Katherine's Blog

I have never taken much interest in the Middle East or Israel before, but that has changed literally just in the past week. I am suddenly fascinated by what is going on there in the news and in the country's culture.

Here are a few bullet points of what I've learned:

The original Jewish founders of Israel (in 1948) were secular/atheist, though they used the Bible as a justification for many things https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/zionist-bible/introduction/EA6EC83FC6D9BBD244E5FC5D72AC8B8C

There is a difference between being culturally and ethnically Jewish and practicing Judaism as a religion. Most Jews are culturally Jewish only, and do not believe in God. 65% of Israel is secular, though they follow many Jewish traditions. An American parallel would be faithfully celebrating Thanks...

The Ultra Orthodox Haredim, who devote themselves almost exclusively to prayer and religious studies, are the obvious exception. The closest American equivalent we have would be the Amish. They keep separate from the rest of the culture, live in their own communities, wear distinctive, old fashioned...

The Haredim make up 13% of Israel. There were just 40,000 of them in 1948. Today there are over a million, and they comprise 30% of the population in Jerusalem. One in four Israel schoolchildren are now Haredi, and at current rates, their population will double by 2040.

Haredim believe that their studies, prayer, and devotion to God are what keeps Israel safe.

400 Haredim were exempted from compulsory military service in 1948, which did not have much of an impact on the country. With the subsequent explosive growth of their population however (the average Haredi family has 6.6 children), their exemption from the military has become a sore point for the re...

https://thejewishindependent.com.au/israel-2048-a-ticking-haredi-time-bomb

I will be discussing all of this on today's show, June 11, 2025.

I can't remember the last time I actually cried while reading an article, but when I reached the part in "This Is the Holocaust Story I Said I Wouldn’t Write" where the author began listing all the things she was sorry for, my heart began breaking and the tears flowed hard. The article is linked bel...

There was a span of about ten years, 2000-2010, where I read every book I could find about government-led massacres and cruelty. I amassed quite a collection of books on the horrors that took place during the Holocaust, in Cambodia, Rwanda, the Soviet Union, during the Iranian Revolution, in Communi...

I read those books because I was trying to figure something out, to understand what dark developments in society and in individual human hearts enable events like these to happen. I'm not sure I ever arrived at a single definitive answer for it all, but I did learn one thing. It was Lord Acton who s...

Power does more than just corrupt - it kills. And when governments have absolute power, they kill absolutely. RJ Rummell passed away in 2014, but his website is still lovingly maintained by someone, and his book is now in its fifth printing. If you want to understand the forces behind all those atro...

I had not thought about that era of my life for some time. Reading this excellent article brought it back.

This Is the Holocaust Story I Said I Wouldn’t Write

For years, my friend’s father asked me to recount his childhood escape from the Nazis. Why did it take me this long?

By Taffy Brodesser-Akner, April 6, 2025

Excerpt:

I was born in 1975, into a world where the people affected by the Holocaust seemed very old to me and the war seemed a very long time ago. But now I’m almost 50, and I realize that I am just about as old as my grandparents were when I was born and that the period between my birth and the Holocaust i...

NY Times

Full article, no paywall

I'm so excited to have a blog! Many kudos to to Peter, our amazing technical expert, for putting this together! Now we have not only a live chat room during the show, but a blog where I can post what's on my mind any time day or night. This beautiful passage from Psalm 5:11-12 seems like a fitting w...

*"Let all who take refuge in you rejoice;

let them ever sing for joy,

and spread your protection over them,

that those who love your name may exult in you.

For you bless the righteous, O Lord;

you cover him with favor as with a shield."*

-- Katherine