Words matter. Words are used to explain reality but they can also be used to shape reality, to create it. Sometimes exchanging a single word for another can change the picture entirely. Personally I don’t believe there is any neutrality on the issue of Israel. There are people who are uninvolved and not particularly aware … More 3 things you should never say (if you don’t hate Israel)
Israel doesn’t do things the way other nations do and our national anthem is no exception to that rule. What other nation on earth has had a national anthem at a time when they did not have a State they could call home? The original poem was called Tikvatenu (Our Hope), was revised over the … More Not your normal national anthem
Last week I attended the graduation ceremony at Tiltan, one of Haifa’s two art schools. It is stunning to consider that, in a city with a population of less than 300,000 residents, we have two universities, including the world renowned Technion Institute, two art colleges and a teacher’s training college. Haifa also has one of … More Education in Israel
Ten years ago, on July 12th, 2006 the Second Lebanon War began with a coordinated Hezbollah attack on Israeli civilians and soldiers. They rained missiles down on towns in northern Israel causing injury, destruction and most of all distraction which they used to attack IDF soldiers. Hezbollah fighters crossed the border from Lebanon in to … More 10 years after the war
The brilliant Chloé Simone Valdary asks the questions no one bothers to ask, the questions few realize are fundamental. It is easier to not think, to take for granted but Chloé is different and by example, she pushes others to do the same. Think. Question. Learn. Awareness and knowledge are the basic tools for creating … More Why I love Israel
After last night’s terror attack in Tel Aviv what more can be said? It’s the same story over and over. We are attacked and the world doesn’t care. One news outlet put the word terrorist in quotation marks, as if they are uncertain of the definition of what a terrorist is – perhaps men who … More Terrorism makes us stronger
There is a moment that occurs once a year in Israel. The entire country focuses on it, there is even an official, national ceremony to recognize it – the momentous yet somehow quiet transition between Memorial Day for IDF soldiers & victims of terrorism to Independence Day. Jewish tradition dictates that each day begins the night … More The most Israeli moment of the year
Those who should be here and are not. We remember each and every one of them, and pay tribute. To them and to those they have left behind – It is because of them that our nation has a State. Those that were killed in battle, murdered by terrorists, And those that managed to continue … More 23,447 of my brothers and sisters
Numbers, in and of themselves are innocuous, it is the actions of people that imbue them with meaning. The teenager wasn’t asked when the Nazis tattooed a number on his arm. A decision made by men declared that men, women and children could be catalogued, used and discarded. Numbers labeled them as less than human. … More When a number is more than just a number
What is the connection between Donald Trump, the GOP elections and the story about the IDF soldier now on trial for executing a terrorist in Hebron? It might seems weird to connect between these stories but I see a powerful (and very obvious) relationship between these seemingly unconnected issues: wanting to “win”. Everyone wants to … More Because I want to win
Inspiration from Zion: This is a Love Story 