by Robert Edelman, M.D.

On January 5, the CDC, under the direction of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., released a revised vaccine schedule for children. Instead of 18 mandatory vaccines, there are now 11. The major contagious childhood diseases – such as measles, DTaP, and polio – are still required, while six vaccines fall under the category of “shared decision making” between parents and doctors, centering on such issues as whether the child is “high risk.” This move is laden with controversy, pitting the anti-vaccine views of RFK against those of the medical and public health establishment. As a result, many parents are confused and are looking for guidance.

As a retired Professor of Medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, I will summarize some basic information regarding vaccines, focusing on anti-vaccine myths, which play a central role in the controversy.  I hope the facts presented help parents better clarify their attitudes toward vaccines and vaccination for themselves and their children.   

A young patient of Dr. Sondra Heiligman, a beloved pediatrician in our community, once went to an urgent care for an earache. The PA who examined the child playfully told her that he saw an elephant in her ear. The child was surprised and said that her doctor, Dr. Heiligman, had said the same thing. It turned out that the PA was one of the students who had studied under Dr. Heiligman.

This amusing anecdote shows Dr. Heiligman’s enjoyment of children as well as her desire to serve others, including medical students. These qualities, along with her interest in science, led her toward a career in pediatrics. Volunteering in the hospital playroom was one experience that helped shape her path. She graduated from Albert Einstein College of Medicine in 1985, did her residency and training in Maryland, and later completed a fellowship in pediatric endocrinology.

When was the last time you planned a day trip or vacation and didn’t have to worry about bringing food (aside from Israel and New York)? Surprisingly, the country of Panama is that place; it is frum and kosher friendly.

For the past several years, friends and relatives have visited Panama City and raved about the sites as well as the approximately 40 affordable kosher restaurants – everything from high-end steak houses to frozen yogurt. Several months ago, at my Monday mahjong game, I said, “I’d like to go to Panama.” My friend Phyllis replied, “Me, too!” Finally, in August 2025, we got together to plan our seven-day trip (including two travel days), which we took this January.

Every doctor knows that stress can trigger or worsen physical problems. High blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, headaches, irritable bowel syndrome, skin conditions, and arthritis are just a few conditions that stress can cause or worsen. They are typically treated with medication. The problem is that there is no pill for stress management that is 100% effective. So how do we get rid of stress and its effects?

by Miriam Sidell

When the snow came a few weeks ago, my husband and I were wondering how our sidewalks would be cleared. We are in our early 70s and not really up for the task. A neighbor’s two boys came over and offered to shovel our front walk. We offered to pay them, but they said, “No, it’s fun for us.” (In the end my husband gave them each something, taken reluctantly.) Then another neighbor sent their son over, and he shoveled our back walk.

from the Hamodia 

By Rabbi Avraham Chaim Carmell

One of the many names that describe our generation is perhaps “The Segulah Age.” Never before have so many people desperate for yeshuos tried such a wide variety of segulos with so many successful outcomes.

The segulos range from placing s’chach on a particular Rosh Yeshivah’s sukkah to placing a chicken bone in someone’s pocket at the Seder with a plethora of Tehillim, candle lighting and other kabbalos in between.

But often, the people who have been waiting so long for their good news don’t get excited about the new, foolproof segulah you’ve heard about. They have tried them all, and nothing seems to help.

“Nothing was ready, not our uniforms and not our tanks. I was trained as a driver. No one knew what was happening. The warehouse lacked the amount of supplies needed for the troops, and the tanks hadn’t been serviced for months. The scene was like the Machane Yehuda Market on Friday morning. Everyone shouted out what he needed. Instead of bananas and strawberries, soldiers traded with each other for rockets, grenades, and rifles.”

You would not be alone in thinking that the above is an eyewitness report of the happenings of October 7^th. It is, rather, an account by Rabbi Elchanan Ben Nun during a September 2023 interview, describing what he experienced on the first day of the 1973 Yom Kippur War. But the chaos on the military front on October 7^th, 2023 – 50 years, almost to the day, later – was just as great. 

Describing his experience on the morning of the October 7^th massacre, Guy Itzhaki, a decorated war veteran, said in an Aish.com interview, that he had read a lot of history books about the Yom Kippur War, but this was the first time in his life that he felt he was watching a scene from it before his own eyes. “People were in shock. In those chaotic early hours, there was much confusion. The scale of the attack, the number of infiltrations, the fate of the border communities – everything was fragmented, contradictory, or unknown.”

or decades, I have been connected to Yeshivas Shavei Hevron. Located in the heart of Chevron, the yeshiva was founded in 1982 by Rav Moshe Bleicher, who used to say, “We are not in Chevron because the Avos are buried there but because they are alive there.”

The Torah of the Avos continues to live, and we strive to connect to it as much as possible.? I started as a talmid, became an avreich (married student), and then headed the yeshiva’s publishing house. Today I am a Ph.D. in Jewish history and thought, but every year, I continue to come to Baltimore and other places to assist the yeshiva.?

I stayed in touch with Anne the way I’ve kept up with several high school friends for decades – by emailing annual birthday wishes. This past March 30, I had an uncanny feeling that I should call her instead.

I had lost track of Anne for years after graduation, until my extensive Google search in 2012 discovered her past and present whereabouts – a move to Hawaii, her intermarriage, and a subsequent move down South. When Anne’s husband answered the phone and shared the sad news that she had recently died, I suspected that she did not get a Jewish burial. After expressing my condolences, I did not want to hang up until I knew for sure.

“I am so sorry to hear this sad news! Was she buried in New Haven?”

“No, she was cremated. I’m trying to figure out now what she would have wanted me to do with her ashes.”

I was shocked but not at all surprised. I knew that nearly 50 percent of American Jews today opt for cremation over kevuras Yisrael (Jewish burial) – and the trend is growing. In fact, Anne’s cremation was the first of three cremations performed within the past nine months on people I’ve known for years. The second was that of a retired Jewish physician who was an avid baseball fan. He made his wishes known to his family; he did not want to take up space being buried. Instead, he requested that his ashes be strewn over second base of an undisclosed ballpark. Although his Jewish wife was appalled by the thought of cremation, her devotion to her husband and respect for his last wishes won out. The third cremation was of an intermarried Jew who never identified with being Jewish and had “converted” years ago.

Having not been in America since June 2025, I don’t know what the prevailing thoughts are regarding Israel and the war. I’ve been told that most American Jews believe the long two-year war is over. Here in Israel, however, no one shares that sentiment. Moreover, everyone in this country believes the continuation of the war is not a matter of if, but when. That being said, the last 27 months here have changed not only this country and its people forever but indeed the course of history of the Middle East and the world. On October 6, 2023, Israel was surrounded by and under constant threat from Hamas, Hezbollah, Syria, and the Houthis in Yemen. As of January 1, 2026, Iran is crumbling under the weight of its own repressive, incompetent, fundamentalist Jew-hating, paper-tiger regime; Hezbollah has been decimated, its leadership eviscerated; Assad’s Syria is no more; the Houthis are in shambles; and Hamas is nowhere near the menace it once was.

Sadly, we have lost too many of our own in Gaza and Lebanon. Argue if you’d like about how the county has conducted the war, but to comprehend the magnitude of what has transpired over the last couple of years, you have to trace it back more than a decade to understand just how monumental and – dare I say – biblical this victory is. I have written before about the daily wonders and miracles we get to witness in this land, but the ones below garnered from various sources might help give you some perspective of just how beyond this world, real things are happening here.