The Mercaz HaRav Yeshiva held a memorial ceremony on Thursday night in honor of eight young students who were murdered in a terrorist shooting at the seminary last week. The gathering, attended by the families of the victims, marks the end of the traditional Jewish initial seven-day mourning period (shiv'a).

The evening began with mournful prayers of repentance, forgiveness and Divine vengeance. Afterwards, in tears,
From every corner love is returned to us.
rabbis from the yeshiva addressed the large number of people gathered for the memorial, eulogizing the fallen youths and discussing the Torah perspective on the tragedy. The eulogies and prayers continued for four and a half hours. Among the leading rabbinical figures in attendance were Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, Rabbi Simcha HaCohen Kook, the Bostoner Rebbe, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Horowitz, and others.

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'The Holiness of This Yeshiva'
Rabbi Eitan Eisman, a rabbi and teacher at the yeshiva, was first to speak. He said, in part, of the murdered boys: "Their sanctification of God's name led to a powerful unity. Suddenly, it is understood what the holiness of this yeshiva is - what waves of love it sends to every corner, and from every corner love is returned to us. 

"Our job is to continue to broadcast the greatness of the people of Israel and the Land of Israel, the great connectedness to this land, and that the sufferings we are experiencing are the birth pangs of the Messiah."

Rabbi Eisman concluded his comments by saying, "Our path is the true path, and it was only for that reason the murderers came here. We will continue to love the People of Israel, the Army of Israel, and the government, with all of the piercing criticism we have of it."

'A Sanctification of God's Name From One End of the World to the Other'
Rabbi Yaakov Shapira, the new Dean of the yeshiva, addressed the gathered mourners as well. He delivered his eulogy for the eight young terror victims with some difficulty, stopping every few sentences to choke back tears and collect himself, much like other of the evening's speakers.

"The voice of our brothers' blood calls out to us from this very ground, from this place that was elevated and sanctified with a dual sanctity – a blood sanctification – from this land, the land of Israel, soaked by the boys' blood," Rabbi Shapira said.

Of the victims of the Arab terrorist, Rabbi Shapira said, "What aspirations, what persistence, what wonderful character and what camaraderie, what honor of parents – 'you are completely lovely my beloved and have no defect.' It is said that when a yeshiva student dies, all his colleagues worry. How much more so when an entire group passes away and the mourning of the individual becomes the mourning of the community."

Regarding the sanctification of God's name, Rabbi Shapira said: "There is a kind of sanctification of God's name that reverberates from one end of the world to the other, a sanctification that all the House of Israel perceives, like the sanctification of God's name that took place here."

Rabbi Shapira emphasized that life must go on despite the terrible loss: "The yeshiva will persevere and be strengthened, and if there was a certain weakness in Israel in the recent past, then this awesome killing came and exposed the magnificent strengths throughout the House of Israel. The process of suffering brings to the fore the power of faith within us. The people expect a systemic revival to increase Torah, faith and to connect with the
[Rabbi Shapira] delivered his eulogy for the eight young terror victims with some difficulty, stopping every few sentences to choke back tears.
foundation stone from which we are hewn. That is our job at this hour, to increase courage, with combined forces, to elevate others and to be elevated in this study hall, filled with mighty scholars from the Land of Israel, who spend their entire lives acting with daring for the sake of the fulfillment of the Torah. As against the great desecration of God's name inherent in the murder of these eight lights, may God avenge their blood, we will increase the sanctification of God's name."

The yeshiva dean added, "We must all make an effort to establish more and more places of Torah learning for the sake of the elevation of the souls of the martyrs."

A New National Agenda
Rabbi Yerachmiel Weiss, who heads the Mercaz HaRav's Yeshiva High School, where most of the murdered boys studied, lovingly described his lost students.

He then called for a new national agenda for Israel: "We need corrective content [to this agenda], which purifies the normal health of fortitude. We need a very old agenda, ancient and new; an agenda that is an original Israeli Jewish statement coming from the source of life and wisdom."

'Who Knows God's Secrets?'
"It is hard to speak, yet it is impossible to remain silent," said the Chief Rabbi of Haifa and a graduate of Mercaz HaRav, Rabbi She'ar-Yashuv Kohen.

The rabbi spoke of the first comforting of a mourner in the Bible, that of Aaron after the death of his two sons at the Tabernacle. In the Biblical description, supernatural fire consumes Aaron's sons.

