HERE IS A REASON TO BE PROUD OF US HUMANS: U.S. President Donald Trump convened a Board of Peace meeting in Washington. The Jerusalem Post reports that the main discussion points included the disarmament of Hamas, the Gaza reconstruction fund, and the flow of humanitarian aid into the territory. Trump announced that participating nations have raised $5 billion, with additional contributions expected. A member of the peace board, who declined to be named, said the Gaza plan faces formidable obstacles. Establishing security in the enclave is a precondition for progress in other areas, but the police force is neither ready nor fully trained, said the official. The official added that a key unresolved question is who would negotiate with Hamas. The peace board’s representatives could do so with countries that have influence over Hamas – notably Qatar and Turkey – but Israel is deeply skeptical of both. Another major issue is the flow of aid, which the official described as “disastrous” and in urgent need of scaling up. Even if aid surges in, it remains unclear who will distribute it, the official said. Other countries joining the Gaza International Stabilization Force include Morocco, Greece, Albania, Kosovo, and Kazakhstan. A recent report also confirms that JPMorgan is in talks to provide banking services to the Board of Peace to help fund this and other peacekeeping efforts in Gaza. Hamas’s reluctance to surrender all of its weapons, including small arms, has prompted Israel to issue a 60-day deadline before the IDF would intervene and return to Gaza. This comes as the Holy Land remains on high alert amid concerns of a possible confrontation with Iran. The Fellowship and our supporters continue to pray for the people of Israel during these uncertain times. May they be kept safe, and may shalom—peace—one day reign the Holy Land. MORE! ON THE AGENDA What to watch for at the Board of Peace’s first meeting in D.C. A source told JI they expect discussion on humanitarian aid and the Palestinian technocratic government in Gaza; it remains to be seen how Israel and Hamas will respond to the board's directives Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images President Donald Trump (C) holds up his signature on the founding charter during a signing ceremony for the “Board of Peace” at the World Economic Forum (WEF) on January 22, 2026 in Davos, Switzerland. By Gabby Deutch Matthew Shea February 18, 2026 SHARE Add JewishInsider on Google After a splashy debut at the World Economic Forum in Davos last month, President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace will convene for its first meeting on Thursday in Washington. The new international body now faces a test of its ability to operationalize its goals: Observers will be watching whether the board makes any significant announcements toward its goal of implementing Phase 2 of Trump’s peace plan, which is focused on rebuilding Gaza and securing the enclave. A source familiar with Thursday’s meeting told Jewish Insider that it is “not just pomp and circumstance,” and that they expect discussion about topics including humanitarian aid and the Palestinian technocratic government in Gaza. “It’s not window dressing at all,” the source said of the board’s work. Trump has assembled a roster of regional heavy hitters on the Board of Peace, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Turkey, Jordan and Israel. Many European nations, including France, have so far declined the invitation, wary that it intrudes on the United Nations’ authority and that its mandate is not clearly confined to Gaza. According to a senior Trump administration official, speakers at the event will include Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Jared Kushner, former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz, White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Nickolay Mladenov, the former U.N. Middle East envoy now serving as the high representative for Gaza on the Board of Peace. Little has been shared publicly about what the format will be. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, a close ally of Trump, said he plans to attend, as will the leaders of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Pakistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Several countries, including Israel, Egypt and Turkey, are sending senior ministers in place of their heads of state. A European Union commissioner is expected to attend Thursday’s meeting as an observer, alongside observers from some other nations who have not joined the board, including South Korea. “President Trump is proud to welcome representatives from over 40 nations to the Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace on Thursday for a big announcement on Board of Peace actions to establish an enduring peace in the Middle East,” White House principal deputy press secretary Anna Kelly told Jewish Insider, arguing that the board will be “the most consequential international body in history.” The gathering of Middle East and global leaders will also come against the backdrop of U.S.