In this issue: The full Justice Beyond Borders recording, both families' petitions, two minutes of your time, and a duck at Lake Lanier.
On July 16 we spent an evening on Zoom with two families and a survivor who have spent years putting a question to the United States government that it has not answered: why has no one stood trial in an American courtroom for murdering an American citizen?
Kathleen Luken read us what she had written about her identical twin Kristine — a Christian American murdered on a hiking trail near Beit Shemesh in December 2010. Tal Hartuv was walking beside Kristine, survived by playing dead, and learned from a news story that one of her attackers had walked free. Arnold Roth joined us at half past two in the morning from Jerusalem to speak about his daughter Malki, fifteen years old, one of sixteen people murdered at the Sbarro pizzeria in 2001. Mark Goldfeder spent his time on what would actually change any of it.
Near the end, Arnold said that for all our talk of linking arms, we are not in this together — that each of them goes home and sits alone with it at three in the morning. He is right, and I said so on the call. We are not all in this together. But I am here.
If there are no consequences, there is no reason for this nightmare to end. Americans should be protected by our government, and we need to hold them accountable.
— Cheryl Dorchinsky, Founder & Executive Director
Panel · Free to watch
Justice Beyond Borders: Americans Murdered by Terrorists and the Fight for Accountability
Recorded Thursday, July 16 · On Zoom
Co-hosted with the Rhode Island Coalition for Israel, whose executive director Maria Friedman opened the evening, and with our partner organizations. Cheryl Dorchinsky moderated; audience questions followed the panel.
Arnold Roth, father of Malki Roth z”l. Kathleen Luken, sister of Kristine Luken z”l. Tal Hartuv, who survived the attack that killed Kristine. Mark Goldfeder, constitutional attorney and rabbi, CEO of the National Jewish Advocacy Center.
Kathleen, on the day her sister's killer was released: “Communicating with Tal and my family prior to the release would have given our families time to process the events that were unfolding, but sadly there was no communication.”
Mark Goldfeder, on why the law to act already exists: “Every instrument in the toolbox is named after somebody's dead child. Not a single one of them was the government's original idea.”
Both families brought a petition to the call. Arnold was direct about what his is missing: “We have a petition. There are over 30,000 names on that petition. I wish that there were 30 million names.” He added that there is nothing political about it. Signatures are the one thing he cannot produce on his own.
Sign for Malki. Malki Roth was fifteen, an American citizen, when Ahlam Tamimi guided a bomber to the Sbarro pizzeria in August 2001 — a target Tamimi chose because it was full of children. Sixteen people were murdered. She served eight years, walked free in a hostage deal, and has lived openly in Jordan since 2011. She is one of twenty-two people on the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorists list and the only woman among them, with a $5 million reward on her head. Tell the President and Secretary of State to press Jordan to honor its extradition treaty.
Sign for Kristine. Kristine Luken was an American Christian, murdered near Beit Shemesh in December 2010. Ayad Fatafta confessed that he killed her because he thought she was Jewish. A 2017 FBI affidavit laid out the evidence for his arrest, and in October 2025 he walked free in the hostage exchange. Kristine's family and Tal learned it from the news, not from anyone official. Demand the United States issue the arrest warrant and pursue his extradition.
Tell us how it landed. Two minutes, anonymous by default — what worked, what didn't, and who you want us to bring to the community next.
MITZVAHS THAT FLOAT
A duck at Lake Lanier
On July 5, a Quacker on a water and ice run pulled into a parking lot at Lake Lanier and found a kosher duck waiting. “Thanks for the smiles,” they wrote. From metro Atlanta to Newport to a bookshelf in the Boston Public Library, the ducks keep floating. If hate can go viral, why can't a little joy?
Jewish joy, weekly
Finding the Joy · Uriel ben Avraham · Parashat Devarim · July 17, 2026
The Hidden Light Within the Darkness
Your Weekly Dose · Rabbi Eliyahu Schusterman · July 17, 2026
Spiritual Sparks · Rabbi Ze'ev Smason · July 16, 2026
Just came here to say: I love the look and layout of your Substack! Keep spreading Jewish light,
Miranda