"We see a reality in which from victims of fire we come to a point at which the entire nation mourns and is united," Rabbi Cohen said. "Your children sanctified the name of Heaven, the statement [said of Aaron's sons], 'I will be sanctified by those closest to Me, and before the entire people will I thus be honored,' was fulfilled in them. Who knows God's secrets in difficult and awesome moments such as these?"

The rabbi added, "When a holy soul goes to Heaven, there is great happiness there. We have the pain of separation and loss, but Above there is happiness."

'Become Giants of Torah Learning'
Former Chief Rabbi of the State of Israel and spiritual leader of the Shas party, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, assured the crowds that came to mourn the terror victims that the souls of the murdered boys are in the highest levels of Heaven, "and God is receiving them with happiness. God will yet fulfill 'God of vengeance is the Lord; God of vengeance appear!' The vengeance of the Lord is in the increasing strength of Israel...."

Turning to the students of the yeshiva, Rabbi Yosef said, "I love every one of you. Don't let your hands weaken, continue learning Torah with greater determination and greater strength, to become giants of Torah [with] awe of Heaven, to spread among the people the words of Torah and to bring everyone closer to their Father in Heaven."

'They Were the Future'
Wearing his talit (prayer shawl), the Chief Rabbi of Rehovot, Rabbi Simcha Hacohen Kook compared the terrorist
Just half a year ago, the yeshiva mourned the passing of its dean and leader, former Chief Rabbi Avraham Elkana Shapira.
killings in Mercaz HaRav to the Hevron massacre of 1929. According to the rabbi, when the news of the brutal massacre of 67 Jews in Hevron was publicized, only one man, Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Hacohen Kook, founder of Mercaz HaRav, was so sensitive to the deaths that he fainted upon hearing of them.

Rabbi Kook noted that just half a year ago, the yeshiva mourned the passing of its dean and leader, former Chief Rabbi Avraham Elkana Shapira, the father of the current head. At the time, he said, everyone cried over the loss of a father figure, "and now we are crying 'my son, my dear son!'"

With sobs shattering his words, Rabbi Kook said of the murdered boys, "They were the future of the People of Israel."

Some Good News, As Well
As the memorial gathering got underway Thursday night, doctors at Shaarei Tzedek hospital in Jerusalem reported that 15-year-old Naftali Sheetrit was coming out of a medically induced coma, and was beginning to respond to stimuli. Sheetrit was badly wounded in the shooting attack, and was comatose and in serious condition for the past seven days.

The Israel Antiquities Authority announces the first time in the history of the archaeological research of Jerusalem that building remains from the First Temple period have been exposed so close to the Temple Mount – on the eastern slopes of the Upper City.

A rich layer of finds from the latter part of the First Temple period (8th-6th centuries B.C.E.) has been discovered in archaeological rescue excavations near the Western Wall plaza.  The dig is being carried out in the northwestern part of the Western Wall plaza, near the staircase leading up towards the Jaffa Gate.

The Israel Antiquties Authority has been conducting the excavations for the past two years under the direction of archaeologists Shlomit Wexler-Bdoulah and Alexander Onn, in cooperation with the Western Wall Heritage Foundation.  The remains of a magnificent colonnaded street [i.e., lined by columns] from the 2nd century C.E. were uncovered; the street appears on the mosaic Madaba map, and is referred to by the name Eastern Cardo. The level of the Eastern Cardo is paved with large heavy limestone pavers that were set directly atop the layer that dates to the end of the First Temple period. This Roman road thus “seals” beneath it the finds from the First Temple period, protecting them from being plundered in later periods.

The walls of the buildings found in the dig are preserved to a height of more than two meters.

Ring Seal Found, Inscribed with Owner's Name
Another impressive artifact found in the salvage excavations is a personal Hebrew seal made of a semi-precious stone that was apparently inlaid in a ring. The seal is elliptical and measures approximately 1 by 1.4 centimeters.

The seal's surface is divided into three strips separated by a double line: in the upper strip is a chain decoration comprising four pomegranates, and in the two bottom strips is the name of the owner of the seal, engraved in ancient Hebrew script. It reads: "[Belonging] to Netanyahu ben [son of] Yaush."  Though each of the two names are not unfamiliar, no one with that name is known to scholars of the period.

