Sorrow and Hope

Dispatch from Jerusalem

The Dark Side of the Web: The Battle against Anti-Semitism on Social Media

The coronavirus has instigated a new world in which much of daily life is done online: work, shopping, fellowship and for some, voicing hate. Amid real concern about transparency and double standards, the treatment of Jews and Israel online remains a disturbing sore spot even as tech giants such as Twitter and Facebook try to

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Israeli Apartheid? No Way!

For many South Africans, every discussion of apartheid is akin to tearing open an old wound. It was a time in their history when a system of institutionalized racial segregation and discrimination was implemented, creating a societal divide that to this day has not been overcome. Based on a strict legislative framework, the government at

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The Desert Will Blossom

After seeing photos of the lush, green Galilee, an astonished friend told me that she thought Israel was all desert. Israel is not exactly all desert, but desert does make up almost 60% of the nation’s land mass. I expect she envisioned camel caravans making their way across endless dunes of sand, but, in fact,

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Methuselah: The Story of the World’s Oldest Date Palm Tree

It was an exceptionally hot day in September when a small group of scientists gathered together in the heart of the Arava Desert. One by one they began to carefully harvest the luscious fruit of a date palm tree. But this was no ordinary date palm tree, for it had been pollinated by a tree

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Chagall’s Legacy in Israel

In the beautiful Judean Hills, there is a place of healing called Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem, overlooking the village where John the Baptist was born. Since opening its doors in the early 1960s, Hadassah has been celebrated for its medical advances and patient care. In 2005, the hospital won the coveted Nobel Peace Prize for

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Mediterranean Tart

This savory tart highlights the fresh, classic Mediterranean flavors of tomato, eggplant, olive, basil and feta. And with a simple flour substitution in the crust, this recipe can easily be modified for Passover or made gluten free. Ingredients Pastry Dough: 1 ¼ cup all-purpose flour (or 1 ¼ cup all-purpose gluten free flour or 2/3

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Denying a History

The history of the Land of Israel and the Jewish people are inextricably linked. You can hardly relate the narrative of the one without telling the story of the other. The connection was first established millennia ago when Abraham followed the call of the Almighty to a Land God would later pledge to the father

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Israeli Researchers Offer Hope for Effective Autism Therapeutics

A study conducted by Professor Sagiv Shifman from the Life Sciences Institute at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem [HUJI] and the Center for Autism Research has found that genes associated with autism tend to be involved in the regulation of other genes and operate preferentially in three areas of the brain: the cortex; the striatum;

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Israeli Researchers Discover New Bee Species

There is no overestimating the importance of pollinators in our world today. While crop pollination relies mainly on managed colonies of the domesticated honey bee (Apis mellifera), wild, unmanaged pollinators were found to be highly effective, often critical contributors to pollination services in natural and agricultural systems. Among these wild pollinators, native bees are the most

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Trove of Ancient Coins Discovered

A rare coin hoard from the Abbasid period, dating around 1,100 years ago, was uncovered by a group of youths volunteering before their army service in an archaeological excavation carried out by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA). According to the directors of the excavation, Liat Nadav-Ziv and Dr. Elie Haddad of the IAA: “The hoard,

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