Rav kook

WATCH: 'All of Israel is ours': Smotrich calls to annex West Bank in Jerusalem Day speech

"The time has come for us to finally erase the lines that distinguish between Areas A, B, and C, the entire Land of Israel is ours," Smotrich said at the Religious Zionist Merkaz HaRav Yeshiva.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich gives a Jerusalem Day address, May 14, 2026.
PEOPLE PLANT trees ahead of the Jewish holiday of Tu Bishvat on January 31, 2026.

The trees’ hidden hope: A 2026 reflection on Tu Bishvat - opinion

LEONARD BERNSTEIN emblazoned on Austrian stamp, 2018.

This week in Jewish history: 'The Protocols of the Elders of Zion' published

Renee Binstock with her sons

A moment for celebration: 105 years young


Theodor Herzl vs. Rabbi Kook

“As rabbi of Jaffa, Kook was requested to eulogize Herzl who passed away just two months ago. For a rabbi raised in the world of the yeshivas of Lithuania it was a difficult and challenging act."

RABBI ZVI YEHUDA KOOK (right) – whose father Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook founded Mercaz HaRav – stands outside the Jerusalem yeshiva with Rabbi Avraham Shapira, who went on to lead the yeshiva, in 1980. Rabbi Zvi Yehuda hung a picture of Herzl in his study next to pictures of the Chofetz Chaim and the

Israel elections: Who – and what – are you voting for?

‘If you are going to build a country, you had better be prepared to get your hands dirty!’– Rav Kook

VOTE AS IF your life depended upon it.

Statehood and spirit: Rabbi Abraham Isaac HaCohen Kook

Rabbi Abraham Isaac HaCohen Kook made aliyah two months prior to Herzl’s death and was appointed rabbi of Jaffa and the colonies. As part of his position he was requested to eulogize Herzl.

RABBI ABRAHAM ISAAC KOOK, 1924

Bergson’s race against the Shoah in America

Two Holocaust scholars, in a book based largely on interviews, give voice to Peter Bergson, a key Holocaust rescue activist in America

A Race Against Death: Peter Bergson, America and the Holocaust. David S. Wyman and Rafael Medoff 288 pages; $26.95 (Hardcover)

Votes for women

“Rav Kook truly thought that total equality of the sexes was not only a halachic [Jewish law] problem, but even more so a historical, social, and moral mistake"-Rabbi Yoel Bin Nun

BRITISH SUFFRAGETTE Christabel Pankhurst takes part in a procession, 1911.

The four songs of Rav Kook

In an attempt to expose Kook’s ideas to a wider audience, Schwartz has compiled and translated some of the most significant parts of his work into 268 pages, organized into four main sections.

RAV ABRAHAM ISAAC KOOK, seen here in 1924

Bayit Yehudi proposes nat'l commemoration day for Rav Kook

Shas is hoping to piggy back on Bayit Yehudi’s bill by advancing their own legislation in tandem for a national day of commemoration for the party’s late spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef.

Rabbi Abraham Isaac Hacohen Kook

Letter by Rav Kook gives Temple activists a boost

The rabbi was writing his letter amidst the brutal Arab riots of 1929, which included the Hebron Massacre, over Jewish access to the Western Wall.

TEMPLE MOUNT ACTIVISTS claim a recently revealed letter authored by former chief rabbi Rav Kook supports their position on visiting the holy site in modern Israel times.

Grapevine: Commemorating Rav Kook

A round up of news around Jerusalem

Uri Ariel

Rav Kook on Jewish Politics

The Jerusalem Post