A vast amount of pottery vessels was also discovered, among them three jar handles that bear similar stamped impressions. An inscription written in ancient Hebrew script is preserved on one these impressions, reading "Belonging] to the King of Hevron."

Segev Avichayil and Avraham David Moses were studying Torah together in their high school library when the Israeli-Arab terrorist gunned them down, drenching their books in their blood.

“Segev had never even seen violence,” his father, a rabbi, told those who came to pay their respects at his home in Neve Daniel, in Gush Etzion. “We had no TV or VCR.”

Segev, 15, was already a poet, writing complex composition contemplating the soul. His father found a poem of Segev's on his desk the night of the murders. The esoteric composition speaks of a row of souls, evincing imagery of the rows of bodybags that lay outside the yeshiva’s library following the massacre. The souls in the poem cry out “There is justice and there is a judge!”

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Segev's poem on souls and justice.

The Avichayils used to live in Jerusalem’s Old City. “Segev was almost born right at the Kotel (Western Wall),” his mother recalled. “It was there that he prayed on behalf of the Jews of Sderot that afternoon, and on the Mount of Olives, across from the Holy of Holies, is where he was buried.”

A young man with curly hair and a large Rebbe Nachman kippah (yarmulke) timidly asks to speak. “When I was in class with Segev, for eight years, he was the greatest friend I could ever wish for," the boy says. "He was never mean to anyone. I really never met anyone else like him – he was always there for you.”

Akiva, a friend of Segev and Avraham David, speaks of true friendship and sincerity.

Segev died alongside his friend Avraham David Moses, the son of North American immigrants who lived across the valley in Efrat. Akiva, the young man who spoke at the Avichayils, went on to Efrat to visit the mother and father of Avraham David as well. “Both Segev and Avraham David were simply sincere,” Akiva said. “That is the secret to joy in life – and they had it.”

Akiva recalled listening to Avraham David lead prayers at the synagogue he attends in Efrat.

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Photos of Avraham David at his house.

At Avraham David’s home, his mother is filled with grief, but imbues her guests with an unimaginable strength. She quietly asks a friend to draw up a poster with the words prescribed for comforting a mourner. “I see some people don’t know the words and are embarrassed,” she says with concern.

A local police commander pays his respects at the home of Avraham David's mother Rivkah and step-father David.

Another friend expresses her amazement that she found the time to organize a replacement to oversee the mikva (ritual bath) in her stead, and personally dropped off her younger son at kindergarten the morning of the funeral. “We are all lying here, crying and incapacitated, and you are taking on the world," she tells Avraham David's mother.

“It is not that my heart is not broken,” the bereaved mother explains. “I am so sad that I will not dance at his wedding, that I will never see his children, but I am so, so grateful for the sixteen years and five months that I had the honor of being his mother. It is truly better to have loved and lost, I think, than not to have loved at all.”

It is clear to all the parents that their children were not targeted for who they were as individuals. “The Arabs targeted the Torah, because they know very well that it is what gives us our right to be here,” she says. “They chose this yeshiva in the heart of Jerusalem, with all the symbolism and political ramifications. It should remind us how precious this asset is and bring us to protect it.”

Two Hareidi religious yeshiva students from Jerusalem came to visit the parents. "We didn't know your son, but we care and we wanted to let you know," they said.

The role of her son as a martyr struck her at the funeral. “We got to the funeral early and they kept saying over the loudspeakers that the area in the middle was for the mishpechot hakedoshim. It sounded nice that the bereaved families were being referred to as holy families, but then I parsed it linguistically and realized something was off in my translation; I realized they were saying Avraham David was a martyr.

“There are traditions that say that Heaven is truly a Talmud and a candle – for Avraham David it really was. You know, I like gold jewelry, a glass of wine and romance, but for him, that was really Heaven.”

Classmates recalled that Avraham David had chavrutas (study partners) set up for every hour of the day – even in between classes and before and after mealtimes.

Yeshiva students from Merkaz HaRav are shiva-worn – going from house to house, across the country, and trying to comfort the people their friends left behind, including themselves. They approach their friends’ parents, blessing them: May G-d comfort you among all the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.

Meanwhile, in Jerusalem, politicians and well-wishers embark on pilgrimages to the Merkaz HaRav Yeshiva, founded by Israel’s first Chief Rabbi as a universal yeshiva for all of Israel to engage their inheritance: the Torah of Israel.

A memorial for the murdered in back of Merkaz HaRav.

