In an interview in his office in mid-February, Amichai Chikli, Israeli minister for diaspora affairs and combating antisemitism, quoted from the weekly Torah portion, Yitro , which was read in synagogues the prior day and includes one of Jewish scripture’s two versions of the Ten Commandments.

Part of the prior day’s reading was “honor your father and your mother,” Chikli said. He quoted Samson Raphael Hirsch, a famed 19th-century German rabbi, who said that the verse, which continues, “in order that your days be numbered,” suggests that mother and father ( abba v’ima ) are essential to Jewish continuity. “There is no replacement for abba v’ima ,” he told JNS.

In August, when JNS spoke with Ofir Sofer, Israeli aliyah and integration minister, aboard the first Nefesh B’Nefesh ch

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