights in Israel – videos and presentations that have been broadcast around the world.

Gold even hosted an event at the UN that showed Israel's millennia of archaeological history with artifacts from the First and Second Temple periods, proving the Jewish People's overwhelming connection to the Land of Israel since antiquity.

In his short stint as director general of Israel's foreign ministry (2015-2016), he sought to make pushback against Arab denialism a central focus of Israeli diplomacy. At the time, Mahmoud Abbas of the PA in particular had taken to denying the historical existence of the Temples in Jerusalem, driving a series of UN resolutions that declared Jerusalem an exclusively Moslem heritage city and criminalizing Israel's custodianship of holy sites.

20 years ago, Gold also started an international effort to criminalize the genocidal-against-Israel threats of Iranian leaders, especially then-Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He authored a best-selling book entitled, "The Rise of Nuclear Iran: How Tehran Defies the West." Western leaders may again want to look this book up as Israel today readies to finally destroy Iran's nuclear bomb and ballistic missile programs.

Ambassador Gold played a behind-the-scenes role in developing the Trump administration's Mideast peace plan in 2020 – "Peace to Prosperity," dubbed by President Donald Trump as the "deal of the century." Not surprisingly and very appropriately, this plan combined the security-based and rights-based principles that marked Dr. Gold's career, thus ensuring Israeli military and civilian control of critical areas and its sovereign rights over unified Jerusalem.

All the while, Jews and friends of Israel around the world came to know and appreciate Ambassador Gold through his bold interviews on every global media platform no matter how unfriendly to Israel, as well as his fearless debates in public forums with foes of Israel. I recall with appreciation his decisive takedown at Brandeis University of Richard Goldstone (of the infamous eponymously named 2009 UN report on Israeli human rights "crimes" in Gaza).

In many ways, the American-born and American-accented Dore Gold paved the way for other American olim in Israeli diplomacy, including my late father Prof. Henry (Zvi) Weinberg (a member of Knesset for the Yisrael B'Aliyah Party), and ambassadors Michael Oren and Ron Dermer. (I hold a wonderful photo of my father in discussion at Blair House in Washington in 1998 with Prime Minister Netanyahu, Ambassadors Dore Gold and Eliyahu Ben-Elissar, former Jerusalem Post editor-in-chief David Bar-Illan, who was then the prime minister's Director of Communications and Policy Planning, and others.)

Securing Israel's borders while battling delegitimization of Israel – this is Dore Gold's vital and admirable legacy. He deserves a collective memorial salute from Israel and the wider Jewish world.

The post In memoriam of Dore Gold appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

A moving memorial ceremony for Sheldon Adelson took place Tuesday at the Mount of Olives cemetery in Jerusalem, commemorating four years since the passing of one of the Jewish people's greatest benefactors and a passionate supporter of Israel, who founded Israel Hayom with his wife Dr. Miriam Adelson.

The memorial drew his widow Dr. Miriam Adelson and their children, alongside relatives, admirers, friends, and close associates. The touching ceremony featured IDF Chief Cantor Shai Abramson performing the "El Malei Rachamim" prayer, while vocalist Marina Feingold rendered Queen's "Love of My Life."

Speaking with deep emotion, Dr. Miriam Adelson reflected on her enduring loss: "Sheldon was so unique, so dynamic, instinctive and wise, overflowing with affection yet tough. His absence pierces my heart like a dagger. The example he set for me in his life continues to provide guidance and healing to my life."

Dr. Adelson continued by acknowledging "our friends, near and far, who still raise a glass to life in Sheldon's precious memory," and "all those who will forever be guided by the Adelson doctrine, which means kindness of heart and respect for every person."

By his graveside, Yasmin Lukatz shared heartfelt remembrances. "It's hard to believe four years have passed since we parted from you," she said with palpable longing, "but what's amazing is how present you still are in our lives. You taught us how to embrace life fully, to live and enjoy. But beyond that, you taught us something greater than love of life – you taught us the power of giving and sharing with others.

"Whether it was your generosity toward the Jewish people, or the many other ways you influenced the lives of those around you – everyone was influenced by you. You are the inspiration for all of us to try to make the world a better place.

"We miss you every day, but we also celebrate you every day – in laughter, in stories, in the traditions you left us, all reminders of what it means to laugh, to love and to live a life with purpose."