The yeshiva is pocked with bullet holes. Spider webs of shattered glass embody the feeling of shattered security on the faces of many of the young teenagers who attend the high school section of the large educational institution.

The library where the terrorist entered looks like a Hollywood crime scene. All the holy books from the bottom shelves are gone – buried together with those who embraced their pages, drenched in their blood.

The bullet holes in the walls are not as jarring as those in the floor. The terrorist stood over the wounded and fired, point-blank, over and over, into the young men’s bodies.

The bullet marks on the ground are from the point-blank confirmed kills orchestrated by the terrorist once his victims were already wounded and on the ground.

A single bullet hole marks the spot above where Segev and Avraham David had been pouring over their studies.

A bullet-hole is seen above the spot where Segev and Avraham David had been learning. Two others are continueing their study.

A groups of bare-headed children of Russian Jewish immigrants files in, listening to one of the school’s teachers explain what the purpose of the yeshiva is, what it seeks to bring to the nation. A group of young women stand in the courtyard, getting a tour of the premises – their first time anywhere near a yeshiva.

A group of female visitors explores the yeshiva's courtyard.

A Chassidic rebbe enters the study hall to pay his condolences, the young Russian Jews peruse the library’s ancient texts and the words of Torah study can be heard from the street, stronger than ever.

The Admor (chassidic rebbe) of Kodomaya walks into the study hall to pay his respects to Rabbi Itamar Arbach and the students.

Young Russian Jews listen to a lecture on Jewish unity and the relevance of Torah study.

A Jerusalemite looks at the mourning posters hanging around the city proclaiming the streets of Zion filled with mourning following the Merkaz HaRav attack.

Merkaz HaRav's main study hall.

"The Rabbi Kook Universal Yeshiva"

See sidebar for entire slideshow
 (Photos: Ezra HaLevi)

Life in Yeshivat Merkaz HaRav is not yet back to normal, but the families of the eight terrorist-slaughter victims are concluding their mourning week today, and the dead are being remembered in ceremonies around the world.

The stream of visitors to the Yeshiva from around the country has barely stopped since the murderous Arab terrorist attack last Thursday night in which eight students were killed - most of them high-school students in the 9th and 10th grades. 

Wednesday night, many students of other yeshivot - most notably hareidi Jews who do not often get a chance to visit Merkaz Harav - were on hand to try to understand the final moments of eight of their fellow yeshiva students.  They walked among the rows of library shelves were the students hid - and where the terrorist gunned some of them down - and saw the dozens of bullet holes in the floor and walls.  Thick Torah-text books with cover-to-cover bullet holes are currently being held in the library office, and will likely be put on display at a later date.

Dozens of American and other overseas students from Yeshivat Netiv Aryeh in the Old City of Jerusalem spent Wednesday evening studying Torah in Merkaz HaRav.

Memorials Around the World
Memorial ceremonies for the eight victims are being held in Jewish communities throughout Europe, North and South America, Australia and the former Soviet Union.

The memorials are being organized by the Jewish Agency, in accordance with a goal set by Chairman Zev Bielsky: "This slaughter must be made known to every person in the world, Jewish or not.  We have decided to use our hundreds of emissaries around the world to reach the hundreds, thousands and millions who have no idea of what happened here."

The Jewish Agency has also prepared a series of web pages on various aspects of the slaughter, at www.jewishagency.org/solidarity. The memorials will include prayer services in schools, special classes, and youth movement activities. 

In Paris this week, between 1,500 and 5,000 people demonstrated against the terrorist slaughter in Jerusalem.  Among the participants were Israel's Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar and France's Chief Rabbi Joseph Sitruk.  President Shimon Peres, visiting in France, took part in the Jewish Agency's memorial ceremony for the victims in Paris.

In the Young Israel of Flatbush in Brookly, New York, on Wednesday night, the Orthodox Union (OU) held a memorial assembly on Wednesday night, led by Rabbis Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb, Kenneth Auman, and Dovid Goldwasser.  The three also addressed the participants on what the Jewish community must do at this time.

