Sorrow and Hope

Dispatch from Jerusalem

Israel’s Diversified Knesset

The newly formed 23rd Knesset (Parliament) of Israel is well diversified, including representation from various religions like Jewish, Muslim, Christian and Druze.  Immigrants are also well represented, and 24% of the Knesset members are female.  Ages range from 36 to 71, with the average age being 54.  The government coalition has 73 members from 7

Continue Reading »

Savory Middle Eastern Kibbeh

Click here for Recipe Kibbeh (or kubba) has been called the Middle Eastern meatball or meatloaf, depending whom you ask. It comes from the Arabic word meaning “to form a ball,” and is essentially deep-fried meat-stuffed meat (what’s not to love?). You can also bake it in a pan or serve it raw, like steak

Continue Reading »

An Indigenous People in their Indigenous Land

The application of Israeli sovereignty to Jewish communities in the Jordan Valley and Judea and Samaria—in line with US President Donald Trump’s “Peace to Prosperity” plan—has sparked international debate around the globe. World leaders, international bodies, role-players, outsiders, experts and laymen have all weighed in on the topic. While some—notably Israel, the US and Bible-believing

Continue Reading »

Unity: All it Took Was a Global Pandemic

In April 2020, the unthinkable happened—as it always does in Israeli politics. Former Israel Defense Forces chief and Blue and White party leader Benjamin (Benny) Gantz agreed to a unity government with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that will see both serve as prime minister on a rotating basis. The Benjamins, answering the cries of the

Continue Reading »

The Blessings We Would Not Choose

The sound of the lock clicking into place echoed through our apartment with a thump of unfamiliar finality. My husband and I stood rooted to the spot, staring at the door we’d just closed behind us. Without saying a word, each knew what the other was thinking: “That door will only open again in two

Continue Reading »

The Joint List: Unpacking Israel’s Unity Bloc of Arab Parties

Coffee drinkers in Israel love a good café hafuch, the Hebrew word for cappuccino that literally means “upside down.” But Israelis say the word applies to more than coffee. In general, they claim, life itself is often hafuch in Israel. At the time of this writing, Israelis are in COVID-19 lockdown, confined to their homes

Continue Reading »

In Crisis, Israel Rises Above

There is a saying that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Israel has learned a lot from its history and has overcome many tests and trials so that they aren’t repeated. While the coronavirus pandemic has created unprecedented challenges, Israel tragically has lots of experience in dealing with unimaginable

Continue Reading »

Aliyah: The Call Upwards

“And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you. Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be

Continue Reading »

Beauty from Destruction: Repurposing Rocket Shrapnel

Although the phrase, “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade” has not been credited to a rabbi but rather to an American philosopher of the early 1900s, it could have been. The idea of taking something bitter, an adversity or difficult circumstance and bringing good out of it is a very Jewish way to look

Continue Reading »

“Hidden” Jews Come Out of the Shadows

There are Jews in the Diaspora (the Jewish population outside Israel) that have remained virtually hidden for over 500 years, some secretly preserving their Jewish traditions through the generations, and some having never known their roots were Jewish. Now, these Sephardic Jews are emerging from the shadows and into the light. Jews in the Iberian

Continue Reading »