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Ever since November 4, 1979, when Iran took 52 US diplomats and citizens hostage, the Iranians have used hostage-taking as a means of extracting huge sums of money and political capital from the United States. President Jimmy Carter lost his election to President Ronald Reagan because of the hostage crisis and Carter’s failed attempt to free them; eight American servicemen were killed. It wasn’t coincidental that the hostages were released on the day Ronald Reagan was inaugurated.

With the Almighty’s mercy, compassion, and help, I am happy to say that I am back. I personally want to thank the Jewish people and so many of our friends for the massive outpouring of support. As a physician, one might think one is prepared for any eventuality. It is just not the case.

With the recent disclosure that the Mossad carried out a courageous mission to discover what happened to Lieutenant Colonel Ron Arad, whose plane went down over Lebanon in October of 1986, it is appropriate to highlight how vital it is to do everything possible to recover all soldiers, dead or alive.

This past week, Richard Mills, the acting United States ambassador to the United Nations, announced that the Biden administration will resume the $200 million aid to the PA and Mahmoud Abbas, and the $350 million annual funding to the UNRWA, both of which had been halted by the Trump administration. Mr. Mills also said that the Biden administration would “take steps to reopen diplomatic missions that were closed by the last US administration.”

To say that Rabbi Dr. Moshe David Tendler zt”l, who passed away on Sh’mini Atzeres, was a giant and a luminary in the synthesis of Torah and science is an understatement. He excelled and was a gaon in both. As the son-in-law of the greatest poseik of the latter half of the last century, Rav Moshe Feinstein zt”l, he was the perfect person to bridge the old and the new worlds into a harmonious whole.

My next series of articles have been inspired by Benjamin Sipzner, who made aliyah from my neck of the woods in Queens to Judea and Samaria, and who now advocates for the Jewish state. Benjamin asked me the important questions central to this op-ed, as well as my next two. Is American Jewry asleep at the wheel? Where are American Jews on issues critical to the Jewish state?