Rabbi Rosental Visits
Rabbi Yaakov Nissan Rosental, who served for 40 years as Rabbinical Court Chief Justice in Haifa, and now heads five Torah academies named Yeshivat HaGra (in Haifa, Bnei Brak, Ramat HaSharon, Petach Tikvah and Kiryat Sefer), made a special trip to Jerusalem Wednesday night  to deliver a talk to the students in Yeshivat Merkaz HaRav.  He compared the slaughter at the yeshiva with the one that occurred in Hevron in 1929, when 67 Jews were cruelly killed in their homes and synagogues, saying that in both cases, the victims were the manifestation of the Divine statement, 'in those closest to Me will I be sanctified.' 

Rabbi Rosental told the students to "strive for greatness" in Torah study, and to write down their Torah thoughts "on behalf of the souls of your friends who were killed."  He added that he was now concluding a 13-volume work named Mishnat Yaakov on Maimonides' magnum opus, using some of the thoughts he wrote when he was only 15 years old.

Major Yeshiva Memorial
At 6 PM on Thursday evening, to mark exactly one week since the slaughter, Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda St. in Jerusalem will be closed and Yeshivat Merkaz HaRav will hold a large memorial ceremony.  At 3:30 PM, a smaller ceremony will be held in Merkaz HaRav's LeTze'irim High School, where six of the dead studied. It will be broadcast live through www.yashlats.co.il, in conjunction with Arutz Meir of Machon Meir.

Neturei Karta Sends Pointed Condolences
Members of the extreme anti-Zionist Neturei Karta sect wrote letters of condolences to the families of the victims.  Though the letter ends with the traditional consolation, 'May G-d comfort you among the mourners for Zion and Jerusalem,' it mainly uses the murders to justify Neturei Karta's anti-Zionist approach: 

"Day and night over these past decades we have been pained and trying to prevent these terrible incidents in the camp of the Hebrews, because ever since the dispute and warring with the non-Jews began here in the Holy Land, they have been trying to avenge themselves with fury and wrath, and Jewish blood has been spilt like water all this time...  Perhaps at such a bitter time as this, the time has come to take stock and to say to the Angel of Death, 'Stop!'  Perhaps we have all been mistaken, perhaps we must recognize that our forefathers were correct during the 2,000 years of Exile in acting with the Gentiles by seeking only peace, mercy, and appeasement, and maybe we will then merit to have G-d sweeten our decree and prevent terrible calamities in the future among our brothers, the entire House of Israel. 

"We well know that by our perpetual acts of seeking peace and submission to the Gentiles, we have been suspected by many among the House of Israel as having aided those who murder [us], Heaven forbid - but what can we do that we are commanded by the Torah to look ahead; in order to prevent terrible things and to save the nation, we are marching in 'the path of Exile'... We wish you from the depths of our heart [Divine consolation] and may G-d strengthen your shattered hearts and may you know no more pain."

The Sulam Special Education Center of Jerusalem took center stage this week as its principal received a national Women's Day award.

Mrs. Esti Ernster, principal of Sulam's six branches, was among eight women to receive the special award from Prime Minister Ehud Olmert at a ceremony in Holon.  The event was held this past Saturday night, connecting International Women's Day with Israel's 60th anniversary year.

Presenting the awards, the Prime Minister lauded Mrs. Ernster for combining an excellent family career with professionalism and dedication to the advancement of hundreds of special-needs children in Israel. Mrs. Ernster directs Sulam's six branches in Jerusalem and Beit Shemesh, which treat infants through teens with learning disabilities, autism/PDD, Down Syndrome, and a host of other developmental delays.

Founded 25 years ago, Sulam has helped thousands of special-needs children narrow developmental gaps and overcome disabilities, enabling many to ultimately integrate into mainstream educational systems.  Some 250 children, aged 4 months to 14 years, are currently enrolled in the six branches of the Sulam network, where they receive what Sulam calls "the gift of the future."

Six new classes opened this year, bringing the grand total to 29.

Among the other women honored were Dr. Hanita Tzimerin, Director of the Society for the Protection of the Child; Shulamit Nuss, Chairperson of the Child Diabetes Association; Rivka Sneh, founder of the Yated Association; Dr. Michael Hamu Lotem, Director of B'Terem; and Nuha Bader and Rozit Ganem, active in the Druze sector.

"Our vision at Sulam is to effect a change in the world of children with special needs," Mrs. Ernster told the ceremony participants. "Their smiles every morning, their large and small steps of progress, are the realization of a dream – which is our dream, too."

An Arab man from Gaza granted humanitarian passage through Israel for medical treatment used the opportunity to run away and hide in an Israeli-Arab town.

