Michael Freund

Michael Freund served as deputy communications director in the Israeli Prime Minister's Office under Benjamin Netanyahu. He is the founder and chairman of Shavei Israel -- www.shavei.org -- a Jerusalem-based organization that searches for and assists the Lost Tribes of Israel and other "hidden Jews" seeking to return to Israel and the Jewish people. For his work with Shavei Israel he has been awarded numerous prizes, including the Jerusalem Prize and the Moskowitz Prize for Zionism.

In addition, Freund has been a correspondent and syndicated columnist for The Jerusalem Post for more than 20 years. A native New Yorker, he is a graduate of Princeton University and holds an MBA in Finance from Columbia University. Freund has authored two books and received rabbinical ordination. He made aliyah to Israel in 1995 and is the proud father of 5 sons, one of whom is a Captain in the IDF and four of whom are combat reservists in elite units. Freund remains an avid New York Mets fan.

Email Michael at michael@shavei.org. View Michael's website at www.michaelfreund.net


 THE PUSH by Paris, London, and Ottawa (pictured, Parliament Hill) for unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state has nothing to do with peace

Israel must not cower: Sovereignty for Judea, Samaria, and Gaza now - opinion

 Indian Border Security Force soldiers stand guard at the entrance of the India-Pakistan Wagah border post, April 24, 2025.

Israel must stand with India in the fight against Islamic terror - opinion

 PAUL REVERE monument near Old North Church in central Boston, 1955

Remembering Francis Salvador, the Jewish Paul Revere - opinion


Passover 2025: Crossing your own Red Sea

We all face Red Seas in one form or another. But the good news is that just as God parted the waters for our forefathers when they left Egypt, He can part them for us as well.

 PHARAOH’S ARMY engulfed by the Red Sea, by Frederick Arthur Bridgman, 1900. ‘The wind dropped, the waters flooded back, and the entire Egyptian force was drowned.’

Averting ayatollah's atomic Auschwitz: The US, Israel should bomb Iran now - opinion

With each passing day, the would-be Hitler of Persia is drawing ever closer to his goal of obtaining a nuclear arsenal, threatening everyone and everything that all of us hold dear.

 THE SUPREME leaders loom over daily life in Tehran.

It is time for Israel to achieve a total victory in Gaza - opinion

The time has come for Israel to eliminate Hamas and put an end to its deadly dreams of destruction once and for all.

 A member of the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.

Back to the future in Gaza: Time to end the experiment of expelling Jews for peace - opinion

Once the Palestinians are resettled elsewhere, Gaza should be annexed to Israel, to which it rightfully belongs.

 OPPONENTS OF Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s disengagement plan face IDF troops as they secure the fence of Kfar Maimon in July 2005 after police blocked them from marching to the Gush Katif communities to protest against their demolition.

Stop calling it the West Bank. Start calling it Judea and Samaria - opinion

By restoring the rightful name of Judea and Samaria, we are reclaiming not just the Jewish past but truth itself, setting the stage to assert our sovereignty.

Settlement of Elon Moreh, near Nablus, West Bank, June 11, 2020

Israel should annex all of Mount Hermon from Syria - opinion

For both strategic and historical reasons, the Jewish state should annex all of the newly acquired parts of Mount Hermon and formally incorporate them into Israel.

 IDF soldiers operate on Mount Hermon, on the border between Israel and Syria, December 12, 2024

Hanukkah: What is the significance of the dreidel? - opinion

That innocent little top, with a Hebrew letter carved on each side, carries within it a great deal of Jewish history and inspiration.

 An ultra-Orthodox (haredi) Jewish man is seen spinning a dreidel on the fourth night of Hanukkah in Mea She'arim, Jerusalem, on December 13, 2020.

Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire has set the stage for a Fourth Lebanon War - opinion

Leaving Hezbollah in place to regroup and rebuild, and abandoning the territory in southern Lebanon adjacent to Israel’s northern border, are merely setting the stage for the fourth Lebanon war.

 UNIFIL SOLDIERS of Italy’s San Marco unit patrol along the Litani River near the Lebanese village of Shuhur, in 2006.

Southern Lebanon is actually northern Israel - opinion

Historically speaking, southern Lebanon is in fact northern Israel, and the roots of the Jewish people in the area run deep.

 ANCIENT COLUMNS lie in the submerged Egyptian harbor of Tyre/Sour, southern Lebanon, seen in 2019.

40 years later, a 'baal teshuva' looks back - opinion

As the late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks wrote, “Hashem is calling on each of us, saying there is a reason why we are here because He has something for us to do, something that only we can do. 

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