The post 'Everyone was influenced by you': Sheldon Adelson remembered appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

An event marking three years since the passing of Sheldon Adelson was held Wednesday at Reichman University in Herzliya. Adelson, who founded Israel Hayom together with his wife Miriam, passed away at 87 on January 11, 2021. The event was held at the Adelson School of Entrepreneurship, which the couple helped build along with other schools in the university, some seven years ago. 

The event was attended by Dr. Adelson, Prof. Reichman – the founding president and chairman of the university's board of director – the current president Prof. Boaz Ganor, the university's Governor Oudi Recanati, and graduates of the Adelson School of Entrepreneurship.

At the event's opening, Prof. Reichman said: "About seven years ago we celebrated here in this hall the inauguration of this institution and the Miriam and Sheldon Adelson School of Entrepreneurship. Since then, our undergraduates and alumni have reached seventh place in the world in the number of unicorns in universities with fewer than 15,000 students. Over the past decdes, I have had the privilege and experience to follow not only Sheldon Adelson's achievements but also to learn about his character, his entrepreneurial thinking, and the courses of action derived from it."

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Video: Dr. Miriam Adelson speaks at the event / Moshe Ben-Simhon

Dr. Adelson said in her speech: "Sheldon and I were here in the early days, 20 years ago, when Reichman University was founded under the name  Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya. It was an academic startup, an entrepreneurial act. It was only natural that the university would establish an entrepreneurship school proudly bearing the name Adelson. I promise you that this charming corner of Herzliya had a special place in Sheldon's heart."

In her remarks, Dr. Adelson also spoke about the ongoing war and Israelis' rallying around the flag, saying: "The enemy cannot defeat us. A nation that sanctifies life chooses life. It cannot defeat the Start-Up Nation – the land of dreamers and inventors. We all need to be entrepreneurs today; we need to find a way to bring our captives home, whether through sophisticated negotiations or military brilliance. We have to win this war in a way that ensures October 7 will never happen again. And we must reinvigorate our social contract – between Right and Left, religious and secular, the Jewish majority and the Arab minority, native-born Israelis and Diaspora Jews. Israel is a miracle, and it will shine anew."

Full disclosure: The Adelson family owns the company that is the primary shareholder in Israel Hayom. Dr. Miriam Adelson is the publisher of Israel Hayom.

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A memorial ceremony was held Thursday at the Mount of Olives cemetery in Jerusalem, marking three years since the passing of Sheldon Adelson – a staunchly pro-Israel businessman and philanthropist, one of the biggest donors for the Jewish and Israeli causes, and the founder of Israel Hayom, together with his wife Dr. Miriam Adelson.

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The ceremony was attended by his widow, Dr. Miriam Adelson, their children, former Chief Rabbi of Israel and Chairman of the Yad Vashem Council Rabbi Israel Meir Lau, friends and acquaintances.

The moving ceremony was led by cantor and singer Shai Abramson, who recited the "El Maleh Rachamim" prayer. Alongside him, singer Maya Avraham performed "When the Heart Cries" by Yossi Gispan and "Love of My Life" by Queen. Rabbi Lau recited a Psalm in his memory, after which the sons Adam and Matan jointly said the Kaddish prayer for the dead.

Dr. Adelson recalled the growing longing: "Three years have passed since Sheldon went to his eternal rest, three years without the love of my life, the unique and distinguished man, the giant around whom my entire universe revolved, for whom in my eyes the sun rose and set every day."

She mentioned that Sheldon z"l always stood by Israel's side and supported the Jewish state with all his might, adding that "for us Jews, this is a frightening and stressful period. A period when I so wish I could lean on Sheldon. I'm sure he would stand today upright and steadfast, as he did as a boy in Boston when he stood up to a gang of Irish bullies who used to harass the Jewish children."

She added, "If Sheldon were with us today he would fully support Israel in its righteous battle. Sheldon would have looked at Gaza and placed responsibility solely on Hamas, and only on Hamas ... He would have looked President Biden in the eye and said 'I never voted for you and never would have voted for you, but I'm grateful you stood unwaveringly on Israel's side."

She went on to describe the gaping hole he left among so many. "Sheldon, my one and only beloved, you are gone but have not parted from us. We will never part from you. It is customary to say 'Rest in peace', so forgive me for not letting you rest, we still need you so much. Thank you for your love, wisdom, and advice, in our hearts, you will always live," eulogized Dr. Adelson.

