For the first time since Oct. 7, 2023, Israelis will enter Sukkot knowing that not a single hostage, living or dead, remains in Gaza.

A year ago, the picture was very different. Last Sukkot began with 20 living hostages still being held by Hamas. Their photographs hung from sukkah walls, while empty chairs symbolized the Jews who could not sit with their own families.

Then, on Hoshana Raba, October 13, 2025, all 20 were finally released and returned to Israel.

But even then, the ordeal was not entirely over. The bodies of several murdered hostages remained in Gaza.

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Few holidays display the extraordinary variety of Jewish life quite like Sukkot.

The basic requirements are the same whether a sukkah stands in Jerusalem, New York, Casablanca or Samarkand. Jews dwell in a temporary structure and take the "Four Species" or "Four Kinds" prescribed by the Torah.

But over the centuries, communities around the world added their own touches, drawing on the plants, flowers, foods, and decorative traditions of the places where they lived. The result is a remarkable collection of Sukkot customs, many of which survived migrations, upheavals and the disappearance of the communities that created them.

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In 2011, Thailand's Princess Chulabhorn visited Jerusalem to discuss scientific cooperation, including cancer and brain research. A scientist with a doctorate in chemistry, she had professional reasons for making the journey. But during a meeting, she expressed something more personal.

"In my heart I feel half-Israeli," she declared. "I think like an Israeli." She even added the Israeli name Tzila to her signature in the presidential guest book.

The warmth was striking. So was the setting. For centuries, Jews had traveled to Thailand to trade, earn a living and sometimes escape persecution. Now a Thai princess was seeking scientific partners in a Jewish country.

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Twenty-five years after the September 11 attacks, Americans still do not know everything their own government knows about who may have helped the Islamic terrorists who carried them out.

This week, the US once again mourns the nearly 3,000 people murdered when al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four passenger planes and turned them into weapons.

Yet a quarter-century later, evidence continues to emerge linking Saudi government personnel, and others tied to the kingdom, to assistance provided to the terrorists before the attacks.

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On Friday night, Aug. 14, an angry crowd gathered outside a new Chabad center in the Sri Lankan beach town of Hiriketiya as Jews were preparing to welcome Shabbat.

More than 100 protesters, including Buddhist monks, reportedly took part. They hurled stones and firecrackers at the building, and a window was shattered. The unrest resumed the following night.

What made the episode all the more striking is that Jewish life is hardly something new to Sri Lanka. Long before Israeli backpackers began flocking to its beaches, Jews had been finding their way to the island for centuries.

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