-Iran nuclear negotiations and speculation that Trump is seriously considering military action against Iran, with the U.S. building up military assets in the region this week. Trump announced on Sunday that member countries have pledged $5 billion toward rebuilding the war-torn enclave and will commit thousands of personnel to the International Stabilization Force, which has not yet been launched. He did not detail which member nations were making the pledges for funds or troops, though Indonesia said it was readying up to 8,000 personnel to deploy to Gaza by this summer. The estimated cost to rebuild Gaza is $70 billion. The White House said the media had been too skeptical of Trump’s plans but declined to offer specifics about the source of the $5 billion or how the money would be deployed. “We’re talking about reconstructing Gaza. I remember when those words came from the president’s lips in the East Room many months ago and all of you in the press were bewildered at how the president could have such an ambitious goal of rebuilding Gaza, which is obviously a place that has been just turmoiled by violence and chaos for many many years,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said at a Wednesday press briefing. “But we’re well underway in doing that.” The key question facing the body is whether it can actually make progress toward addressing the most intractable issue in Gaza: Hamas’ continued control over large parts of the Strip and the terror group’s refusal to disarm. “What will come out of it besides rhetoric is some financial commitments and troop commitments. But the troop commitments are limited. No one will agree to disarm Hamas,” Elliott Abrams, who served as an Iran envoy in Trump’s first term, told JI. “Reconstruction won’t really begin until Hamas is disarmed and fighting has ended.” While Trump has repeatedly indicated that disarming Hamas is a top priority, the International Stabilization Force tasked with keeping the peace in Gaza is not expected to take on Hamas militarily. The White House has not laid out a plan for how the ISF will take over control from Hamas, which is thus far unwilling to relinquish governance. It is also not clear how Israel and Hamas will respond to the board’s directives. “The three core questions that the board is examining are, who’s going to govern Gaza, who is going to provide security for Gaza and then number three, how is Gaza going to be reconstructed?” said Aaron David Miller, a former State Department negotiator. “The board can’t answer those questions. It can provide the resources that could supplement good answers, but those decisions lie in Jerusalem and in Gaza and on the part of Hamas’ external leadership.”

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ALL THOSE BRUISES HEAL AND LEAVE INVISIBLE HEARTS: THE ARK WITHIN Beyond fight or flight: Building spiritual stamina in the face of antisemitism By Rabbi Miriam Margles Rabbi Jonathan Kligler February 19, 2026 Share Facebook Twitter Email Print Friendly, PDF & Email Add EJP on Google Over the past two years, being a Jew in the world has required a kind of spiritual stamina that few of us were fully prepared for. Since the terror of Oct. 7, 2023 and the ensuing war in Israel and Gaza, we have been navigating a rising tide of antisemitism. Jews, Jewish communities and Jewish institutions have been the target of violence, demonization, isolation and denial. As a result, many Jews are swimming, perhaps even drowning, in fear, despair, rage and a profound sense of isolation. But for Jewish clergy, educators and organizational leaders, the burden is doubled. They are being asked to hold the heartbreak and fury of their communities while they themselves are struggling. Malte Mueller/Getty Images In our work with Jewish leaders across North America, many describe being overwhelmed by the dangers and demands of this moment. They feel stretched thin, tasked with guiding others without the time or support to notice and sort out their own intense, often conflicting feelings. They find themselves attempting to straddle widening gulfs as the world polarizes and as fellow Jews turn harshly on one another. While resources on combating antisemitism abound, not enough of them help leaders understand and address antisemitism’s internal impact on Jews: how centuries of systemic oppression have scarred us in ways that make us reactive, angry and fearful. This historic and ongoing persecution has primed Jews and Jewish communities to react to real or perceived threats out of ancestral trauma rather than respond with wise discernment. To lead effectively today, Jewish leaders need more than political strategy. We need safe spaces in which we can examine our fears, educate ourselves about the effects of trauma and receive spiritual and emotional support to lead with courage and clarity. The inner flood The 20th century Hasidic sage Rabbi Shalom Noah Berezovsky, known also by the name of his work Netivot Shalom, offers a striking interpretation of the biblical flood that speaks directly to this moment. Rabbi Berezovsky notes that the Hebrew word for flood, mabul, shares a root with bilbul, confusion. He teaches that the waters of chaos and violence inundating the world also stir a torrent of confusion within us. This bilbul ha-da’at, a distorted, unsettled consciousness, is “the root of all harm.” When our inner world is overwhelmed by the storms outside, the threat of danger can make it very difficult to think clearly and act in alignment with our values. But he offers