Clik here to view.
Let’s talk about Zionism – through a 4HQ filter…
The Labor/Tnuah combo has chosen to call itself the Zionist Camp. Contrary to popular belief, this is not a boutique clothes shop in Tel Aviv, but a political party with serious intentions. Their first...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Promises, Promises – the pre-election commitments so far
This is the way the elections promises line up so far. With over a month to go, it is interesting to see where Israeli politicians are putting their mouths, so to speak. As we know, election campaigns...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Holiest Day of His Life – Voting in Israel’s First Elections
Ultra-Orthodox Rabbi Moshe Yekutiel Alpert, from the old settlement in Jerusalem, was the “Mukhtar” of a few neighborhoods before the establishment of the State. Here he describes his first walk to the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Will the voter make it past the negative campaigning?
It doesn’t really require a translation… This election campaign has been characterized by a great deal of mud-slinging and negativity from all sides. This cartoon from Shay Charka covers many of the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Who Knows Four? Searching for unity around Israel questions
[Also appeared on Times of Israel] It all started with the Exodus from Egypt. That was the moment when the Children of Israel asked themselves four fundamental questions, and answered them with...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Rami: The Magician of Two Disparate Landscapes.
Yonatan Ariel, Executive Director of Makom, gave this eulogy at the Global Jewish Forum of the Jewish Agency for Israel on Wednesday morning, June 24th 2015: Rami Wernik passed away last Erev Shabbat...
View ArticleClik here to view.
10 Hours on a Palestinian tour bus – a perspective
First appeared on Yediot – the Online Magazine for Bnei Akiva, UK. In order to respond to embedded questions, hover over the text in bold. When you’ve been fed one narrative your whole life, the...
View Article“Sweet when I am Bitter”– a New Year’s celebration of Hebrew
I’ll admit that there has been little leading up to Rosh Hashana that leaves me looking forward to the New Year. The extremities of Climate Change, the extremities of Middle Eastern conflicts, the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Sweating the small stuff – another view on Israel this week
[Cross-posted with Times of Israel] After this last week, walking through Jerusalem as if tiptoeing through a firing range, it was good to return home to the Galilee. Here in the Galil, I am reminded...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Raising a Glass to Purim and Solidarity
Purim reminds us to reach out to others, focus on what connects – rather than divides – us, and work to better the Jewish collective. Unlike other Jewish holidays which may encourage us to introspect,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
5 reasons I am a non-Israeli, non-Jewish, two-state Zionist
Professor Alan Johnson is Editor of Fathom and Senior Research Fellow at BICOM. He is an editorial board member of Dissent Magazine and Senior Research Associate of the Foreign Policy Centre. From We...
View ArticleClik here to view.
“I too was present at Mount Sinai…”
Identity is both given and chosen: it is given in that one’s choices are not unlimited and it is chosen in that there are multiple groups and ideas to which one subscribes. Identity is gender,...
View ArticleTo be a Person Free (of stubble) in Our Land
If I’m being honest, the main reason I chose to make aliya, was because in Israel I had a greater chance of getting a job that wouldn’t require me to shave every day. (It was 20 years ago. Designer...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The 3 Weeks – Times of Trouble
We are currently in the middle of the period of the Three Weeks between the 17th of Tamuz and the 9th of Av, also known as the period of “Bein ha-Metzarim” (“Between the Straits”). Many of us can...
View ArticleMusical blog – from West to East!
Why write about fantastic Israeli music trends, when you can just as easily listen to them? This is the first in a series of podcasts about Israeli culture, narrated by Robbie Gringras. This episode...
View ArticleClik here to view.
No alternative to facts! The case for Israel Education
In some professions, facts can indeed be your enemy. It makes sense for politicians to argue over facts, and even hope to suggest alternate ones. Because for a politician facts are valent. There is...
View ArticleWhat would a woman do? Makom video salon had an answer
In the lightness of Purim, and in the echoes of International Women’s Day, we’ll just put this here… This is a video salon we hosted back in 2013 between Rachel Azaria (now MK), and R. Marcelo...
View ArticleClik here to view.
An Immigrant’s Tail, or How Much Does the Cat Cost?
I’d been bracing myself for this moment – the moment the veterinarian would announce the total we owed. Our beloved calico cat, Lucy, had been run over and after five days of hospitalization, surgery,...
View ArticleHow can we sing with Kululam during the Omer?
The writer is Director Of Community Education and Summer Program at Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, and Lecturer in Tanakh and Jewish Thought at Yeshivat Eretz HaTzvi. If you have been following me...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Airbnb takes a stand on Our Land/Their Land
Airbnb has responded to pressure from Human Rights Watch, and has chosen to “remove listings in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank that are at the core of the dispute between Israelis and...
View Article