The daughter, Yasmin Lukatz, also delivered a speech at the graveside, saying Sheldon z"l chose to be buried in Jerusalem "because of his great love for the city and what it symbolized as the eternal and undisputed capital of the State of Israel, of the Jewish people throughout the generations, and because of Jerusalem's important place in his heart."

Lukatz noted, "Sheldon had another reason to be buried here – his desire for us children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great-grandchildren to be in Jerusalem at least once a year. To come from all over the world and be here together, to see these amazing landscapes and experience the sanctity and importance of this city."

"On October 7 I thought, what Sheldon would have thought about what's going on here, how he would have taken it, how much he would have grieved for the country, the people, the soldiers. How much he loved this place. I know he would have been strong and optimistic, rallying all his abilities, people around him, family, opinions, and money to do everything he could to make this a better place."

"Dad," added Lukatz, "we are here and we are your emissaries, we will do everything we can to make things better here, and continue coming to Jerusalem much more than once a year and seeing all this beauty and being together. Because together we will prevail."

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Raz Israeli, who previously worked at Israel Hayom, died early Thursday morning in Tel Aviv in tragic circumstances. He was 42.

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No funeral arrangements were announced as of Friday morning. Born and raised in Nazareth Illit (Nof Hagalil), Israeli entered the media world some 15 years ago as a music critic and a feature writer for the entertainment weekly Rating. 

He went on to work in a variety of media outlets, writing primarily on culture and entertainment. Among his positions was deputy managing editor of the Maariv LaNoar youth magazine, a reporter for the NRG portal, and a music and culture reporter for Israel Hayom. 

He was the editor of the lifestyle and culture sections on the Israel Hayom website and later became the site's feature editor. His last position at Israel Hayom was managing editor of the Shishabat weekly magazine supplement. 

Israel Hayom Editor-in-Chief Omer Lachmanovitch eulogized Israeli, saying, "Raz was a creative spirit imbued with passion and delicate touch. He loved and lived culture with every fiber of his being and contributed heavily to that world through his significant journalistic work. He will be greatly missed by his former colleagues at Israel Hayom. We all share the pain of the family and convey our sorrow to them." 

May his memory be a blessing.

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Israeli literary, musical and overall cultural icon Yehonatan Geffen died on Wednesday aged 76.

"It is hard to imagine the existence of Israeli art, our anthems, the worlds of literature and theater without his unique and unforgettable contribution," President Isaac Herzog said of Geffen after his death.

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Geffen was born in Moshav Nahalal in 1947, just prior to Israel's reestablishment. He served in elite units in the Israel Defense Forces and fought in Nablus and the Golan Heights during the Six-Day War in 1967. After moving to Tel Aviv, Geffen published a volume of poems under the tutelage of Natan Alterman.

Geffen's 1978 record album "The Sixteenth Sheep" is one of the best-selling in Israel's history. His mother, Aviva Dayan, was the sister of war hero and former Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Dayan. Geffen was active politically and his left-wing views were often fiercely criticized. In 2018, he lionized Palestinian Ahed Tamimi, who is known for assaulting IDF soldiers, comparing her to Anne Frank. In response, then-Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman called to ban his music from Army Radio.

Geffen is survived by his first wife, Nurit, and their two children, Shira and famous singer Aviv; and his second wife, Ava Hadad, and their daughter Natasha.

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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A memorial event was held next to Sheldon Adelson's grave at the Mount of Olives Cemetery in Jerusalem on Tuesday, marking the second yahrzeit of the passing of the pro-Israel businessman and one of the biggest donors to  Israeli and Jewish causes,  who founded Israel Hayom with his wife Dr. Miriam Adelson.

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In attendance was Dr. Adelson, the head of the Jewish Agency Doron Almog, the former Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau, former Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky, and the founder of Reichman University Uriel Reichman, as well as many of his friends and families.

The event was led by Chief Cantor of the Israel Defense Forces Shai Abramson, who recited "El Maleh Rahamim", the traditional prayer for the soul of the departed. Yonatan Razel performed his rendition of Yossi Gispan's Khshe Halev Boche ("When the heart weeps") and Naomi Shemer's "Al Kol Ele" ("For all this").

Rabbi Lau recited Psalms for the elevation of the soul and Adelson's sons recited the Kaddish. Among those who spoke at the event were Dr. Adelson, as well as the two sons Adam and Matan, and daughters Yasmin Lukatz and Sivan Dumont, and her husband Patrick Dumont. The speeches touted the late Adelson's great impact on so many people and the growing sense of loss as time passes by.

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