Lt. Lipaz Ela, Shelly Silverman and 1st Sgt. Tomer Bucher at the Birthright Israel reception
In my 20 years of writing this monthly column from September through May, the Rosh Hashanah issue has traditionally highlighted Israel summer travel. This article is no exception. Enjoy! • • • • • Another year, another Tucson Hebrew Academy eighth-grade Israel Discovery trip before middle school graduation. This… Read more »
Audrey Brooks with a child at the Mevaseret Zion Absorption Center near Jerusalem. (Courtesy JFSA) The story is in the stories. That’s what I learned with 100 others from 37 other communities on the Jewish Federations of North America’s Campaign Chairs and Directors Mission to Moscow and Israel this summer. I heard stories of inspiration, intrigue, courage and hope. I learned that just as… Read more »
In Netanya, Israel on Aug. 18 in an events hall, I felt I was living a quintessential Israeli moment. Friends and family were celebrating a Bar Mitzvah with food, music, dance and high spirits. Not exclusively Israeli, one might say. However, the Bar Mitzvah’s uncle, in between bites, kept… Read more »
In July, my husband and I attended the Christians United for Israel Washington Summit. As supporters of interfaith Israel advocacy, we have worked with students from the University of Arizona CUFI on Campus club for two years. CUFI is a non-conversionary, non-proselytizing national organization that seeks to be the… Read more »
Daniel S. Mariaschin Which nation doesn’t let women drive? Jails dissenters by the thousands? Beheads minors? Attacks civilians living peacefully in a neighboring nation? Persecutes homosexuals? Executes children? Encourages “honor killings”? Unfortunately, quite a few nations can be plugged in as correct answers. But not Israel. Yet Israel was the sole focus… Read more »
Egyptian demonstrators attack Israel's embassy in Cairo, Sept. 9, 2011 (Maggie Osama/Creative Commons) Retired Israeli Air Force pilot Uri Dromi remembers the day 34 years ago when Egyptian President Anwar Sadat landed in Israel to tell the Israeli people that he was ready to make peace. Dromi, who had flown missions in the 1967 Six-Day War against Egypt, had been assigned to… Read more »
Birthright Israel staff member Jeremy Lichtman, left, with Tucsonan Peter Ruiz at the Western Wall It wasn’t easy for 24-year-old Peter Ruiz to venture to Israel with other young adults, but it was more difficult for him to leave. Ruiz, who has cerebral palsy, toured Israel from June 13 to 23 on a Taglit- Birthright Israel trip. His parents, Bernadette and Joaquin Ruiz, were… Read more »
Noam Shalit, right, with Knesset member Michael Eitan during a protest on behalf of Shalit’s captive son Gilad outside the prime minister’s residence in Jerusalem on Gilad’s 25th birthday, Aug. 28, 2011. (Miriam Alister/Flash90) Noam Shalit, the father of captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, wants his son’s plight to be part of the discussion of Palestinian statehood at the United Nations in September. In his view, Shalit’s release should be a precondition of any vote at the United Nations on recognition of a… Read more »
Yizhar Hess, executive director of the Masorti movement in Israel, right, with then-White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel in Jerusalem at the Bar Mitzvah of Emanuel’s son, Zach, on May 30, 2010 Yizhar Hess is the executive director and CEO of the Masorti (Conservative) movement in Israel. He is a former community shaliach and director of the Israel Center in Tucson.… Read more »
Mark Naseck, holistic healing teacher and new immigrant to Israel, celebrates Simchat Torah in Tzfat, Israel, on Oct. 1, 2010. Mark Naseck is an internationally known lecturer, practitioner and teacher in the holistic healing arts.… Read more »
I am suffering from Periodic Missile Stress Disorder (PMSD), which is being aggravated by the world’s indifference to my situation. Once again sirens sounded last night in our sleepy town of Meitar and the non-stop booms of missiles falling in nearby Beersheva could clearly be heard and yet we… Read more »
Last month’s multifront Palestinian terrorist attack along the Egyptian-Israeli border highlighted two major new challenges to Israel’s national security. First is the breakdown of Egyptian central authority in the Sinai Peninsula, which has created fertile ground for terrorism against Israel. Complicating matters further is a heightened sensitivity in post-Mubarak… Read more »
Twenty-four Israelis and Palestinians came together as a “Peace Team” to play Australian-rules football. (Jonathan Davis/JTA) SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA — Sulaiman Khatib is an ordinary Palestinian with an extraordinary past. Born in the West Bank near Jerusalem, he grew up as a “freedom fighter,” as he describes it, fighting against the Israeli occupation by throwing stones and preparing Molotov cocktails. But in 1986,… Read more »
Academy Award-winner Helen Mirren stars as retired secret agent Rachel Singer in John Madden’s espionage thriller "The Debt." Laurie Sparham/Focus Features) A taut, beautifully crafted thriller with an Israeli accent, “The Debt” is easily and best appreciated as edge-of-your-seat entertainment. At the same time, though, the English-language remake of the 2007 Israeli film “Ha-Hov” echoes a question raised far more egregiously by “Inglourious Basterds” but otherwise rarely… Read more »
In the last several weeks Israel has been going through one of the biggest waves of protest ever. The people in the street are calling for social justice. Most protestors define themselves as middle class. They’re raising a cry over the high cost of living and the unequally spread… Read more »
Marc Stanely I was amused by Adam Serwer’s recent blog post titled “Is Bibi anti-Israel?” in which he pointed out that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu conditionally offered this month to negotiate with the Palestinians using the pre-1967 borders as a framework. Amazingly, there was no outcry by American Jews that… Read more »
Morton A. Klein It’s high time to face an unpleasant fact: President Obama and Israel are not on the same page. This has been true ever since Obama took office in January 2009, but it was most recently apparent this May when the president ambushed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with an… Read more »
Israeli soldiers scuffle with Palestinians during a demonstration near the West Bank village of Beit Omar, Aug. 13. Some analysts warn that a U.N. vote on the Palestinian statehood could set off a new wave of Mideast violence. ( Najeh Hashlamoun/Flash 90) On Sept. 20, when the annual session of the U.N. General Assembly opens, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is expected to ask U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to present a Palestinian request for statehood recognition to the U.N. Security Council. The long-anticipated request will kick off a chain of events… Read more »
Israeli soldiers carry an injured person on a stretcher at the Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba following a Palestinian terrorist attack near the Egyptian border, Aug. 18, 2011. (Shay Levy/Flash 90) JERUSALEM (JTA) – After deadly terrorist attacks in southern Israel, officials in Jerusalem are on alert for how Egyptian instability may be opening up more avenues for terrorists intent on attacking Israel. Thursday’s coordinated attacks north of Eilat by terrorists who crossed over the border from Egypt left eight… Read more »
As a recent high school graduate who will be traveling to Israel for a nine-month program of study, I feel the need to respond to the letter written by Mr. Julius Gordon, “West Bank, Warsaw ghetto alike.” Ever since 1967 and Israel’s acquisition of the West Bank, there has… Read more »
