Ayala Or-El reports on the effects of the recent wildfires on the large and vibrant Jewish community of Los Angeles:

As wildfires fueled by high winds swept through the Los Angeles area on Tuesday morning, the teachers and director of Chabad’s Palisades Jewish Early Childhood Center scrambled to evacuate as conditions grew worse. They began calling the parents of over 100 children, telling them to come and pick up their kids due to growing concerns about the fires that were first sparked in the Palisades Highlands not far from the center.

“We decided to self-evacuate, we didn’t feel good about the smoke that was there,” said Rabbi Zushe Cunin. . . . Cunin managed to save the Torah scrolls, but the center’s storage structure was engulfed in flames, destroying sixteen large menorahs that had recently been used during Hanukkah. The fire also destroyed several vehicles used to transport children and elderly. The main building, however, appears to have largely survived the blaze.

Meanwhile, members of [Kehillat Israel Reconstructionist Synagogue in Pacific Palisades] managed to reach the synagogue on Sunset Boulevard and rescue the Torah scrolls, taking them to their homes in the San Fernando Valley. Fortunately, the synagogue itself appears to have been spared, but at least one nearby church was destroyed.

Both Cunin and Rabbi Amy Bernstein [of Kehillat Israel] were overwhelmed by the outpouring of support from the Jewish community in Los Angeles and across the United States.

Yesterday, the Iranian foreign minister flew to Geneva to meet with European diplomats. President Trump, meanwhile, indicated that cease-fire negotiations might soon begin with Iran, which would presumably involve Tehran agreeing to make concessions regarding its nuclear program, while Washington pressures Israel to halt its military activities. According to Israeli media, Iran already began putting out feelers to the U.S. earlier this week. Aviram Bellaishe considers the purpose of these overtures:

The regime’s request to return to negotiations stems from the principle of deception and delay that has guided it for decades. Iran wants to extricate itself from a situation of total destruction of its nuclear facilities. It understands that to save the nuclear program, it must stop at a point that would allow it to return to it in the shortest possible time. So long as the negotiation process leads to halting strikes on its military capabilities and preventing the destruction of the nuclear program, and enables the transfer of enriched uranium to a safe location, it can simultaneously create the two tracks in which it specializes—a false facade of negotiations alongside a hidden nuclear race.