Hourly Roundup 08:00 UTC 13 May 2026
Stories in this hour
- WATCH: Israeli Eurovision contestant dons tefillin before first semifinalIsrael’s Noam Bettan put on tefillin before taking the stage for the first semifinal of the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna on Tuesday night, according to the Kan News public broadcaster. Tefillin, or phylacteries,…
- US returns two rare, ancient coins to Israel following joint antiquities theft investigationOne of the coins, depicting the Temple's seven-branched menorah, was minted in Hasmonean-ruled Jerusalem, while the other, the second of its kind ever found, was minted in ancient Ashkelon.
- Haredi rabbi issues unusual rulingRabbi Yitzhak Zilberstein, leading Lithuanian-haredi rabbi, slams worshipers who arrive at synagogue by car.
- Israeli defense-tech company secures $10.7 million contract with US to supply AI-powered systemSmart Shooter's SMASH systems are expected to be delivered in the third quarter of 2026, according to a company statement.
- Parashat Bamidbar: You were thereThose of us who were born Jewish are not ordinarily described as Jews by choice. But we must always feel that we have chosen the Torah.
- The New York Times’ faux Eurovision scandal about IsraelThere were indeed plenty of political manipulations which broke the song contest's clearly defined rules. But none of them came from the Jewish state
- Hezbollah's largest drone attack yetHezbollah launched two waves of drone swarms toward the north. For the first time, the IDF identified a timed, large-scale attack on a single target inside Israel.
- The IDF has begun striking Hezbollah terror infrastructure in several areas in southern Lebanon.
- Russian ship that sank after strange explosions reportedly carying nuclear reactors to North KoreaState-of-the-art US military aircraft known as “nuke sniffers” have been recorded surveying the wreckage scene twice over the last year, once on August 28, 2025, and again on February 6, 2026.
Torah perspective
Putting on tefillin before stepping onto a global stage is more than a private ritual. The tefillin bind the mind and the heart to the word of God, and doing so in full view of a watching world is an act of quiet defiance against the noise of hostility. The same black boxes that contain the Shema also contain the promise that no protest, however loud, can undo the covenant between Israel and its Creator. In that moment, the performer is not merely a singer; he is a witness, and the stage becomes a sanctuary.