Security forces launched a wide-scale search, fearing the man was on his way to carry out a terror attack after he evaded security forces at the Erez Crossing.

He was later apprehended in the northern Israel town of Nazareth.

The man had been given authorization to travel through Israel to Egypt for medical treatment.

In the past, at least one Gazan woman receiving medical treatment at an Israeli hospital was caught trying to carry out a suicide bombing.

Radical Leftist Rabbi Arrested For Preventing Evacuation of Wounded Jew
Reform Rabbi Arik Asherman, who heads the radical leftist group Rabbis for Human Rights was arrested in Jerusalem Thursday for inciting local Arabs to riot against Israeli archeological digs and preventing the evacuation of a wounded Jewish resident. 

Asherman was detained Wednesday after taking part in a protest against archeological digs in the Shiloah (Silwan) neighborhood of Jerusalem, below the Western Wall to the east. The leftist and Arab protestors clashed with members of the Elad organization, which oversees the digs.

Asherman was first offered a deal by the police to agree not to approach the area for two weeks, but when he refused he was arrested.  Rabbis for Human Rights condemned the arrest, and accused police of undermining “efforts to expose the unfair treatment and violations of human rights in the Palestinian territories.”

The initial findings of a study at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem show that a non-psychoactive component of cannabis, marijuana, may hold out hope for slowing down the progression of Alzheimer’s disease.

The research, still at an early stage, indicates that memory loss, the first and primary symptom of Alzheimer’s disease, can be slowed down significantly in mice by cannabidiol.

Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of dementia, affects some 24.3 million people worldwide.

In the study conducted by Professor Raphael Mechoulam and a team led by Dr. Maria de Ceballos at the Cajal Institute in Madrid, Spain, mice were injected with a molecule found in the brain of humans suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, and then treated for one week with cannabidiol. Following the treatment, their learning ability was assessed by measuring the length of time needed for them to find a hidden platform in a maze.

Those mice injected with cannabidiol successfully performed the task within 25-30 seconds, compared to mice in the control group who had not been treated with cannabidiol, who took almost double the amount of time, 45-50 seconds, to complete the task.

Mechoulam presented the findings this week at the Cannabis Medicines Symposium in London, hosted by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain (RPSGB) and said that human trials will hopefully follow in the near future.

Although the findings look promising, Professor Mechoulam warned that Alzheimer’s patients should not use cannabis itself because THC, the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis, could have the opposite effect and have damaging effects on the memory.

Mechoulam was the first scientist to isolate the THC component of cannabis and later discovered the first endo-cannabinoid.

Dr. Clive Ballard, director of research for the UK Alzheimer’s Society, called for further research into the use of cannabis as a treatment option, saying, “We need robust clinical trials into the potential benefits of non-psychoactive components of cannabis. It is important for people to note that these treatments are not the same as recreational cannabis use, which can be potentially harmful.”

With the dollar continuing to plunge against the shekel, the Bank of Israel took an unusual proactive measure of purchasing dollars.

The Bank of Israel's representative rate (shaar yatzig) was set on Thursday afternoon at just over 3.4 shekels to the dollar - the lowest it's been since May 30, 1997, nearly 11 years ago.  It had even dipped to slightly below 3.4 for much of the day's trading.

The new rate was a drop of 2.27% in one day.  It has dropped 5.47% over the past six days, and more than 11% since the beginning of the year.

The euro also continues to lose ground, closing at 5.2949 shekels to the shekel, 4.52% than six days ago.

For the first time in over ten years, the Bank of Israel purchased an unreported amount of dollars in an attempt to put the breaks on the greenback's slide. 

Globes Business News reports that the effects of expected interest-rate cuts in both the US and Israel, making each currency less attractive, could cancel each other out.

Klein: Watch Out!
Former Bank of Israel Governor David Klein said earlier Thursday morning that the dollar's recovery is inevitable and "might not necessarily be gradual."  There is a good chance that the dollar will rebound sharply, Klein told Globes, and "the trend will change eventually. The dollar will recover, and anyone who has exposure through positions could suffer heavy losses." 

Klein said that the change would occur "once investors start believing that the change is long-term, not an isolated event. We're already seeing the first signs of this. In recent months, the US balance of payments has stopped increasing, and in some months US exports exceeded imports. The US has had a balance of payments deficit for a good many years, and as long this deficit grows, the dollar will remain low."