an antidote: yishuv ha-da’at, the practice of settling the mind. He suggests that when we face a flood of chaos, we should build an “inner ark.” This is an inner space of steadiness, where we connect with our holy vitality (chayyut), and ground ourselves so we can ride the waves rather than be thrown by them. Only when our inner waters are calm can we discern what is true and act with integrity. Pausing for mindful awareness is not a luxury; it is a strategic necessity. Four patterns of reactivity When we don’t have that inner ark, our trauma responses take over. In our work at the Institute for Jewish Spirituality (IJS), we have identified four common patterns among Jews when safety and belonging are threatened: 1.) Urgency and hypervigilance: When we’re afraid, we tend to either freeze or leap into action. “Fight-or-flight” reactions are valuable when one is in immediate danger, but the grip of terror is exhausting and debilitating, and action driven by panic is usually counter-productive and/or ultimately ineffective. 2.) Over-reliance on physical security measures: We must be vigilant about physical safety. But when our attention focuses only on the external — guards, barricades, surveillance — we neglect our inner sources of grounding and trust. True resilience requires us to confront our vulnerability and develop a trust that doesn’t only depend on external conditions. We can draw strength from the company of others striving to be mindful and self-aware, and we can gain perspective and wisdom from our ancient Jewish tradition. 3.) Choosing sides instead of building bridges: As David Nirenberg, Dara Horn and others have shown, antisemitism targets Jews as the embodiment of what society abhors, the very source of “the problem.” That blame is unconsciously internalized and we redirect it toward one another. We run for cover in polarized camps and position ourselves as the “good kind of Jew” while attacking other Jews as “the problem” — the ones who are dangerous and shouldn’t exist. This intra-Jewish violence fractures our community precisely when we need greater cohesion. 4.) Grievance over grief: Beneath our legitimate grievances lies unacknowledged grief. We often focus on outrage, listing how we have been wronged or abandoned, because holding onto our grievances feels safer than touching our sorrow. But the truth is that grievances grip our hearts closed, trapping us in a cycle of injury and indignation. The path forward Recognizing these dynamics, IJS developed a new approach: mindful Jewish leadership in the face of antisemitism. Our approach doesn’t train leaders in public messaging or advocacy; those resources exist elsewhere. Instead, our goal is to support Jewish leaders by helping them to gently and lovingly address the deep, difficult and often painful dynamics within themselves and within their Jewish communities. We use a deeply Jewish framework for building that inner ark, and we fuse that with trauma-informed mindfulness practices. We also offer time and non-judgemental space for leaders to speak about and sort out the challenges they have been facing. This helps leaders recognize when they are operating from historical trauma, and gives them the tools to choose a different response. As a result, they’re able to guide their communities with less reactivity and more wisdom. They can then support their communities to follow this path. In the last year we have run pilot cohorts in Toronto and Chicago and nationally online. The results have been profound. Participants said that the training enabled them to more effectively engage in and lead difficult conversations again, even on the most charged topics. They were also able to model kind and clear communication in both public and private interactions. They were able to notice when they were agitated and now had the skills and tools to settle themselves and restore inner balance. As one participant noted, “I finally feel like I have a choice about how I show up.” Mindfulness is not about passivity; it is about presence. To cultivate yishuv ha-da’at is to reclaim our ability to choose actions rooted in insight rather than panic. It allows us to build communities where grief is met with compassion, and where leaders are supported to lead rather than be constantly criticized and attacked. In a time when antisemitism seeks to make us small, frightened and reactive, cultivating a clear mind and an open heart is a radical act. We have the choice, breath by breath, to respond not just with discipline, but with devotion to becoming ever wiser, more agile and better prepared. Jews are rightly concerned about antisemitism. As our communities allocate precious time and resources to this challenge, let’s remember that hardening our exterior defenses can do only so much. In the midst of the storm, we need mindful, wise and courageous leadership to guide the Jewish people. Together we can build an ark to carry us through our turbulent and dangerous times. Rabbi Miriam Margles is a member of the senior core faculty at the Institute for Jewish Spirituality, where she directs the Mindful Jewish Leadership in the Face of Antisemitism initiative. Rabbi Jonathan Kligler is rabbi emeritus at the Woodstock Jewish Congregation in Woodstock, N.Y., and adjunct faculty at the Institute for Jewish Spirituality.